Prema’s Frederick Vesti took his second Formula 2 victory in a dramatic feature race in Saudi Arabia.
The Mercedes junior climbed from sixth on the grid to take the win, while mistakes from his team-mate Ollie Bearman and ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins cost them both a chance of a maiden triumph.
Bearman took the lead at the start as polesitter Martins came under pressure for second from fellow Alpine junior Jack Doohan. Vesti meanwhile moved past Saturday’s sprint race winner Ayuma Iwasa and MP Motorsport’s Jehan Daruvala into fourth.
There was a brief virtual safety car period after Charouz’s Brad Benavides retired following a collision with Amaury Cordeel. Bearman pulled out almost a two-second lead once green flag running resumed, but Martins started to reduce the gap.
The pair made their mandatory pitstops on the same lap with Bearman retaining the net lead, while Vesti passed Doohan shortly after making his stop.
On an alternate strategies, DAMS’s Arthur Leclerc led from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Richard Verschoor while the battle for battle for victory took place further behind.
Martins made a move on Bearman into the first corner on lap 10 of 28, but ran off track and handed the position back to his rival. He tried the move again on the next lap, this time making it stick, while Bearman’s attempts to fight back resulted in him losing out to Vesti.
But the race would take a dramatic turn with 12 laps remaining. Firstly, Bearman spun and lost several positions and flatspotted his tyres in the process. Just moments later Martins also spun while under pressure from Vesti but, unlike Bearman, hit the barriers and was forced to retire.
That enabled Vesti to move into the lead in the closing stages once Leclerc and Verschoor made their mandatory stops, and he remained there until the finish. Doohan came home 4.7 seconds behind while Daruvala completed the podium places.
Iwasa finished fourth for DAMS ahead of Daruvala’s team-mate Dennis Hauger. Verschoor made progress after his late pitstop to beat Rodin Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi to seventh. Leclerc and Hadjar both passed the struggling Bearman late on to finish eighth and ninth, with the Briton holding on to the final points-paying position in 10th.
Kush Maini slipped out of the top 10 in the closing stages and finished 12th behind Nissany. After receiving a grid penalty for his crash with Bearman in Saturday’s sprint race, ART’s Theo Pourchaire struggled to 13th ahead of Roman Stanek.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
