F2 Saudi Arabia: Lawson wins ahead of Vips in chaotic sprint race

The Carlin driver overtook Jake Hughes on the start/finish straight with just two laps remaining to take his second victory in the series. 

Juri Vips snatched second place from Hughes at the last second, crossing the finish line just a tenth ahead of the Briton after a last lap battle following a virtual safety car. 

Dennis Hauger had started on pole, but a bizarre incident involving race control under the first safety car saw him fall back to P12 before he was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty.  

The incident handed the lead to Calan Williams (Trident), who ran in front until the end of the second safety car, when he was passed by Hughes, before Lawson also made his way past at Turn 4. Vips also overtook Williams before snatching second from Hughes. 

Felipe Drugovich took fourth place, passing Williams as the virtual safety car ended, with the Australian in P5. 

The race was much interrupted, with the safety car out on track for the first time after Amaury Cordeel went into the wall at Turn 12 on the second tour. 

As the safety car period started, the drivers were instructed to head through the pitlane, but the call was immediately reversed with a second message from race control. But Hauger had already followed the first instruction and was subsequently handed a penalty, which was faced with confusion from his team. 

As the safety car ended on lap 7, Jack Doohan went into the back of Logan Sargeant on the main straight after a misunderstanding about whether the leader had to let the pack go racing again, prompting the safety car to return to the circuit immediately. 

Racing resumed on lap 13, with Hughes taking P1 from Williams around Turn 1. 

Much of the field was reshuffled, with Lawson passing Williams for P2, while further back Marcus Armstrong passed Vips for P5 and Richard Verschoor took P8 from Ralph Boschung. 

Heading into lap 16, Hughes led from Lawson and Williams, with Vips in fourth, before the Dutch driver passed Williams for P3 at Turn 27. 

Lawson took the fastest lap on the 17th tour, shortly before his dramatic pass on Hughes. 

The virtual safety car was activated with two laps remaining after Armstrong’s Hitech-run car ground to a halt as he ran in P6, leaving just one lap of racing before the chequered flag. 

Richard Verschoor narrowly avoided a collision with Roy Nissany after the latter locked up at Turn 4, almost ending both their races on lap 1. 

Jeddah F2 - Sprint race results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Liam Lawson	Carlin
2	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	3.100
3	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	3.200
4	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	4.800
5	Calan Williams	Trident	6.200
6	Richard Verschoor	Trident	12.100
7	Ayumu Iwasa	Nissan e.dams	13.500
8	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	14.400
9	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	15.200
10	Marino Sato	Virtuosi Racing	16.000
11	Roy Nissany	Nissan e.dams	17.300
12	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	17.400
13	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	18.700
14	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	20.200
15	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	20.500
16	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	25.400
17	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	51.400
	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP
	Logan Sargeant	Carlin
	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing
	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing
View full results