Formula 2: Frederic Vesti takes his second victory

Commentators compared yesterday’s Formula 2 race to a thriller, and for good reason: the events at the Jeddah track kept fans in suspense from the start to Ayuma Iwasa’s victorious finish. Yesterday he managed to defend the first position in the battle against Victor Martin, but on Sunday the French driver ART, last year’s Formula 3 champion, started from pole and naturally wanted to add the first win of this season to the two podiums.

But from the very beginning of the race, his affairs did not develop optimally: he hesitated at the start, so Oliver Birman immediately took the lead. The Frenchman also barely stopped Jack Duane’s attack, but still held on to second position.

The virtual safety car (VSC) mode was introduced as early as the second lap, because in the tail of the pack Amory Kordil Ben Benavidez went off the track and the American’s car stopped on the side of the road. Cordil had to return to the pits to replace the damaged nose cone.

Just one round later, VSC mode was canceled and the fight resumed. Birman managed to increase the gap on Marten to two seconds, but Duane decided to fight Viktor for second position and was already preparing an attack. However, the ART rider did everything in his power not to miss the opponent, and he succeeded. In addition, he managed to break away from Duane slightly and close the gap on the leader.

The mandatory pit stops began on lap seven and Jack Duane was one of the first to pit. But his example was followed by Frederik Vesti, who followed, and the Dane got back on track earlier – he was now running 12th and Duane – 13th. Looking ahead, let’s say this episode predetermined the outcome of the race.

Birman and Marten went through the lap for fresh tires and returned to the race in the same order – the Briton was in 8th place, his rival in 9th.

Meanwhile, Arthur Leclerc, the Ferrari driver’s younger brother, took the lead after a spate of pit stops and Enzo Fittipaldi was two and a half seconds behind, but the Brazilian soon spun into the pit lane as well.

On the 10th lap, Marten launched an attack on Birman at the start-finish line and it looked like he could take the lead, but Oliver skillfully defended himself, but after one lap, Victor put an end to it. The battle went wheel to wheel, the cars in the first corners of the circle shared a few centimeters, but there were no contacts.

Marten moved up to 6th position and it was virtually a shot at victory, because everyone who drove in front of him still had pit stops. Birman could not stay behind him, he was ahead of Vesti.

Meanwhile, the decision of the stewards was announced, which issued a 10-second penalty to Cordil for colliding with Benavidez. But the Belgian was already last, so the penalty could not worsen his situation. But the situation with Marten was up for debate: the stewards decided to investigate how correct he was to Birman, believing that he had squeezed Oliver out of the track.

After 15 of the 28 laps, Leclerc remained in the lead, but it was a temporary situation. But for real leadership, the battle between Marten and Vesti continued. The Dane overtook him, but Victor did not give up. Frederick did not let go of the pressure and eventually forced the opponent into a foul. The ART car turned around at the exit of the 22nd turn, stopped in the middle of the track, after which Victor was only able to pull over to the side of the road, where he exited the cockpit. The dream of victory could not be realized.

The VSC mode was reintroduced for a short time and when the yellow flag period ended, track activity resumed, but Frederic Vesti was now the main contender for the win. Jack Doohan was two and a half seconds behind with seven laps to go and it is not certain whether the Australian could have overtaken the red Prema car.

On lap 22, Richard Fershhor finally pitted, having previously finished second, with Arthur Leclerc still leading the pack. Vesti, who started sixth, has already moved up to fourth position. Not only did Duane not get close to him, but gradually fell behind, and those who were still ahead of them in the closing laps still had to give way, as they were going to pit.

This happened just four laps from the finish, but Leclerc’s pit stop was slightly delayed – the mechanic was fiddling with the front left wheel and eventually Arthur returned to the track in 9th.

Now Vesti was leading with a convincing lead over Duane, and his chances of winning increased with every turn. But outside the top ten there was a positional struggle: recent championship leader Theo Purscher, who is having a very unsuccessful weekend, let Roy Nissany go through, but then counterattacked the Israeli and moved back to 12th.

By the way, around this time the decision of the stewards on Victor Martin became known: no penalty followed, but perhaps mainly because the Frenchman punished himself.

On the penultimate lap of the race, Isaac Hadhar passed Oliver Berman for 9th position, and it was the last overtake of Sunday’s race. Dennis Hauger had the chance to overtake Ayumu Iwasa, and the Norwegian even made such an attempt, but Saturday’s sprint winner held on to 4th place.

Frédéric Vesti of the Mercedes youth program crossed the finish line first almost 4 seconds ahead of Alpine Academy student Jack Doohan, with Jehan Daruwala on the podium. Incidentally, this is only Vesti’s second victory in Formula 2 and the first in Sunday’s race, which is of course more appreciated.

Results in progress…