On the circuit in Imola, even before the start of Saturday’s sprint, remarkable events began to occur: Belgian Amaury Kordil crashed the car of the Van Amersfoort Racing team on the way to the starting field.
Logan Sargent, a Carlin racer, started from pole position but allowed too much wheel slip and was unable to stay ahead, passing four rivals at once in the opening corners. Marcus Armstrong (Hitech) took the lead, Jehan Daruwala was second, Dennis Hauger, his Prema teammate, took third and Roy Nissany (DAMS) held them on.
But the battle on track was almost immediately neutralized by yellow flags as shortly after the start David Beckman (Charoyz Racing System) failed to keep the car on track and when it started to turn Clement Novalak was unable to avoid contact. with it.
After the restart, Armstrong held onto the lead but behind him, Daruwala and Hauger were battling for second place and so far Indian rider Prema was able to hold the line.
The top three managed to maintain a fairly high pace and Nissan gradually began to fall behind, leaving him vulnerable to Hauger, who was clearly preparing an attack on the Israeli racer.
Meanwhile, Felipe Drugovic and Theo Purscher defeated Ralf Boschung to 6th and 7th place respectively. But the eighth Swiss didn’t last long, he soon stopped due to a technical problem. The Race Directorate has introduced a virtual safety car mode.
Boschung’s car was evacuated fairly quickly and the fight resumed after a round. After the second restart, Daruvala tried to put pressure on the leading Armstrong, but the New Zealander stepped up and the gap between their cars widened slightly again.
Sargent continued to pressure Nissan and several times it looked like he might break the opposition’s resistance, but Roy held on to 4th position.
Less than seven laps left to the finish, the peloton stretched, the breakaways more or less stabilized, except Frederic Vesti claimed 10th place, occupied by Jack Duane. The Australian held out for quite some time and positioned the car correctly on the track, but on lap 19 the Dane was still ahead of him.
Hauger started to fall behind in the first two, because on the right side of his car the side pontoon didn’t fit well against adjacent body panels, obviously ruining the aerodynamics. There were suspicions that he could be torn off at all, and commentators began to fear Dennis would have to go into the pits. But for now, he stayed on the track.
On the penultimate lap, Drugovic started to attack Sargent, who was already slightly behind Nissan, but the American tried to defend himself, although his tires were no longer in better condition. And yet the Brazilian managed to stay ahead of his opponent before the second corner through DRS. Since Felipe started 12th, he had already won six positions by then.
On the final lap, Nissan managed to get close to Hauger’s faulty car, but he just didn’t have enough time to get ahead of the Norwegian – he crossed the line in fourth, less than half a second behind his opponent.
And the race was won by Marcus Armstrong – for the 21-year-old New Zealander this is the first win of the season. Jehan Daruwala was second, alongside Dennis Hauger on the podium, who finished third despite a car problem.
However, Felipe Drugovic, winner of Sunday’s race in Jeddah, retained the lead in the individual standings – with four points for fifth place at Imola, he was ahead as closest rival, Liam Lawson, was only eighth today and only one. earned. bonus point.
Source: F1 News
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