McLaren and Red Bull F1 proteges crash triggers chaos in F2 race

McLaren F1 protege Alex Dunne's Formula 2 title hopes have taken a further blow after being rammed out of the Italian Grand Prix feature race.

On Lap 8 of 30 of the longer race, Dunne was overtaking Joshua Durksen for third place on the run to the Ascari chicane, with Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad close behind.

Durksen moved to the left after being passed by Dunne, with Lindblad falling in behind the McLaren junior, but totally misjudged his braking for the chicane, ramming the back of Dunne's Rodin machine.

The Irishman reported he was okay, before replays showed Lindblad locking up and punting Dunne into the gravel.

For this, he received a 10-second time penalty, but further drama would await on the restart.

Cian Shields spun off on the approach to the Parabolica under the safety car, before Lindblad wiped out Roman Stanek at Turn 1 once the race resumed.

Lindblad did pit for new tyres, but the severely damaged front wing on his car was not changed, meaning he had no front downforce under braking for Turn 1. 

When he got there, he wiped out Stanek, with Victor Martins also an innocent victim.

On the second restart, another safety car was then called after Sami Megetounif lost control at Turn 1, demolishing the brake marker boards as he spun through the escape road.

As for Dunne's title hopes, he was already 40 points behind leader Leonardo Fornaroli coming into the race, with the reigning F3 champion still in the race.