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Richard Verschoor took a lights to flag victory as the MP Motorsport’s driver to his first-ever victory in Formula 2. Marcus Armstrong and Dan Ticktum started second and third and finished there as they rounded out the podium places.
Oscar Piastri finished fourth as he was able to overtake Liam Lawson for that position with the New Zealander ending up in fifth.
Lawson’s teammate, Juri Vips, crossed the line in sixth with Felipe Drugovich and David Beckmann in seventh and eighth as they rounded out the points-paying positions.
Starting Grid
Richard Verschoor made several overtakes on his way to finishing the first Sprint Race in 10th which handed him reverse grid pole position for Sprint Race Two.
The Dutchman lined up on the front row alongside DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong who was able to finish ninth and claim second place for the race start.
Dan Ticktum and Liam Lawson started on the second row from third and fourth ahead of Championship leader Oscar Piastri in fifth. Theo Pourchaire lined up alongside the Australian in sixth, Felipe Drugovich in seventh, Christian Lundgaard in eighth, Juri Vips in ninth and race one winner, Robert Shwartzman lined up in 10th.
Verschoor’s teammate, Lirim Zendeli, narrowly missed out on reverse grid pole as he starts from 11th ahead of Jehan Daruvala in 12th, David Beckmann in 13th, Ralph Boschung in 14th, Matteo Nannini in 15th, Bent Visccal in 16th and Jack Aitken in 17th.
Marino Sato, Guilherme Samaia, Alessio Deledda, Roy Nissany and Guanyu Zhou all failed to finish the first race of the weekend with the five drivers starting from the back of the field in 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively.
As It Happened
Verschoor was able to get a very good launch from pole position as the Dutchman kept the lead into turn one ahead of Armstrong and Ticktum in second and third.
Behind the leading trio, Piastri and Lawson battled for fourth but it was the Hitech driver that held onto the position and displayed his fantastic defensive abilities to retain his position.
The Safety Car was released not long after as Boschung and Deledda collided with each other which resulted in the pair retiring from the race.
Beckmann was the driver who made up the most positions with the Charouz man up five places moving from 13th to eighth with Pourchaire losing the most places as the Frenchman dropped five places falling from sixth to 11th.
The green flags were waved once more as Verschoor led the drivers over the start/finish straight and into turn one.
Zhou moved up to 16th after starting from the back of the grid. The Chinese driver made the move on Samaia as he looked to redeem himself after a woeful first race.
Not long after, the Safety Car was out again as Daruvala and Viscaal collided with each other. The former was able to continue and pit for a new front wing as the latter was beached in the gravel trap and retired from the race.
In all the melee, Zhou improved up to 13th as the UNI-Virtuosi man set his sights firmly on a points finish after failing to score points in his last three races.
Daruvala was awarded a 10-second time penalty for his collision with Viscaal as the Carlin driver ran plum last with his torrid luck continuing.
Another restart and another good getaway for Verschoor as he controlled the restart and lead the drivers out the start/finish straight once more.
At the halfway point it was Verschoor who had the lead of the race ahead of Armstrong and Ticktum in second and third. Lawson followed in fourth with Piastri closely behind in fifth, Vips in sixth, Drugovich in seventh, Beckmann in eighth, Shwartzman in ninth and Zendeli in 10th.
Zhou, Aitken and Nissany all made up positions as they got ahead of Campos’ Nannini with the Italian dropping down to 15th.
Aitken and Nissany then battled for 13th place with the DAMS driver winning that battle as he looked to chase after UNI-Virtuosi’s Zhou.
The HWA Racelab would drop to plum lost only a matter of laps later as a spin near the end of lap 16 would cost him several positions.
Piastri was finally able to settle the battle for fourth as the Australian made the move on Lawson into Brooklands to claim the position.
In the latter stages of the race, Vips and Drugovich battled for sixth as the Brazillian looked to move up a position, but the Estonian defended well to hold onto the place.
On the last lap, Shwartzman jumped onto the kerb as he looked to get into the points but instead was sent spinning as he fell down the order.
It was Verschoor, who led from start to finish, to claim his first win in Formula 2 ahead of Armstrong in second and Ticktum in third.
What’s Next?
Oscar Piastri will start from pole position for Sunday’s Feature Race after he qualified first. Alongside him will be UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who will look to make amends after not scoring any points this weekend so far, with race two winner, Richard Verschoor behind the front duo in third.
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