F2: Logan Sargent wins Silverstone

On Sunday morning at Silverstone, the weather is quite normal in the summer, and Formula 2 drivers at least were able to fully enjoy driving the classic British circuit, even if such conditions did not promise particularly exciting intrigue. Still, the main race of the British stage of the youth series was interesting in its own way.

Logan Sargent, the American driver of the Carlin team, started from pole for the first time in his career, Frederic Vesti also started the race from the front row, but the car of Felipe Drugovic, who confidently led the individual standings , was in third place in qualifying, and of course the Brazilian wouldn’t have been against adding a win at Silverstone to the previous wins.

But the same plans were for Theo Purscher, the ART rider, who is in 2nd place in the youth championship, and it was he who distinguished himself at the start and went from fourth to second place. But he failed to immediately switch to attacking actions and join the battle for leadership, as already in the first lap there was a bright, if not frightening incident: Dennis Hauger and Roy Nissany started a battle for a position outside the top ten, and this ended in an unpleasant accident.

Nissan didn’t keep the car on the track, but on the way back it pressed Hauger’s Dallara onto the grass. The Norwegian car jumped to the curb, became essentially uncontrollable, and in some of the 16th and 17th corners it crashed into… the same Nissan. In addition, his car flew into the sky, over the head of an Israeli, and we can say that the Halo system saved him.

Of course the equipment was badly damaged – luckily both drivers are okay and this incident will be investigated after the race which ended for both as soon as it started. The safety car took off and the restart was not given until the fifth lap.

This time all went without incident, Sargent held the lead, chased by Purscher, third was Liam Lawson who had a great start from fifth position. But Drugovich dropped to fifth even at the start, but it was even worse for Vesti, who was sixth. At the same time, Frederick was already actively pressing Enzo Fittipaldi.

After the first ten laps Sargent broke away from Purscher by two seconds and it was on this lap that the first pit stops started, although none of the leading group has gone for fresh tires yet. But Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa, who was behind him, turned through the circle into the pit lane. The Japanese had bad luck, the mechanics were working on the left rear wheel and he lost quite a bit of time in the pits.

After another lap Sargent and Purscher went to the pit stop, were quickly replaced by tires and returned to the track in 9th and 10th place respectively.

On lap 13, Drugovic followed suit and entered the track behind Vesti, who was tenth in this stage of the race after a series of pit stops. And Sargent and Purscher have already moved up to 7th and 8th position. Obviously, anyone who drove ahead of them still had to make mandatory pit visits.

Yuri Vips temporarily took the lead, Jehan Daruwala was more than three seconds behind him and Jack Duane, the winner of yesterday’s sprint, was chasing him.

It was then that it became known that the ART team had broken the rules for holding a pit stop: the mechanics, while servicing Vesti’s car, put Purscher tires on him. The stewards announced that the incident would be investigated in detail after the finish, but in theory it didn’t bode well.

Meanwhile, Purscher continued to ride in 8th place behind Sargent, whom he couldn’t get close to.

On lap 18, it was announced that Drugovic had been given a black and white flag for repeatedly breaking the track’s limits, amounting to a final warning. The same flag was shown to Frederick Vesti all over the circle.

At that point, on the track, Kalan Williams was fighting Marino Sato for 5th position, their cars were less than a second apart, but they hadn’t been in the pits yet. Also Daruvala, having received the instruction from the team, noticeably improved and quickly began to overtake to overtake the leader Yuri Vips. On lap 22, the Est drove into the pits, but Jehan chose to stay on track.

Hitech mechanics were busy and Vips stayed in the pits longer than necessary. Daruvala also went through the circle for fresh tires and although his pit stop wasn’t perfect either, he returned to the track for the Estonian. But he had already warmed up the tires, so he rushed straight to the attack, beating Indian racer Prema. However, it was only a battle for seventh position.

Meanwhile, the battle for leadership has clearly intensified. After all the pit stops, Logan Sargent was back in the lead, Theo Purscher was second and constantly increasing the speed, so the first attempts at attack could be expected soon.

There was also a tense battle for third place: Vesti pressed Lawson, fought back with difficulty, locked the tires on braking, but didn’t give up.

There were two laps to go before the finish, Purscher got close to Sargent’s car, but the speed for a decisive attack was a bit lacking, especially as the American drove flawlessly.

On lap 28, Duane Clement overtook Novalak to ninth, followed by MP Motorsport driver Fittipaldi.

On the last lap, Sargent added – or did Purscher realize he wouldn’t be able to overtake the American and loosen his grip a bit? – and was the first to cross the finish line 1.6 seconds ahead of the opponent. Logan took his first Formula 2 win, which he was very happy about, and this was reflected in his cheerful exclamations on the radio. Incidentally, this is also the first victory of American riders in this series in seven years: the last time Alexander Rossi climbed to the top of the podium was in Sochi in 2015. Moreover, then the championship was called GP2, so it turns out that in the F2 is generally the first such achievement for the US representatives.

Theo Purscher took second place, but had to wait for the stewards’ judgment due to the incident at the pit stop, so that the result of the race can still be reviewed. Liam Lawson climbed to the third step of the podium, which nevertheless held back Frederic Vesti’s attack, but the Dane was unable to hold onto fourth position – on the final lap, just a few bends from the finish, he was overtaken by Felipe Drugovic.

Of course the Brazilian was generally pleased with such race results, he remained the leader of the individual standings and if Purcher is also fined his advantage may not diminish at all or diminish slightly.

But Logan Sargent moved up to the third line of the personal standings thanks to the win, eight points ahead of Jehan Daruwala.

Sunday race results