F2: Drugovic wins sprint to lead in series

Australian Kalan Williams would start from pole in Saturday’s sprint, as Drugovic was penalized and lost three positions. But the Australian Trident driver’s car stopped at the most inopportune moment and was unable to join the warm-up lap. Williams was rolled back to the pit lane and it turned out that Jake Hughes started from first position.

Already in the first corners Felipe Drugovic was pushing ahead and only started fourth, but the Brazilian had something to fight for as for the Spanish stage of the youth championship he took the 2nd line of the individual standings, just two points behind the leader.

Ayumu Iwasa was second, Logan Sargent was third and Theo Purscher, who led the individual standings, dropped from third straight to seventh.

After four laps, Drugovich managed to create a lead of more than a second over Iwasa, but Sargent actively put pressure on the Japanese, but made no serious attack attempts.

Meanwhile, Yuri Vips attacked Jehan Daruwala in the battle for 5th position, but failed to keep the car on track, flew into a gravel trap and got stuck there. The safety car drove away.

On the radio, the Estonian apologized for the mistake – not the first this season, by the way – but the team tried to calm him down by reminding him that the main race of the weekend was tomorrow.

On lap 9 Bernd Maylander, the safety car driver, returned to the pit lane and the fight resumed on track.

Drugovich had a clear restart, held the lead and immediately started breaking away from Iwasa. In fact, the situation on the track stabilized for some time, the riders took care of the tires as the race takes place on Saturday without a pit stop, and the Spanish track is known for its very high degree of rubber degradation.

On the 14th lap Ollie Caludall nevertheless went on the attack and at the end of the start-finish straight ahead of Cem Bolukbashi in the battle for 15th position, on the following lap Clement Novalak overtook Richard Fershhor, rising to 12th place. Then the Swiss MP Motorsport racer started to overtake Marcus Armstrong, but the New Zealander got better out of the last corner of the track and the attack failed.

On lap 20, Jehan added Daruvala, allowing him to get ahead of Hughes and climb to 4th position, and after the Brit, whose tires were clearly worn, Theo Purscher got ahead easily, for whom it was important to score points thus remaining championship leader at the end of the weekend.

Hughes continued to lose ground: on the next lap he was overtaken by Jack Duane and already attacked by Frederick Vesti. Soon the Dane managed to pass Jake and climb to 7th place, and on the same 24th lap, Hughes was ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi.

So Jake, who actually started from pole position, had already rolled back to the end of the top ten and was out there – the rubber didn’t hold the track at all, he finally decided to get back into the top ten. potholes and stop fighting.

But he wasn’t the only one with issues: Novalak also went to the side of the road, and while he managed to get back into the race, a few rivals managed to get past.

In the meantime, the race ended and was won by Felipe Drugović with his second win of the season, leading the drivers’ standings. Ayumu Iwasa lost a few seconds to him and the third place on the podium went to Logan Sargent. Theo Purscher finished fifth in Saturday’s sprint and lost his championship lead, albeit temporarily, and the picture may change after tomorrow’s race.

Sprint results Saturday