F2: Spa sprint victory by Liam Lawson

In Saturday’s Formula 2 sprint at Spa, Ralph Boschung started from first position and showed the 10th result in yesterday’s qualifying. But unexpectedly, the second position turned out to be free: Jehan Daruvala would start the race from there, but when everyone was already on the grid, the mechanics of the Prema team discovered a serious malfunction, which caused the Indian’s car to job to roll.

This should have made it easier for Theo Purscher, who started third. He should earn maximum points as he is in second place in the individual standings and can still overtake the leader. But this is theoretical, but in practice the French driver ART started badly, unlike Liam Lawson, who went straight from fifth to second and started attacking Boschung.

Ralph didn’t give up on the first lap, but already on lap two, Liam confidently brought things to a close and led the race.

It was interesting behind the leading group too: Felipe Drugovic, who started tenth, was already sixth in the second lap and was chasing Purscher, his main rival in the battle for the title, who had fallen back to fifth. In the 4th round, the Brazilian came close to Theo at attacking distance and soon decisive action could be expected from him.

Lawson was in the lead, although after five laps with the team he complained that the rear tires were starting to lose speed. At the same time, Boschung held back for another second with a bit.

On the same lap, on the Kemmel straight, through the slipstream, Jack Duhan was ahead of Richard Fershhor and moved up to third. In general, the Australian is distinguished by a bright attacking style of wrestling, and it is believed that he is becoming more confident from race to race. Admittedly, sometimes he makes mistakes, but today he succeeded.

With Duane chasing the leaders, Fershor clearly lagged behind the top three and slowed the rest of the pack. On lap 7, Purscher tried to get ahead of Dutch driver Trident, but he fell short of speed. Meanwhile, Theo himself started to put pressure on Drugovic.

At the end of the lap Richard unexpectedly braked early for the last chicane and Purscher had to brake hard with wheel locks to avoid a collision, and this obviously didn’t affect the tire condition the best.

As the race crossed the equator, Lawson led by a very solid lead of more than four seconds, but lost it when Logan Sargent went off track on lap 11 around Turn 10, causing the car to crash badly and the safety car to run out.

Although pit stops are not necessary during Saturday’s sprint, several riders went straight for fresh tires, including Drugovic. But the entire top five preferred to stay on the track, hoping to still finish on the same tires they started with. Felipe, who started after a pit stop on soft tires, was in 12th position and until now it was not clear whether such a daring tactic would allow him to win back.

In front of him was Clement Novalak, his MP Motorsport teammate, who had been warned by the team to let Drugovic pass immediately.

On lap 15 they restarted, Lawson easily held the lead and Drugovic was already ahead of Novalak in the first corner, but at the end of the straight Kemmel couldn’t keep the car on track and had to return to the positions he had won back, forced to cut off by the side of the road.

All the way through, Drugovich was still in eighth, again ahead of several rivals, and after just a few corners he moved up another position and overtook David Beckman. Starting the penultimate lap in sixth, Felipe continued to make a decisive breakthrough forward, taking full advantage of the grip advantage of fresh rubber.

In the final chicane he also passed his main rival in the title race, Theo Purscher, so we can assume that Drugovic has completed the minimal task. On the final lap of the race, he also beat Fershhor, which was already a bonus for him. And Jack Duane overtook Boschung and climbed into second, although Lawson, of course, was unable to overtake him.

The New Zealand Carlin driver won the sprint by a reasonable margin to take his third win of the season; Jack Doohan, son of legendary Australian motorcycle racer Mick Doohan, finished second, with Ralph Boschung on the podium. In addition, the success of Swiss driver Campos Racing should be mentioned separately, as he returned to the championship after missing several stages due to a neck injury, returning earlier than the doctors recommended.

Drugovic earned five points for 4th place, extending the already large lead over Purcher in the individual standings to 25 points. benefit from this, but the results of this research will be known later.

Race results