F2: Iwasa wins race, Sargent wins Formula 1 ticket

The last race of the Formula 2 season was very important for many participants in the youth championship, as it could have a very big impact on the results. If the fate of the title had been decided long ago, and perhaps second place too (Felipe Drugovic became the champion, Theo Purscher would become the vice-champion), the pilots who took from 3rd to 7th place would be the start of the race on Sunday, separated by just 12 points.

Logan Sargent, for whom it was extremely important to finish the season on a high enough place in the individual standings, was only 4 points ahead of Liam Lawson, his teammate Carlin. The advantage of Jack Duane, who finished the top five, over Jehan Daruwala and Enzo Fittipaldi, was even smaller: two points.

The fate of the first place in the team standings was also in question: although occupied by MP Motorsport, thanks to Drugovich’s success, ART was only 7 points behind. At the same time, Carlin also had good chances, as both riders of the team’s British team started the race on Sunday from fairly high positions.

Ayumu Iwasa, the winner of Friday’s qualifying, started from pole position. Next to him on the front row was the car of Roy Nissany, his DAMS teammate, but Theo Purscher started the race from third position, saying he intended to fight for the win, adding that skilled rubber work would be the would be key.

At the start, Nissany was already ahead of his partner, but Ivasa bounced back, but Drugovic immediately broke through to third and pushed Pursher aside. Moreover, Dennis Hauger also overtook the Frenchman, so that Theo was already fifth. Jack Doohan started badly and immediately lost several positions. Sargent also didn’t start the race in the best way and fell back to 7th – on the radio he complained that Liam Lawson had pushed him off the track.

Already in the second lap yellow flags appeared due to the retirement of Ralph Boschung, the Campos driver, who had problems with the car. A virtual safety car mode has been introduced.

After a few laps the battle resumed on track, Purscher managed to gain back a position ahead of Hauger. Sargent told the team that the car was not holding the track properly, as if forewarning that it would be difficult for him to fight the rivals ahead of him.

Drugovic, who has a reputation as a smart driver who knows how to calculate the possible development of events and choose the right tactics, Nissan gradually began to catch up, and as soon as DRS was allowed, Felipe was ahead of the driver from Israel. move to second position.

At the end of lap 8, Hauger and Lawson pitted to change tyres, and Liam managed to get ahead of the Norwegian with a shorter pit stop. Iwasa and Pursher followed for a lap and Drugovic took the lead.

Those who visited the pit stops so early were, of course, at the very end of the pack. Hauger and Purscher started a dispute for 19th position, but the Frenchman made a mistake, couldn’t stay on track, stopped on the side of the road, but returned without much consequence.

On lap 10, Drugovic pitted and returned to the battle in 14th position between Iwasa and Lawson. The race was temporarily led by Duane. Sargent also changed tyres, after which he perplexedly asked the team over the radio: “Why did we pit so late?” Apparently, the American believed that this was precisely why he rolled back to 17th position.

Pit stops continued, this allowed the riders, possibly included in the leading group, to progress gradually. Drugovic, in particular, was already running 11th, although at one point his race almost ended in an accident when the Brazilian made a mistake under braking and nearly crashed into Iwasa’s car. Fortunately for both, Felipe managed to avoid the collision at the last minute.

As the race approached the equator, Duane continued to lead and his lead over Marcus Armstrong, who was running second, had already reached five seconds, but neither he nor the other top nine riders were still in the pits.

With 15 laps to go, Purscher got close to Hauger and was clearly preparing an attack. Dennis, who was 11th on this leg of the race, tried to improve and an interesting battle ensued between them, switching positions several times, but the Norwegian managed to stay ahead.

Meanwhile, the stewards announced Armstrong a 5-second penalty for disobeying track limits.

The pit stops continued, allowing Iwasa to move up to 7th position, while Drugovic was one and a half seconds behind. On lap 21, Purscher was still ahead of Hauger, who made a mistake, and was now running eighth.

With ten laps to go Iwasa was in 3rd, Drugovic in 4th, followed by Lawson, but couldn’t get close to the Brazilian, while Felipe gradually closed the gap to Ayumu.

On lap 26, Jack Duane finally pitted, returned to the track in fifth, but then something completely unexpected happened: the left front wheel fell off his car in the very first corners! It is clear that the mechanic was in a hurry to just not fix it, although he gave a sign that everything was fine.

Yellow flags were hung on the first two sectors of the circle, then the virtual safety car mode was briefly introduced, but on the 28th lap, the battle on the track resumed. Drugovich was just a second behind Iwasa and it was felt that he was in a very combative mood and was going to fight for the win.

But the first overtake after the restart was not successful for him, but for Logan Sargent, who was beautifully ahead of Nissan on the outside radius in turn 9. But Pursher slowed down sharply and began to lose ground due to technical difficulties. He managed to make it to the pits and the race was over for him, which meant that the ART team not only lost the chance to win the team classification, but also missed out on second place to Carlin.

Drugovich continued to push Iwasu, their fight made a very lively impression and both acted correctly and skillfully, but the Japanese managed to hold the first position until the last lap. Just before the finish, Felipe launched a decisive attack, but Ayumu defended himself bravely and at one point forced his opponent into a mistake.

The MP Motorsport orange car went off the track, Drugovic lost some momentum and Iwasa crossed the line first for his second win of the season. Felipe took second place, which didn’t upset him too much, and he even twirled donuts so that his Formula 2 career ended on such a happy note.

Third place in the race was taken by Liam Lawson, moving him up to the third line of the personal standings, Dennis Hauger finished fourth and Logan Sargent closed out the top five, putting him fourth at the end of the race. season.

This result earned the American driver enough points for the coveted FIA super license, and TV commentators (including, by the way, Alex Brundle, son of Martin Brundle) unanimously congratulated Sargent on his move to Formula 1, because now he needs everything to become Williams signed him to a contract for 2023.

Racing results