Dan Ticktum took his second FIA Formula 2 victory of the season after leading from start to finish in a delayed sprint race.
Heavy rain earlier in the day led the race being moved to the afternoon, with the second sprint race cancelled.
There was drama before the race even started, with Felipe Drugovich crashing on the way to the grid and team-mate Guanyu Zhou also spinning in the slippery conditions, resulting in both Virtuosi cars not making the start.
The race started behind the safety car, with Ticktum leading when the action got underway, but the Carlin driver soon came under pressure from Hitech GP duo Juri Vips and Liam Lawson.
Bent Viscaal caused a virtual safety car period after hitting the wall at turn 14, and it wasn’t long before a second one, when Lawson damaged his right rear suspension by also hitting the wall at turn 13 and retired from third place.
Ticktum was able to edge clear over the remainder of the race to win by 4.4 seconds from Vips. Prema’s Robert Shwartzman boosted his title hopes with third, having briefly lost the place early on to HWA’s Jake Hughes after running off the track.
Hughes scored a best result of fourth in his second appearance of the season, with ART’s Theo Pourchaire finishing less than a second behind.
Despite pulling off a double overtake on Pourchaire and Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung after the second virtual safety car period, Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala spun out of fifth place and finished 12th.
Boschung came out on top in a close battle for sixth, holding off Christian Lundgaard (ART), Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) and Oscar Piastri (Prema). Championship leader Piastri ran seventh early on, having started ninth, but lost places after running ride twice.
ART’s Marcus Armstrong was pipped to tenth by MP’s Lirim Zendelli in the closing stages.
Race result (18 laps)
1 Dan Ticktum Carlin
2 Juri Vips Hitech GP +4.422s
3 Robert Shwartzman Prema +6.638s
4 Jake Hughes HWA +8.894s
5 Theo Pourchaire ART +9.824s
6 Ralph Boschung Campos +12.994s
7 Christian Lundgaard ART +13.669s
8 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +14.172s
9 Oscar Piastri Prema +14.921s
10 Lirim Zendeli MP Motorsport +17.268s
11 Marcus Armstrong DAMS +18.179s
12 Jehan Daruvala Carlin +28.131s
13 Guilherme Samaia Charouz +28.764s
14 Marino Sato Trident +40.661s
15 David Beckmann Campos +57.671s
16 Roy Nissany DAMS +1m10.465s
17 Enzo Fittipaldi Charouz +1m11.672s
18 Alessio Deledda HWA +1m33.339s
DNF Liam Lawson Hitech
DNF Bent Viscaal Trident
DNS Guanyu Zhou Virtuosi
DNS Felipe Drugovich Virtuosi
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
