A late safety car period turned Formula 2’s sprint race at Barcelona on its head, and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor climbed through the field to take victory.
Verschoor resisted a final-lap charge from Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, who reclaimed the points lead by recovering from 19th on the grid to second, while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez scored a maiden podium in third – the top three all pitting during the caution period and then using their fresh tyres to fly up the order.
Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad scored a maiden pole for Sunday’s feature race by topping Friday’s qualifying, while Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli secured reversed-grid pole for the sprint by setting the 10th quickest time.
Dunne was fifth in qualifying, but he lost his third-row grid spot for Saturday’s contest due to two separate penalties. He served a 10-place drop for causing the first-corner pileup during the previous weekend in Monaco, and served a further three-place penalty for rear-ending ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins while entering the pits during practice at Barcelona.
AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen started alongside Fornaroli on the front-row, but the pair were beaten off the line by Hitech GP’s Luke Browning, who swept through the middle of them from third into the lead.
DAMS driver Jak Crawford also made a good launch from fourth to sweep around the outside of both Duerksen and Fornaroli into second at turn one, while Verschoor bogged down from fifth and lost several places.
Fornaroli tried to reclaim second at turn four on the opening lap before conceding, while Duerksen briefly lost out to Fornaroli’s team-mate Roman Stanek before moving back ahead into turn seven. Stanek was then shuffled back to sixth by DAMS’s Kush Maini and soon lost a further spot to ART’s Ritomo Miyata before lap one was completed.
Browning, meanwhile led the first three laps, before being forced to defend from Crawford into turn one. Crawford made the better exit to challenge the Williams Academy member again into turn four, where he drove around the outside and survived slight contact to snatch the lead. Browning, Fornaroli and Duerksen remained close behind the American, and Maini set the fastest lap on the fifth tour as he tried to chase down the lead quartet.
Crawford soon edged over a second clear, only for Browning to move back within DRS range, but he then set a new fastest lap to edge away once more. Duerksen’s podium challenge ended at the halfway stage, where he slowed with an issue before retiring in the pitlane.
Verschoor, meanwhile, gained a place by squeezing up the inside of Campos Racing’s Lindblad, who then spun as he tried to fight back into turn one. Another incident at the same corner would soon have a dramatic effect on the race, with Gabriele Mini retiring following a collision with his Prema team-mate Sebastian Montoya who spun before rejoining the race.
The safety car was deployed as a result, and nine drivers took the opportunity to pit for soft compound tyres.
The highest-placed among those was Verschoor in ninth, and he only lost once place by doing so. Dunne, who had climbed to 11th by that stage, also pitted and lined up for the restart directly behind Verschoor. Sami Megatounif, Martins, Amaury Cordeel, Villagomez, Cian Shields, Montoya and Lindlad were the others who changed tyres.
There were six laps remaining when the track returned to green, and Verschoor and Dunne took little time to fight their way to the front. The pair relegated Crawford to third with three laps to go, and Dunne eventually finished 0.380s behind Verschoor despite setting a new fastest lap on the penultimate tour.
Despite his tyre disadvantage, Crawford came home fourth after losing a further place to Villagomez. Montoya recovered to fifth ahead of Martins, with pre-event championship leader Browning shuffled back to seventh. Fornaroli was the final points-scorer in eighth, with Lindblad and Megatounif completing the top 10.
VAR’s John Bennett was another to retire after stopping in the pitlane at the end of the first lap.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
