Formula 2: Fershhor dedicated the win to the late friend

Before the start of Sunday’s Formula 2 race, Victor Martin, who started from pole position and took 2nd place in the sprint yesterday, was in a combative mood. He was determined to earn as many points as possible, but he acted thoughtfully and talked about the importance of choosing the right tactics. The tactical factor really played an important role today, but not in his favour.

Victor lost his first place right at the start, because he started unimportant, and Frederik Vesti and Theo Purscher immediately overtook him. In addition, he lost two more positions already on the second lap, missing Jack Duane and Kush Maini. Moreover, he was first overtaken by the Indian racer Campos, after which Duane overtook them both in the 4th turn with a nice maneuver.

On lap 5, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Richard Fershhor, who had a bad luck yesterday, beat Amaury Kordil to move up to 8th position in an attempt to at least partially make up for the loss.

In round 6, Dennis Hauger also attacked Kordil, but he showed obvious intransigence and defended too aggressively, sending the opponent to the grass outside the track. The Norwegian had to ‘get’ the car, he succeeded, but he lost his position against Ayumu Iwasa and Arthur Leclerc, rolled back outside the top ten.

The first pit stops began and one of those who went to the pit lane for fresh tires was Theo Purscher, who was running second, but was now running in 16th.

Vesti stayed on track and continued to lead, Fittipaldi moved into second, Vershor into third, as Duane and Marten went to pit stops. On the next lap, Vesti followed suit and returned to the track in 11th. At the same time, Enzo temporarily led the race and drove quite fast, but the question was how many laps his tires could last.

Frederic Vesti, however, set the best lap of this stage of the race on fresh soft rubber and his time was almost a second and a half better than the leader’s.

Dennis Hauger started a dispute with Roy Nissany for 17th position after a pit stop, but the Israeli racer did not give up. However, an investigation can still be launched against the Norwegian, because he wrongly crossed the white line when entering the pit lane. But the stewards’ decision is not there yet, so Dennis kept attacking and on lap 17 he was still ahead of Nissan.

When the race reached the equator, i.e. were behind the first 20 laps, Fittipaldi was still leading, Vershor was second, Iwasa was third. But the first six riders were not yet in the pits, so in the future Frederic Vesti, who was riding in 7th place, should return to the leaders.

On the same lap 20, Theo Purscher overtook Isaac Hadjar and moved up to 8th place, which should have been second according to the optimistic scenario.

In 7th position, Vesti didn’t stay that long: on lap 22 he overtook Roman Stanek to move up to 6th, then to 5th when he overtook Oliver Berman, his teammate, on lap 24 on Prema’s orders.

It became known about the 5 second penalty that Kush Maini received for violating the limits of the route.

On lap 25, Jack overtook Duhan Purcher, who was having pace issues, and was ahead of the Frenchman – the optimistic scenario didn’t seem to come true. Not surprising, because Theo was one of the first to visit the boxes and it became clear that his tactics were not the best.

On lap 26, Vesti effortlessly overtook Arthur Leclerc and was already fourth. Only then did the Ferrari driver’s younger brother pit for fresh tyres. Behind him, other drivers from the group leaders began to pit – Iwasa was the first to do so.

But then the virtual safety car (VSC) mode was introduced, when Leclerc’s car stopped at the side of the road: it turned out that at the pit stop the DAMS mechanic had badly secured the right rear wheel, and it flew off when the Monegasque car was already in the 3rd corner.

The VSC regime was replaced by the departure of a real safety car, and Enzo Fittipaldi took advantage of this situation, returning to the track after a late pit stop in 9th.

At the restart the top five looked like this: Vesti was in the lead, followed by Duane, Purscher, Marten and Ferhsor. But immediately after the resumption of the fight on the track, Richard, who also came to the pits quite late, beat first Marten, and after a few corners, Purscher! In addition, Marten could not hold on to this position and missed a few more rivals, ultimately dropping him to 6th place.

Iwasa had a successful overtake and was ahead of Purscher and moved up to 4th position. But then VSC mode was reintroduced, this time after an incident involving Kush Maini and Dennis Hauger. One of the Indian car’s wheels was punctured and stopped.

The track battle resumed 4 laps from the finish. Duane tried to overtake Vesti, they were a few fractions of a second apart, but Oliver Berman scored first, ahead of Marten and moved up to 5th.

Vesti was able to hold onto the lead for some time, also because Duena attacked Vershhor and was able to stay ahead of the Australian on lap 38. But it was clear Richard wasn’t going to stop there and on the next lap he attacked the leader. The overtake was a success and the rider, who was denied victory at the Red Bull Ring a year ago, was clearly determined this time to prove he can win races with dignity.

After Fershhor led a daring overtake against Vesti Ivas and managed to get to second position! In addition, Iwasa decided to fight for the win, and who knows how it would have ended if the race had lasted a few more laps. But the finish was already close, so Richard Fershor was the first to see the black and white checkered flag – for him this is not only the first win, but also the first podium this season.

He dedicated the victory to Dylano van ‘t Hoff, his friend, who was tragically killed in Spa yesterday during the FRECA series race, and when Richard spoke about it after the finish, it was felt that he was overwhelmed by very complex emotions.

Iwasa finished the race second, while Frederic Vesti was only third. At the same time, he kept the lead in the individual ranking of the youth series, Purscher remained on the second line, Iwasa – on the third.

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