F2 Saudi Arabia: Drugovich takes dominant win from Verschoor

The MP Motorsport driver, who started on pole, resisted a challenge from Richard Verschoor at the start before breaking clear of DRS in the early stages.

Having started on the soft tyres, a smooth pitstop on lap nine to switch to Pirelli’s medium compound returned him to the track in 14th and retaining the net race lead.

Though a rapid Verschoor looked to be closing in on the last laps, the Brazilian held on to take his fourth series victory.

Verschoor, driving for Trident, sealed second place, where he started, with Jehan Daruvala’s incredible charge from 14th securing him the third podium place for Prema Racing.

Jake Hughes, who was stripped of his sprint race podium on Saturday after stewards found a “technical non-conformity” on his car, took fourth place for Van Amersfoort Racing after a dive past Armstrong round the final corner on lap 24.

Start action

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Despite the chaos of Saturday’s sprint race, the feature race ran largely without incident.

There was a brief yellow flag on lap seven, as Theo Pourchaire lost gears on his ART, but was able to coax it back to the pits to retire. A last-lap yellow flag also came courtesy of a spin from Frederik Vesti at Turn 1, but did not interrupt running for most of the field.

Heartbreak came for sprint race winner Liam Lawson when he pitted from fourth, with a loose wheel ending his race.

Daruvala took seventh from Marcus Armstrong on lap 18, giving him net third place, with the Hitech driver struggling after an early pit stop and eventually finishing fifth.

Dennis Hauger led part of the race on his alternate strategy for Prema, staying out in front while the rest of the pack pitted.

He eventually stopped on lap 23 for the soft tyre, taking sixth place despite a huge lock up coming out of the pits.

Hauger had looked set to win Saturday’s sprint before a bizarre incident involving race control which left him in 12th place.

Jack Doohan, who was stripped of his third-place start after the team was unable to supply enough fuel from his car following qualifying, was forced to start at the back. But a long first stint, pitting on lap 24 for the soft tyres, allowed him to take ninth place, as well as the extra point for the fastest lap.

Charouz Racing driver Cem Bolukbasi was ruled out of the race after suffering a concussion during Friday’s practice session, while significant damage caused to Amaury Cordeel’s Van Amersfoort Racing-run car in a sprint race crash meant he was unable to participate.

F2 Saudi Arabia - Feature race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	11	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport
2	20	Richard Verschoor	Trident	2.300
3	2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	15.300
4	24	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	19.100
5	7	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	20.500
6	1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	21.000
7	17	Ayumu Iwasa	Nissan e.dams	27.100
8	16	Roy Nissany	Nissan e.dams	28.400
9	3	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing	28.800
10	8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	32.100
11	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	32.600
12	6	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	37.600
13	21	Calan Williams	Trident	38.200
14	12	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	42.300
15	15	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	47.600
16	14	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	48.700
17	4	Marino Sato	Virtuosi Racing	50.300
	9	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix
	5	Liam Lawson	Carlin
	10	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1 Lap
View full results