Barcelona F2: Drugovich reigns supreme in sprint race

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Drugovich was left frustrated following Saturday’s feature race, believing he deserved to win the race that his MP Motorsport teammate Nobuharu Matsushita won.

The Brazilian driver bounced back at the start of the sprint race, taking the lead on the run to Turn 1 from Hitech's Luca Ghiotto, who made a slow start from pole position.

Drugovich immediately built an advantage of two seconds over Ghiotto on the opening lap and this gap continued to swell as the race progressed.

He handed MP its second successive race victory with a winning margin of almost 10 seconds over Ghiotto, who picked up his first podium since winning the Hungarian sprint race.

Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher (Prema) attempted to wrestle second place from Ghiotto at Turn 1 on the first lap, but the pair touched wheels and Schumacher was passed around the outside of Turn 1 by fellow Ferrari junior Callum Ilott (Virtuosi).

Ilott pressured Ghiotto for second place, but a failed overtaking attempt at Turn 1 just past half distance was the closest he came.

Ilott was instead forced to defend the final place on the podium from Schumacher as his tyres faded.

Schumacher eased past the ailing Ilott at Turn 1 with just over five laps to go and Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin) followed Schumacher through at Turn 4 later in the lap.

Schumacher earned his fourth podium of the season in third place with Tsunoda finishing in fourth place for the second time this weekend.

Feature race victor Matsushita and Ghiotto’s teammate Nikita Mazepin further demoted Ilott to seventh place with moves on the penultimate lap.

Charouz Racing System’s Pedro Piquet claimed his first points finish of the season in seventh place, having charged from 14th on the grid.

ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard barged past Ilott in the final sector on the last lap to nick the final point and demote Ilott to ninth place at the chequered flag.

However, Ilott re-took this final point after the race when Lundgaard was issued with a five-second penalty for leaving the track whilst overtaking Ilott.

Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Robert Shwartzman was another to struggle with his tyres and was forced to make a second pitstop that left him down in 13th place at the end of the race.

Ilott’s teammate Guanyu Zhou also made an unscheduled pitstop after a huge lock-up at Turn 1 whilst defending from Mazepin late in the race. He ended up in 14th place.

F2 Barcelona sprint race - Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time
1	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport
2	25	Luca Ghiotto	HitechGP	9.500
3	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	10.900
4	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	14.900
5	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	19.900
6	24	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	23.200
7	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	24.500
8	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	29.100
9	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	29.700
10	11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	31.900
11	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	32.100
12	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	34.800
13	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	41.200
14	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	41.900
15	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	43.400
16	16	Artem Markelov	HWA AG	45.600
17	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	46.200
18	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	48.400
19	17	Giuliano Alesi	HWA AG	54.700
20	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1'09.000
21	23	Marino Sato	Trident	1'14.600
View full results