Formula 2: Duen won the race and Pourcher became champion

For the first time since 2018, the fate of the Formula 2 title would only be decided in the final race of the season, and both contenders for victory in the youth championship were in a very militant mood.

In Saturday’s sprint, Frederic Vesti managed to fully complete the task and gain the maximum number of points, and for the main race of the weekend he closed the gap on Théo Pourcher to 16 points. But it is clear that it is not easy to win them back, especially since the Dane had to start from 9th position on Sunday, but Pourcher’s position was even worse: just like yesterday, he started the race in 14th.

But in the short race he managed to rise to 7th position and earn a few points, which was very important for him, but before the start you could only guess how everything would go today.

And Jack Duane started from pole, he was in 4th place in the individual rankings, and he had a pretty good chance of moving up to 3rd place, and today he would solve his problems.

Two F2 debutants, Franco Colapinto and Josh Mason, were unable to get going for the warm-up lap, so their cars were immediately rolled into the pit lane, and now they had to start from there.

When the traffic lights went out, Duen had a great start and after just a few corners he had almost a second lead over the peloton. Kush Maini came second and Pourcher’s partner Victor Martin came third. Westie had gained one place and was running eighth behind Isaac Hajjar and was of course hot on his heels.

But Pourcher managed to rise three positions in one go and was already eleventh.

On the third lap, the stewards began investigating an incident involving Ayumu Iwasa: the Japanese driver ended up off track and upon return may have gained an unfair advantage. This happened during a duel with Z. Maloney, who seemed to already be ahead of the DAMS pilot, but he regained his position and acted somewhat incorrectly.

By the fifth lap, Duen had increased his lead over Maini to almost two seconds, and on the following lap Iwasa became the first to make a mandatory pit stop. Interestingly enough, Pourcher followed suit, although it was still very early in the race. He returned to the track in 20th place on Medium tires.

The wave of pit stops continued, but Vesti stayed on track, lapped faster and faster and had already climbed to 4th position, while several drivers ahead of him went to get new tires.

At the end of the ninth lap, the leader, Jack Duane, also pitted and returned to the track in twelfth position. Vesti thus moved to second position and six seconds ahead of him was Victor Martin, the new leader of the race. Frederic received the following instructions from his Prema team via the radio: “The next 10 laps must be driven as if this were one qualifying lap!” Consequently, Frederick had no intention of changing tires anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Pourcher had already climbed to 15th position, having set the best lap of the race along the way. Duen did not hesitate either and on the 14th lap he reached 9th place. Arthur Leclerc, who had not yet pitted, was in 4th place at this stage of the race, but the stewards announced that he was being fined 5 seconds for leaving the track and gaining an incorrect lead.

On lap 18 of 33, Maloney passed Maini and moved up to 11th position. Shortly afterwards, the Prema team car driven by Oliver Berman, Vesti’s teammate, started smoking, and the Briton turned into the pit lane and stopped there before reaching his pits.

At the same time, his car’s transmission appeared to be stuck, and the marshals were unable to immediately remove it from the pit lane entrance, and race management ordered the pit lane closed for the time being. But this didn’t last very long.

On lap 21, Vesti continued to close the gap on Martin, who was leading the race, and the team told Frederic to regain another three-tenths over the next three laps. At the same time, his car was more than 30 seconds clear of Pourcher’s Dallara and the leader of the personal classification had already moved into the top ten.

Vesti pitted just ten laps before the finish, replaced a worn set of Medium tires with fresh Soft tires and only returned to the track in 9th, behind Pourcher, who had risen to 8th position. Of course, Theo would take the title in such a scenario, but there was still almost a third of the distance to the finish, so a lot could still happen.

For several laps the two Red Bull youth program drivers, Ayumu Iwasa and Zane Maloney, had an interesting battle for third position, but the Japanese stayed ahead.

Almost immediately after this episode, Vesti managed to get ahead of Purcher, but he fought back, leaving them both in front of Maini. On the 27th lap, Vesti again launched an attack on Pourcher, and it seemed that he had already taken the lead, but Theo skillfully defended himself and kept his position. However, Vesti did not give up and after a few turns he still took the lead – now he was fifth.

Five laps before the finish, a lengthy duel between Iwasa and Maloney ended, with the Japanese losing his position and immediately being attacked by Vesti. The tires of Frederic’s car were in better condition, preventing Ayumu from putting up any real resistance, and on the 30th lap Vesti moved up to 4th position.

But the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was immediately introduced when Josh Mason’s car stopped on track. Accordingly, everyone slowed the pace and the fight on the track was neutralized for some time.

But already on the 31st lap the yellow flags changed back to green and the race resumed.

Vesti continued to drive 4th, Pourcher – 6th, and this was enough for him to become the youngest champion in the history of Formula 2.

On the final lap there was a fierce battle between Westie and Maloney for third position which ended with contact between their cars, but Frederic was able to continue and Zane spun. Looking ahead, let’s say that the stewards considered this episode a racing incident and no sanctions were imposed. Overall, Vesti finished third. But this was not enough to stay ahead of Pourcher in the individual championship. The final score is as follows: 203 points for Theo and 192 for Frederick.

And the race was won, as expected, by Alpine youth program driver Jack Duane, taking his third win of the season. But of course the joy of his Virtuosi Racing team was overshadowed in terms of noise by the post-finish celebrations of Sauber Academy driver Théo Pourcher and the ART team.

“I am very happy, but also very tired, because I gave everything,” said the new champion after the finish. – It was a difficult weekend, nothing but stress. Sometimes I may have some problems, but I never give up. I wanted to win this title so badly, and I also wanted our ART to win the championship in the team competition. Of course I would like to thank everyone for their support, especially the Sauber Academy!..”

Race results