F2 Emilia-Romagna Feature Race: Theo Pourchaire wins after late drama
24th April 2022ART’s Theo Pourchaire cruised to victory behind the safety car in an incident-filled feature race, ahead of Charouz’ Enzo Fittipaldi and Campos’ Ralph Boschung.
How the race unfolded…
Hitech GP’s Juri Vips put in the best lap on Friday’s qualifying to sit on pole position for the feature race. However, before the race started, Campos’ Olli Caldwell was to be investigated after the race for dangerous driving in the pit lane. The Campos was seen driving fairly fast, and weaving, through a crowded pit lane.
Ralph Boschung took the lead of the race temporarily after Vips struggled to get a good start off the line. However, sixth-placed Roy Nissany (Dams) took the lead of the race by the Tamburello chicane (turn two). Amongst the early action, Prema’s Dennis Hauger made contact with Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan in the middle of the track.
The safety car was deployed to allow the track marshals to remove the Prema in the gravel trap while Doohan managed to return to the pit lane and retire from the race.
The safety car returned to the pit lane at the end of the fourth lap. However, Nissany didn’t bolt into the final corners rather he waited until he was at the pit entry before he got the race back up to speed. In conclusion, it caught Boschung napping and Nissany went into the first chicane with minimal pressure.
After one full clean lap, after the restart, Vips’ race went from bad to worse as he touched the gravel trap and grass into Variante Villeneuve (turn five and six). This caused the Estonian to spin out as he returned to the track and head into the adjacent barrier.
The safety car was redeployed as a result. During the safety car period, Nissany and remaining the super-soft runners dipped into the pit lane to make their mandatory stop.
At the end of lap nine, the safety car was recalled back into the pit lane and Prema’s Jehan Daruvala got the race back underway.
After seven well-behaved laps, Daruvala had established a two-second gap over his closest rivals, Hitech’s Marcus Armstrong and Carlin’s Liam Lawson who were in second and third respectively. However, Prema’s Red Bull junior, who was on the alternate stragety: to switch onto the super-soft tyres from the mediums, was still under 10 seconds ahead of Nissany – the virtual race leader.
Drama erupted on lap 21 as Nissany crashed out of the race just outside the pit lane entry. It was seen that Nissany had gone wide on the exit of the final corner and hit the gravel trap which pushed the Israeli driver onto the grass before he collected the barrier. Due to the incident being so close to the pit lane, the entry road was then closed.
The Virtual Safety Car was soon deployed. On lap 25, the race was finally back underway.
Following the incident from Nissany, this then promoted Pourchaire to the net race lead once the drivers – on the same set of mediums they started on – pitted. At the end of the restart lap, Lawson made a gamble and pitted for his fresh set of super-soft tyres.
Armstrong had a poor stop when he pitted for his set of super-softs, as the mechanics struggled to fit his rear-right tyre. As he regained temperature into his tyres, he stopped falling down the grid when he reached P16 – well outside the points.
For the second time today, the VSC was brought out as Lawson was found inbetween sector two and three with significant damage as he collected the barrier on the exit of turn 13. While, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Amaury CordeelĀ was slapped with a 10-second stop/go penalty after being given multiple penalties for track limits.
Due to the late nature of the crash the race had finished under the safety car as Pourchaire cruised to victory ahead of Fittipaldi and Boschung, who were second and third respectively.
Thatās it for the article: F2 Emilia-Romagna Feature Race: Theo Pourchaire wins after late drama! What was your favourite moment from the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read moreĀ Formula TwoĀ here:
- F2 Spain test: Day one in Barcelona
- F2 Saudi Arabia: Felipe Drugovich wins in uninterrupted feature race
- F2 Saudi Arabia: Liam Lawson wins in crash-filled sprint race
- F2 2022 Bahrain Feature Race: Theo Pourchaire wins after pitlane drama
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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.