MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich reclaimed the FIA Formula 2 points lead with victory in Saturday’s sprint race at Barcelona.
Despite a three-place grid penalty for impeding chief title rival Theo Pourchaire in qualifying, the Brazilian climbed from the second row to take his second win of the season ahead of Red Bull junior Ayuma Iwasa.
Calan Williams was due to line up on pole after Drugovich’s penalty, but the Trident driver stalled at the beginning of the formation lap and had to start from the pitlane. That allowed Jake Hughes to lead away from the inside of the front row when the lights went out. But the Van Amersfoort Racing driver was beaten into turn one by the fast-starting Drugovich and Red Bull junior Iwasa.
Pourchaire climbed from sixth to fourth, but a sideways moment into turn four allowed Carlin’s Logan Sargeant to move by. Sargeant then took third from Hughes, while Prema’s Jehan Daruvala drove around the outside of Pourchaire for fifth before the opening lap was completed.
Hitech GP’s Juri Vips also passed Pourchaire, and then tried an early move on Daruvala into turn one. But the Estonian lost control under braking three corners later before spinning into the gravel and out of the race.
That triggered a safety car period, with Drugovich continuing to lead when racing resumed on lap 10. The Brazilian was able to pull over two seconds clear in the next few laps before controlling the gap until the finish.
Iwasa came home two seconds ahead of Sargeant, the pair both scoring their first F2 podiums, while Daruvala was a further 4.3s back in fourth after passing Hughes with six laps remaining. Hughes continued to fade, losing out to Pourchaire and Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan in successive laps into turn one, and the Briton then pulled into the pits and retired on the penultimate lap.
Frederick Vesti (ART) and Enzo Fittipaldi (Charouz) were the final points-scorers in seventh and eighth. Carlin’s Liam Lawson rose from 16th on the grid to ninth, and resisted a late challenge from fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong, who was tenth for Hitech. Also in the battle with Armstrong was Clement Novalak, but a late excursion through the gravel dropped the MP Motorsports driver to 14th.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
