Novalak secures Dutch GP Feature Race as championship contenders retire

Trident Clement Novalak has secured his first win of the season as the two championship contenders, ART’s Theo Pourchaire and Prema’s Frederik Vesti, retired from the race.

How the race unfolded…

Ahead of the feature race, the rain had returned which saw a mix of tyre compounds. Ralph Boschung (Campos), Jehan Daruvala (MP Motorsport), Arthur Leclerc (Dams) and Joshua Mason (PHM) all opted for the wet tyres while the rest opted for the soft compounds. 

With a tour of the Zandvoort circuit behind the safety car. At the end of the formation lap, the race got underway with a rolling start – led by Hitech’s Zak Crawford but chaos quickly followed. 

Prema’s Frederik Vesti and Oliver Bearman had problems at the first corner. Vesti lost control of his car around the first corner and spun out on his own accord while Bearman was tagged by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa. 

Correa was later given a 10-second time penalty for the incident.

At the same time, ART’s Victor Martins skipped across the gravel to avoid Bearman who crawled through the gravel trap.    

However, at the final corner, Invicta Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan lost control of his car on the banked right-hander and spun out. The Australian could not restart the car so he allowed it to roll down the corner and off the circuit. The safety car was still deployed. 

On lap four, the race finally got back underway but it was problematic for Ayumu Iwasa (Dams) and Kush Maini (Campos) as the former outbroke himself into the opening corner. In turn, the Japanese driver was forced onto the run-off area which also forced Maini off the track.  

A 10-second time penalty was given to Iwasa for his incident with Maini. 

Those who started the race on the wet tyres, quickly pitted for the slick medium-compound tyres on lap seven. This was followed by the race leaders as Crawford pitted for the medium compounds ahead of MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger. 

Hitech’s Isack Hadjar and ART’s Theo Pourchaire soon headed into pit lane for their mandatory stop, in that order. After the stop, Pourchaire managed to jump Hadjar in the pit lane and returned to the circuit ahead of the previous race leaders. 

This was short-lived for Pourchaire as his car became unsettled through turn five, on lap 10, and the Frenchman skipped across the gravel and slammed into the barrier. As a result, a number of drivers quickly pitted as drivers cannot pit under a safety car or Virtual Safety Car at Zandvoort. 

Prema’s Bearman and Vesti were such drivers who pitted before the safety car was deployed. Vesti soon joined his championship rival in the retirement list as the Danish driver lost both rear tyres on his out-lap. This was soon noted by race control.

On lap 17 the race was resumed, led by Trident’s Clement Novalak who was ahead of Crawford and Rodin Carlin’s Zane Maloney. On the restart, Maloney successfully made a move for second place around the outside of Crawford whereas further back, Martins and Bearman fought over fifth place. 

Despite a squeeze from Bearman on Martins, at the exit of turn one, the two drivers quickly came together on the exit of turn three. Martins went for the inside line while Bearman opted for the higher line through turn three. The two finally met and made contact on the corner exit. 

With a hefty bit of contact between Martins and Bearman, it bounced the Prema driver into the barrier and the British driver looked to have significant suspension damage to his F2 machinery. The Prema driver quickly pulled back into the pit lane and retired as Martins settled into fifth place. 

This incident was quickly put under investigation by race control and Martins was later slapped with a 10-second time penalty for the collision.

As the race turned over from a lapped race to a timed one, no one was able to topple Novalak from the top spot of the race as the #21 Trident took his first race win of the season. Maloney and Crawford completed the podium in second and third respectively.

That’s it for the article: Novalak secures Dutch GP Feature Race as championship contenders retire!

Read more Formula Two here:

• F2 Belgian GP: Doohan secures feature race win from 11th on the grid
• F2 Hungary GP: Doohan dominates feature race with lights-to-flag performance
• British GP: Martins overcomes penalty to secure F2 Feature Race win
• Spanish GP: Bearman cruises to feature race victory as Martins charged to third
• Monaco GP: Vesti secures F2 feature race win as Doohan brings out red flag
• Monaco GP: Iwasa secures sprint win after Hadjar suffers problems

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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.