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Marcus Armstrong held off compatriot Liam Lawson to take victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with Juri Vips coming home in third.
Championship contenders Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou experienced very different fortunes. The latter tangled with Christian Lundgaard which ruined his race whilst the former finished inside the top 10 to give himself a good starting position for race two.
Starting Grid
It was an all-New Zealand front-row as Liam Lawson started on pole ahead of Marcus Armstrong in second. Juri Vips started third ahead of Ralph Boschung in fourth, Guanyu Zhou in fifth with UNI-Virtuosi teammate Felipe Drugovich in sixth.
ART locked out row four as Christian Lundgaard started seventh ahead of Theo Pourchaire in eighth, Robert Shwartzman in ninth and championship leader Oscar Piastri in 10th.
Jehan Daruvala followed in 11th with F2 debutant Clement Novalak in 12th, Dan Ticktum in 13th, Bent Viscaal in 14th, Roy Nissany in 15th, 2021 F3 runner-up Jack Doohan in 16th, Marino Sato in 17th, Enzo Fittipaldi in 18th, F3 graduate Olli Caldwell in 19th with Guilherme Samaia in 20th. The HWA Racelab duo of debutant Logan Sargeant and Alessio Deledda occupied the 11th and final row of the grid.
As It Happened
Off the line, it was a good start from Armstrong but Lawson was able to hold onto the lead. However, it didn’t take long for the DAMS driver to claim first as he moved ahead of the Hitech driver into turn four.
Further back at turn four, Sato and Samaia crashed out of the race which bought out the Safety Car.
From the restart, Lawson looked to make a move on his compatriot into turn one but decided better of it. Zhou also looked to make up positions however the Chinese driver collided with Lundgaard at turn two as he spun around and lost his front wing.
At the end of lap five, Viscaal and Ticktum battled hard. The tussle continued onto lap six as the latter took aversive action. The Brit was forced to cut the corner and hand the position back to the Trident driver two laps later into turn one.
Boschung, a driver who showed great early race pace, started to drop away from the lead group as Vips overtook the Campos driver to claim third on lap 10.
Shwartzman, Pourchaire and Lundgaard battled for sixth which saw the former run off at turn five and as a result earn a five-second penalty.
Boschung’s race went from bad to worse on lap 11 as he lost fourth to Drugovich at turn one and then conceded fifth to Shwartzman at turn 27. The Swiss driver overtook Shwartzman with DRS assist down the start/finish straight but the Prema man reclaimed the position at turn 13.
The Campos driver would lose even more positions throughout the next few laps as the ART duo of Lundgaard and Pourchaire, championship leader Piastri and Daruvala dropped Boschung down to 10th.
On lap 14, Pourchaire crashed out of the race at turn 22. The young Frenchman lost grip through the fast left-hander and spun his ART car into the wall.
Pourchaire’s stricken car bought out yet another safety car before the race got underway for three final laps.
Armstrong ran wide at turn 27 to get a good run across the line at the restart as he invited Lawson to make a move but the Hitech driver failed to do so.
Piastri looked to get past Lundgaard into turn one on the final lap but backed out of the move after the Dane squeezed him towards the pit lane.
Lawson’s last lap pace was strong however it was too little too late as Armstrong held on for his first-ever F2 victory as the New Zealander crossed the line first ahead of the Hitech duo of Lawson in second and Vips in third.
Drugovich, Shwartzman, Lundgaard, Ticktum, Piastri, Viscaal and Daruvala, after his five-second time penalty, rounded out the top 10 finishers.
Quote from the race winner
Race winner Marcus Armstrong spoke with a smile on his face after securing his first-ever victory in Formula 2.
“It feels fantastic because it’s been a tough 18 months in general so to finally get a trophy, let alone a first place one it feels good.
“Also, to see the smiles on a lot of my engineers and mechanics’ faces it’s a great reward for a lot of work that hasn’t been rewarded so far this season. I’m feeling over the world!”
What’s Next?
F2 are back in action for the second Sprint Race this evening as Bent Viscaal starts from pole position with championship leader Piastri alongside him on the front row of the grid.
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