Felipe Drugovich claimed a lights-to-flag win in the FIA Formula 2 sprint race at the Red Bull Ring in a contest interrupted by three safety car periods.
After failing to convert a front-row start into a podium finish in Saturday’s feature race, MP Motorsport’s Drugovich made the most of his pole in Sunday’s reverse grid race, leading into the first corner before claiming victory by 2.4s
Fellow front-row starter Louis Deletraz finished in second for Charouz, with Dan Ticktum taking his first F2 podium in third for DAMS from the second row of the grid.
Saturday’s winner Callum Ilott was unable to make up ground from eighth on the grid for Virtuosi, finishing ninth after a late mistake allowed Jack Aitken to get by, but still retains the championship lead.
2019 FIA Formula 3 champion Robert Shwartzman finished in fourth for Prema following his podium finish in the first race, ahead of fellow F3 graduate Christian Lundgaard in the ART.
The first half of the race was a heavily disrupted affair, with the safety car first deployed after Guiliano Alesi’s car suffered a failure at the beginning of the second lap when running fourth.
Shortly after the restart, the safety car was deployed again. Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto – who started from the back after breaking down on the formation lap on Saturday – was spun out at turn three by Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala. Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who broke down from the lead in the feature race, lost time after taking to the gravel to avoid the incident.
The safety car was deployed for the third and final time after Saturday’s runner-up Marcus Armstrong, who was running third for ART after making a great start from seventh on the grid, ground to a halt on the track.
The second half of the race ran uninterrupted, with the battle for sixth proving to be the closest affair. MP’s Nobaharu Matsushita put up a strong defence to hold off Prema’s Mick Schumacher – who was recovering from an off in the feature race – until the flag.
Jack Aitken recovered from the back of the field to take eighth place for Campos, ahead of Ilott, with Nikita Mazepin finishing in tenth for Hitech.
Race result – 30 laps
| 1 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 42m05.526s |
| 2 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +2.469s |
| 3 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +2.790s |
| 4 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +3.330s |
| 5 | Chistian Lundgaard | ART | +5.396s |
| 6 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | +9.177s |
| 7 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +9.741s |
| 8 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +14.041s |
| 9 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +14.272s |
| 10 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +15.395s |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +17.528s |
| 12 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +18.471s |
| 13 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +19.118s |
| 14 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +19.668s |
| 15 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +22.082s |
| 16 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +24.290s |
| 17 | Marino Sato | Trident | +24.909s |
| 18 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | +2 laps |
| DNF | Marcus Armstrong | ART | |
| DNF | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | |
| DNF | Sean Gelael | DAMS | |
| DNF | Giuliano Alesi | HWA Racelab |
Feature image credit: fiaformula2.com
