Prema’s Jehan Daruvala triumphed in the FIA Formula 2 feature race, which was halted early on by a crash.
Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan lined up on pole, but things went wrong for him right from the start. Having been slow away on the formation lap due to a clutch issue, the Australian again struggled to get going at the start and lost many positions.
Carlin’s Liam Lawson took the lead, while chaos ensued behind. Ralph Boschung ended up off the road at the first chicane but as he rejoined made contact with Theo Pourchiare, who was spun across the track and collected by Luca Ghiotto and Oli Caldwell, with all four drivers retiring.
Into the second chicane Doohan’s race got worse, making contact with Daruvala before collecting Carlin’s Logan Sargeant, who was out on the spot. Doohan limped back to the pits and eventually retired.
Lawson continued to lead following a safety car period, as Hitech GP’s Marcus Armstrong passed newly-crowned champion Felipe Drugovich for second. But the race was neutralised a couple of laps later when Calan Williams crashed at Ascari following a collision with David Beckmann, with the red flags subsequently shown after most drivers had made their mandatory stops.
Still to pit, Richard Verschoor now led from Marino Sato at the restart, with Daruvala moving into the net lead in third during the flurry of pitstops. Daruvala eventually moved past Sato for second and closed in on Verschoor, who finally pitted with four laps to go.
ART’s Frederick Vesti came home 1.970s behind Daruvala in second, having passed Ayuma Iwasa at the restart. DAMS driver Iwasa fended off Enzo Fittipaldi and Dennis Hauger to finish third, but was disqualified post race for excessive wear on the plank underneath his car, handing Fittipaldi the final podium spot.
Lawson slipped behind FIttipaldi during his mandatory stop, and a collision with Hitech’s Juri Vips dropped him out of contention after pitting with a damaged front wing. Vips was handed a 10s time penalty for the incident, dropping him to 11th. But the stewards subsequently admitted they had made a mistake and issued an apology, unable to undo the damage to the Estonian’s race.
Beckmann came home sixth ahead of Drugovich and Amaury Cordeel. Clement Novalak was ninth ahead of Verschoor. Armstrong slipped to 13th after two separate time penalties for entering the pitlane after the bollard the marks the latest point, and also speeding in the pitlane.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
