Oscar Piastri won a heavily shortened FIA Formula 2 feature race in Saudi Arabia which was marred by a serious startline incident involving Theo Pourchaire and Enzo Fittipaldi.
With the start already delayed due to barrier repairs from an earlier support race, proceedings were immediately red-flagged after Fittipaldi hit Pourchaire’s stationary car, which had stalled from third on the grid.
Both were attended to by medical crews at the scene before being transferred to hospital, with the FIA confirming that they were “conscious.”
“The drivers were immediately attended to by emergency and medical crews,” read an FIA statement. “The drivers were conscious and extricated by the attending medical crews. Both have been transferred by ambulance and helicopter to King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah.”
After a delay of almost an hour, action resumed behind the safety car, with the only half-points on offer and the race length reduced to 20-minutes.
Having qualified on pole, it was Piastri that led from Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman when the green flags were shown with under 17-minutes remaining.
A crash between Olli Caldwell and Gulherme Samaia caused a safety car period and, as the whole field headed to the pits to make their mandatory pitstops, the red flags were shown and a result was declared.
Piastri scored his fifth win of the season to extend his title lead over Shwartzman, who finished second, with Prema taking a one-two and also securing the teams’ championship. Ralph Boschung was third ahead of Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who is now third in the points, with team-mate Felipe Drugovich finishing fifth,
Juri Vips was sixth for Hitech ahead of ART’s Christian Lundgaard and DAMS driver Marcus Armstrong. Hitech’s Liam Lawson was ninth ahead of Carlin’s Dan Ticktum.
Featured image credit: @fia_f2 official twitter
