Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman converted pole into victory in the FIA Formula 2 feature race at Barcelona.
The Prema driver survived a three-way dice at the start with Red Bull junior pair Enzo Fittipaldi and Ayuma Iwasa, with Fittipaldi running off track and missing turn two before settling for second after challenging Bearman again approaching turn four.
ART’s Theo Pourchaire climbed from fifth to pass Iwasa for third, while Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan slipped back to fifth before wrestling fourth from Iwasa before completion of the opening lap.
Bearman pulled out a two-second lead over Fittipaldi and managed to stretch his soft compound tyres three laps further than the Rodin Carlin driver before making his mandatory pitstop at the end of lap 13 and switching to the hard compound.
He emerged 0.5s ahead of Fittipaldi and then edged clear as the pair negotiated traffic. The Briton regained the outright lead with 12 laps to go once ART’s Victor Martins, who started on the hard tyre, came in for his mandatory stop.
Bearman controlled the remaining laps to score his second feature race win by 2.8s from Fittipaldi, who took his second podium of the season.
Martins emerged from his late pitstop in fifth, and used his soft tyres to pass fellow Alpine junior Doohan and DAMS driver Iwasa to finish third.
Also on the alternate strategy, Saturday’s sprint race winner Frederick Vesti made his mandatory pitstop one lap before Martins before going on a charge on soft tyres.
He climbed to seventh with a double-overtake on Zane Maloney and Dennis Hauger into turn one, and soon passed Pourchaire, who faded on the hard tyre.
After sweeping around the outside of Doohan for fifth, Vesti caught Vesti and Iwasa late and, although unable to make up any further ground, the Prema diver extended his points lead over Pourchaire who came home behind Doohan in seventh.
Hauger was eighth for MP Motorsport ahead of Arthur Leclerc and Richard Verschoor.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
