Felipe Drugovich closed in on the FIA Formula 2 title with victory from pole in an eventful feature race that included a red flag and multiple safety car appearances.
MP Motorsport’s Drugovich covered off Jack Doohan to lead at the start, but third-placed Logan Sargeant locked up and went off at the first corner. After rejoining at the back of the field, Carlin’s Sargeant had a second incident at turn seven and crashed into the barriers. The American walked away unscathed, but the race was halted while repair work was carried out to the barriers.
Following a delay, the race resumed behind the safety car before the green flags were waved on lap six. Doohan initially applied pressure on Drugovich but, after trying to make a move for the lead into turn one, the Virtuosi driver locked up and heavily flat-spotted his left-front tyre.
That allowed Drugovich to pull over 1.3s clear, as Doohan struggled for a few laps before pitting. Drugovich made his mandatory stop one later, remaining ahead of the Australian. But, after staying out for a further lap, Verschoor briefly emerged from the pits in between the pair before Doohan moved back past at turn three.
The safety car returned to track approaching the halfway stage when Doohan’s team-mate Marino Sato ended up in the barriers at turn two after his left-front tyre broke loose moments after leaving the pits. Lawson led from Armstrong – the top six still to take their mandatory stops – with Drugovich sitting seventh ahead of Doohan and Verschoor.
But there was chaos at the restart. As the field bunched up on the pit straight, Verschoor rear-ended Doohan, who spun across the track into the wall, while Charouz’s Tatiana Calderon was collected by Drugovich’s team-mate Clement Novalak as she tried to take evasive action. Doohan, Calderon and Novalak all retired, while Verschoor was able to continue without damage.
After a further safety car intervention, the action got back underway with 15 laps to go. The front six quickly pitted, allowing Drugovich to resume his place at the front ahead of Verschoor.
Drugovich pulled clear to take his fifth win of the season by 2.4s from Verschoor, with the race ending two laps early due to race’s time limit expiring. DAMS’s Ayuma Iwasa scored his fourth podium of the year, edging Dennis Hauger to third, having taken the position from the Prema driver during the mandatory stops.
Enzo Fittipaldi was fifth for Charouz ahead of Armuary Cordeel and Juri Vips. David Beckmann was eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing despite losing his front wing in a bizarre incident under safety car conditions before the early red flag period. Campos Racing’s Oli Caldwell was ninth, while Theo Pourchaire climbed from 16th to score the final point in 10th for ART ahead of Jehan Daruvala and Cala Williams.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
