Drugovich wins second F2 start as more technical failures disrupt race

Formula 2

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Rookie Felipe Drugovich converted reverse-grid pole position into victory in the Formula 2 sprint race, following a series of Safety Car interruptions due to more technical problems.

Giuliano Alesi, Sean Gelael and Marcus Armstrong all triggered the appearance of the Safety Car when their F2 machines came to a stop on-track.

Drugovich maintained his lead at the start, earned by dint of finishing eighth in yesterday’s feature race, ahead of Louis Deletraz. Dan Ticktum was crowded out between Alesi and Armstrong on the run to turn four, Armstrong brilliantly seizing third place ahead of Alesi.

But as lap two began Alesi’s car slowed in a similar manner to team mate Artem Markelov’s retirement yesterday, and the Safety Car was summoned. Just as the race was poised to resume a few laps later, Gelael’s DAMS machine also stopped, and the Safety Car’s stay was prolonged.

The race finally resumed for a handful of laps until Red Bull junior driver Jean Daruvala knocked Luca Ghiotto into a spin at turn four, capping a miserable weekend for the Hitech racer. Daruvala earned a five-second penalty, and the Safety Car did another tour of duty.

Drugovich maintained his lead following another restart, and got to practice it again when Armstrong’s car let him down on lap 14. Having successfully stayed ahead, he pulled out a 2.4 second lead over Deletraz on the run to the flag, while Ticktum collected the final podium place.

Robert Shwartzman took fourth ahead of Christian Lundgaard, Nobuharu Matsuishita, Mick Schumacher and Jack Aitken, who sprang a late pass on Saturday winner Callum Ilott for eighth.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Drugovich wins second F2 start as more technical failures disrupt race”

  1. What a race from Felipe! Super, super job! I can’t believe how unlucky was Guanyu this weekend, but wins will come soon. Also very impressed with the amount of mechanical failures this weekend. Hope we won’t see the 2018 drama again. And Schumacher… The more I see him the more i’m dissappointed with him. I have to criticize race direction too. I can’t believe Markelov received a more severe penalty than Daruvala, whose action had worse consequences for Luca.
    About F3 weekeend, I didn’t find any driver who stood out to me. Pretty dissappointed with Pourchaire, whom I expected much better results and Premas at this Sprint Race.

  2. Very impressed with the way Drugovich handled all the restarts, and he didn’t put a wheel wrong all race. Terrible luck for Armstrong – I’d say the championship will be between him, Shwartzmann and Zhou. Hopefully Zhou’s bad luck is all done for the season now!

  3. Zhou is almost already out of the championship and UNI hit that setup spot on for race one, but with that low downforce they were already set to be in trouble for the sprint race and had it been warmer they could have had serious tyre issues. Illott almost mirrored Zhous performance at race 1, so its not like it was that great a standout performance from Zhou as it was from the team and they were helped by the red flagged qualifying when the other fast teams were making their laps.
    Drugovich showed great speed in F3, but sporadic and with lots of fault, lets see if he can keep it up. I am gonna mirror you and say Armstrong vs Shwartzman and with Ticktum and Lundgaard as outsiders (Lundgaard DRS issues in race one did cost somewhat and that start in the sprint was horrid for a normally good starter). Ilott could be up there if UNI keeps getting things right, but in my opion not as talented as the others.
    Horrendous start for Carlin.

    In F3 it looks like its between Piastri, Sergeant and Lawson who are already topping the board.

  4. Looks like a weekend to forget for Daruvala.

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