Paul Ricard F2: Hubert leads all-rookie podium in sprint race

Hubert came under intensive pressure from Jack Aitken in the early stages but reacted to keep his fellow Renault junior at bay.

At the same time, Alfa Romeo junior Juan Manuel Correa pounced, demoting Aitken with force on lap six, which in turn allowed Hubert some breathing room to build a gap over two seconds.

On the same lap he’d been passed by Correa, another of Aitken’s fellow Renault affiliated drivers – rookie Guan Yu Zhou – made an opportunistic move at the final turn to steal a podium spot.

That sealed the top four positions, Hubert heading Correa, Zhou and Aitken. Hubert had struggled massively in practice and in qualifying, but his evergreen race pace gave him a second win in the GP3 champion's rookie F2 year.

An intense battle for fifth broke out between the DAMS drivers, which likely cost them any chance of advancing further forward as they battled each other.

McLaren junior Sergio Sette Camara looked quicker and jumped Latifi on lap 14 of 21. They then battled side by side for one lap and a half which helped Aitken build a two-second cushion. Sette Camara did close slightly, but not enough to challenge.

After a sensor issue the day before, Louis Deletraz showed searing pace to pass feature race winner Nyck de Vries for seventh, but honed in unsuccessfully on Latifi late in the race.

De Vries was passed by Callum Ilott and Nobuharu Matsushita in the closing laps, falling out of the points.

Ilott took the final point for eighth after crashing out of the feature race, ahead of Matsushita and de Vries.

Jordan King – who started third – went straight on at the first corner while defending second at the start from Aitken, and fell back through the field to take 11th.

Mick Schumacher’s run of pointless finishes was extended to six. After being clipped into an airborne crash by Prema Racing teammate Sean Gelael in Saturday’s feature race, he got a puncture in Race 2 and then pulled up at the side of the track after he pitted for new tyres.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	Anthoine Hubert	Arden International	21
2	Juan Manuel Correa	Charouz Racing System	21	2.202
3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	21	4.220
4	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	21	6.131
5	Sergio Sette Camara	DAMS	21	7.788
6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	21	10.795
7	Louis Deletraz	Carlin	21	13.122
8	Callum Ilott	Charouz Racing System	21	15.407
9	Nobuharu Matsushita	Carlin	21	16.200
10	Nyck de Vries	ART Grand Prix	21	17.688
11	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	21	21.094
12	Luca Ghiotto	UNI-Virtuosi	21	26.254
13	Dorian Boccolacci	Campos Racing	21	27.068
14	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	21	31.977
15	Ralph Boschung	Trident	21	33.601
16	Nikita Mazepin	ART Grand Prix	21	33.853
17	Sean Gelael	Prema Powerteam	21	34.431
18	Mahaveer Raghunathan	MP Motorsport	21	1'13.453
19	Tatiana Calderon	Arden International	18	3 Laps
	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	14	7 Laps
View full results