F2 Dutch Feature: Drugovich wins after safety car restart carnage

MP Motorsport’s championship leader, Felipe Drugovich, extends his lead with a win in Zandvoort as multiple cars collided in the second safety car restart of the race.

How the race unfolded…

Drugovich had a fantastic launch to defend in the inside line, down into the opening corner, to defend Jack Doohan’s advances for the lead. Whereas the Carlin’s Logan Sargeant locked up into turn one and the American was forced to skip across the gravel trap and onto the escape road.

However, the race was neutralised before the first lap was completed as Sargeant was found in the barrier at turn seven, with a heavy impact into the techpro. It was later seen that Sargeant had made contact with the rear-left tyre of Campos’ Ralph Boschung into turn seven which bounced the American driver onto the gravel trap and into the barrier.

Fortunately, Sargeant was seen out of the car and the Carlin driver walked back to the medical car which was stationary at the side of the track. As repairs were likely to be made, race control issued the red flag to allow the track marshals to carry out the barrier repairs.

The race soon got back underway, after the brief red flag stoppage, with a rolling start. As the pack rolled around the stadium section of the Dutch circuit, Drugovich decided that was his best bet to maintain the lead as he bolted on the exit.

At the end of lap seven, both Van Amersfoort Racing’s Amuary Cordeel and Trident Calan Williams pitted to swap their fragile soft-compound tyres for the more durable, white-ringed, hard compound tyres.

Doohan almost found himself in the side of Drugovich, at the beginning of lap nine, as he locked up under high-speed towards Tarzan (turn one). Fortunately, the Virtuosi was able to regain control of his car but the lengthy lock up had caused a significant lock up on his front-left tyre.

Instructed to do the opposite of Doohan by his pit wall, Prema’s Dennis Hauger darted into the pit lane at the end of lap 10 – in a bid to undercut the second-placed Virtuosi driver in the pit lane.

Doohan finally pitted at the end of lap 12, to get rid of his damaged soft tyres for a fresh set of hard tyres. Despite the earlier stop, Hauger wasn’t able to jump Doohan when he ventured into the pit lane. The Virtuosi driver returned to the track in P11 while Dams’, 12th-placed, Ayumu Iwasa separated himself from Hauger (P13).

Virtuosi’s Marino Sato quickly brought the safety car back out as the Japanese driver found himself in the barrier at turn two. It was soon found the Virtuosi driver’s front left tyre wasn’t fitted properly when he pulled into the pit lane.

At the end of lap 21, the safety car peeled back into the pit lane but it wasn’t long before it was recalled out onto the circuit. Liam Lawson waited as long as he could before he decided to bolt away but this caught some drivers out, further back, as Doohan was rear-ended by Trident’s Richard Verschoor.

Amongst the chaos, both Charouz’s Tatiana Calderon and MP Motorsports’ Clement Novalak were caught out and suffered race-ending damage to their cars as Doohan’s spin saw him stop at the barrier, beside the pit entry line.

The race finally got back underway at the end of lap 25 as Lawson launched away into the penultimate corner. This allowed the Carlin driver to establish a healthy gap which meant he was free to race down into turn one, unchallenged.

Following the chaos at the second safety car restart, race control announced they were to investigate the incident after the session – to gather a clearer picture of what happened.

Due to the amount of time spent under the safety car, the race had been transferred to a timed race rather than the number of laps raced.

Podium:

1. Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport
2. Richard Verschoor, Trident
3. Ayumu Iwasa, Dams

That’s it for the article: F2 Dutch Feature: Drugovich wins after safety car restart carnage! What did you think of second safety car restart? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula Two here:

• Belgium GP: Doohan tyre strategy secures first feature race win
• Belgian GP: Lawson secures F2 win after early move
• F2 Hungarian GP: Pourchaire wins after Armstrong’s pit lane woes
• F2 Hungarian GP: Doohan dominates sprint after early blunder
• F2 French GP: Iwasa commands France feature race

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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.

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.