F2 Saudi Arabia: Felipe Drugovich wins in uninterrupted feature race
27th March 2022MP Motorsports Felipe Drugovich now leads the Formula 2 drivers championship as the Brazilian driver secured the win in an uninterrupted feature race in Saudi Arabia.
How the race unfolded…
The race was just about to get underway as four lights appeared on the gantry but the start procedure was aborted. At the second time of asking, the race was able to get going and MP Motorsports Felipe Drugovich cut across the track to defend his position into the first corner.
After a horrible day yesterday, with communication issues between the driver, team and race control, Prema’s Dennis Hauger climbed up to eighth place from P10 by the end of the second lap.
On lap six, Ralph Boschung was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. The Campos driver went too deep into turn one and returned to the track in front of Dams’ Ayumu Iwasa.
On lap seven, Jehan Daruvala pitted to swap his soft compound tyres for the medium tyres. While ART’s Theo Pourchaire had a technical issue and the French driver was able to limp to the pit lane to retire his car from the race.
Drugovich sacrificed the lead of the race as he decided to ditch his soft tyres, for the mediums on lap nine. Richard Verchoor pitted a lap later but the overcut didnt pay off as Drugovich was ahead of Verschoor as the Trident rejoined the track.
A lap later, Carlin’s Liam Lawson was forced – at the end of the pit lane – to retire from the race as the front left tyre wasn’t fitted. As the Mechanic swapped wheel guns, the New Zealander’s car was released from the pit box. Fortuantely, the team were able to stop Lawson before he returned to the track.
Hauger remained in the lead of the race ahead of MP Motorsport’s Clement Novalak by eight seconds, on lap 16, and remained ahead of the previous race leader – Drugovich – by 15 seconds. However, the newly-promoted Formula 3 champion was yet to pit to swap his medium tyres for the soft compound.
Novalak was the first driver, who was on the alternate strategy, to change mediums for the softs at the end of lap 17.
Hauger finally ventured into the pit lane to swap his medium tyres for the softs on lap 23. But the F3 champion locked up into the pit lane exit, and nearly ran into the barrier, as a result of the lack of downforce and cold tyres.
Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi sat just outside the points on lap 25, behind Hitech’s Juri Vips. In the lap prior, Fittipaldi chased down the Estonian by putting in a lap which was second quicker than the Hitech’s.
On the final lap, 27 of 27, Frederik Vesti brought out the double yellow flags at the pit lane exit after he spun around on the exit of turn one.
Despite Verschoor’s best efforts, he couldn’t threaten Drugovich’s lead as the Brazilian driver crossed the line to take the final win in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the MP driver now leads the drivers championship with 45 points, 11 points ahead of Lawson who was on 34.
Podium:
- Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport
- Richard Verschoor, Trident
- Jehan Daruvala, Prema
That’s it for the article: ‘F2 Saudi Arabia: Felipe Drugovich wins in uninterrupted feature race.’ What did you enjoy in the Saudi Arabian Feature Race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 Saudi Arabia: Liam Lawson wins in crash-filled sprint race
- F2 2022 Bahrain Feature Race: Theo Pourchaire wins after pitlane drama
- F2 2021 Feature Race: Oscar Piastri wins in Abu Dhabi Finale
- F2 Sprint Race 2: Guanyu Zhou secures win in Abu Dhabi
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.