Felipe Drugovich ended his FIA Formula 2 victory drought by winning the Jeddah feature race in commanding style.
After starting from pole, the MP Motorsport driver led home Trident’s Richard Verschoor by 2.7 seconds.
It’s the Brazilian’s fourth win and his first since his previous stint with the team in 2020. Prema’s Jehan Daruvala came from 14th on the grid to claim the final podium spot.
The first start was aborted, resulting in an extra formation lap. Drugovich led fellow front-row starter Verschoor when the action got underway.
Saturday’s sprint race winner Liam Lawson (Carlin) passed Ralph Boschung (Campos) for fourth at the start. The Kiwi then deposed Hitech GP’s Marcus Armstrong of third place on lap two.
Drugovich withstood early pressure from Verschoor before pitting on lap nine. Verschoor rejoined just behind his rival after making his mandatory stop on the next tour.
But Lawson’s race ended in the pitlane after one of his wheel’s was not fitted correctly during his stop.
Dennis Hauger, who started 10th, led on an alternate strategy until making his mandatory stop with five laps remaining. But the Prema pilot locked up and flatspotted his front tyres while leaving the pitlane.
Drugovich regained the lead with four laps to go after Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan pitted. From there, he cruised to victory ahead of Verschoor. Daruvalu finished 12s further behind in third.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes, who was disqualified from third in the sprint race for a technical infringement, came home fourth. Armstrong was fifth, having been overtaken by the Briton with three laps remaining.
Hauger was just 0.4s behind in sixth, while DAMS pair Ayuma Iwasa and Roy Nissany were seventh and eighth. Doohan came out on top in a late battle with Hitech’s Juri Vips to take ninth, the latter scoring the final point for 10th.
Theo Pourchaire’s miserable weekend continued after stopping in the pits with a technical problem early on. The ART driver also broke down in the sprint race, having crashed heavily in qualifying.
Cem Bolukbasi (Charouz) did not start due to concussion sustained in Friday’s practice shunt, while car damage from his sprint race incident also ruled out Amaury Cordeel (VAR).
Featured image credit: formula2 official Twitter
