On Sunday, the front rows of the Formula 2 grid looked quite interesting: Oliver Berman started from pole, Enzo Fittipaldi started from 2nd, Jack Doohan and Ayumu Iwasa started from the second row and Theo’s car Purscher, who, like the Japanese, is also considered one of the favorites of the series, was in 5th place.
It was Theo who became one of the main characters of the start: he was ahead of two rivals and after the first corners he started to put pressure on Fittipaldi, who even had to stop at the flea market to avoid collisions. Berman kept the lead, but the Brazilian was only 0.6 seconds behind.
Among those who had a good start was Juan Manuel Correa, yesterday’s loser: he managed to gain back four positions and after the first lap he was tenth. Incidentally, the Ecuadorian-American has a very busy schedule these days: immediately after the race in Barcelona he has to fly on to France, because next weekend he will make his debut during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There he plays for the Prema team, but that’s another story.
On the first lap, Azeik Hadjar broke his front wing in an incident with Clement Novalak and went to the pits for a new nose cone.
After five laps the track stabilised, the gaps widened and the top ten was squarely between Jake Crawford and Frederick Vesti, the winner of Saturday’s race. On the next lap, the Dane successfully overtook and moved up to 8th position.
Ralph Boschung was the first to go to the mandatory pit stop, after which, after getting new tires, he returned to the track only in 20th. Soon the leading group’s drivers, with the exception of Berman, followed suit: Purscher, Iwasa and Fittipaldi headed to the pits.
After the pit stop, Theo tried to attack the Brazilian in an attempt to take over 14th position from Enzo, but he defended himself skillfully.
Berman did not pit until lap 14, after which he returned to the track in 12th and Victor Marten temporarily led the race. Frederic Vesti, the winner of yesterday’s race, was second and the Prema team encouraged him on the radio and advised him to add as there were chances to show a good result today.
On lap 17, Berman had a very risky, but still successful, overtake: in the outer radius of turn 10, he was ahead of Roy Nissani and moved up to 9th position. And already on the next lap he overtook Zane Maloney, and on the 19th he also overtook Jehan Daruwala.
No less interesting events took place in the second ten: Jack Duane overtook Theo Purscher, and now the Australian was in 13th, despite the fact that few people managed to visit the pits ahead of him – only Berman, Fittipaldi and Iwasa.
The stewards periodically announced 5-second penalties to several riders for not respecting the course limits, but they did not apply to the leading group participants.
Frederic Vesti went for new tires on lap 24 so Oliver Berman had already moved up to 2nd position and it looked like if all went well the Brit would win this race. On the next lap, Marten also spun into the pits, putting Oliver back into the lead.
At the beginning of the 26th lap, Vesti overtook Dennis Hauger and Zane Maloney in a completely impetuous maneuver, and on the next lap also overtook Theo Purscher – now Frederik has risen to 6th position. But he wasn’t the only one to overtake: Victor Marten overtook Jack Duane, but after the Australian he was ahead of Vesti.
The Prema team on the radio gave Frederic a specific instruction: don’t stop there and keep attacking. He had a second and a half ahead of Marten, and the only question was how many laps his hard tires could last, as the Dane was very aggressive.
Five laps to go, Berman led by more than four seconds over Fittipaldi, third was Iwasa, already under threat from Marten, and the last of his force withstood Vesti’s attacks. Even if they had finished in that order, Frederik would have remained the leader of the individual classification.
But the permutations in the top five continued: Marten overtook Iwasa a few laps before the end of the race and secured a spot on the podium. Ayumu followed and tried to attack Vesti, and again he tried to do it along the outer beam, but this time he couldn’t. The second attempt also failed and the Japanese remained in 4th position.
On the last lap, the Mercedes youth program driver rushed into a decisive attack, but the Honda youth program driver held on on the final lap and still crossed the finish line in fourth.
And the first, as expected, was Oliver Berman, this is his third win of the season. Enzo Fittipaldi climbed to the second step of the podium, allowing him to stay ahead of several riders in the individual classification – the Brazilian is now 7th.
Oliver Berman, a promising 18-year-old Briton, has jumped from 8th to 4th in one go and judging by the confident performance his progress will continue. And Frederic Vesti, after two races of the weekend in Barcelona, strengthened his leadership in the championship, and already 11 points separate him from Theo Purscher.
The next stage of Formula 2 will have to wait almost a month: the racers of the youth series will not start again until the first weekend of July in Austria.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
