F2 Spa: Lawson wins sprint, Drugovich charges to fourth

The Carlin driver had a great launch off the line from fifth, arriving up the inside of Turn 1 to take second, before snatching the lead from Ralph Boschung on lap two down the Kemmel straight.

He built up a 4.7s lead by lap 11, before the race was neutralised by a safety car, caused by teammate Logan Sargeant crashing out from ninth at Pouhon after he lost the rear on the exit.

Despite having expressed concerns over his tyres after just five laps, the Red Bull junior driver, who took part in Formula 1's FP1 for AlphaTauri on Friday, held off Boschung on the restart before cruising to cross the line 3.8s ahead of Jack Doohan.

Campos Racing’s Boschung, returning to F2 after three races away due to injury, secured third place for his second podium of the season.

Boschung held the lead off the line, with second-place starter Jehan Daruvala forced to pull over on the lap to the grid, leaving championship contender Theo Pourchaire to start de facto second for ART.

Despite his good start, Lawson got the better of Boschung on the second lap, with Richard Verschoor running in third having passed Pourchaire off the line.

Doohan, who started seventh for Virtuosi Racing but was up to fourth by lap two, then closed in on Verschoor, breezing past on the Kemmel straight on lap six.

Pourchaire attempted to replicate the move the following lap, with title rival Felipe Drugovich close behind him, but was forced to hold fifth place.

A lock up from Pourchaire on lap eight brought Drugovich closer, while up ahead Doohan had built a two-second lead to the trio behind.

The lap 12 safety car prompted a surprise pitstop from Drugovich and several other drivers running further back, with the Brazilian driver emerging in 12th on fresh soft tyres.

He immediately set about charging through the field, although was held up on his first tour after he was pushed wide by Juri Vips, and is under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Drugovich made it past the Hitech driver at Stavelot, before climbing three more places on the same lap, overtaking Enzo Fittipaldi (Charouz), DAMS driver Ayumu Iwasa and finally David Beckmann, ending up seventh after just one lap on the softs.

The following lap, he passed Marcus Armstrong (Hitech) at La Source for sixth, before passing Pourchaire at the chicane for fifth.

Despite passing Verschoor for fourth on the final lap, he was unable to complete his podium charge, but will start on pole for Sunday’s feature race.

Doohan snatched second from Boschung on the last lap to secure his fifth podium of the year.

Pourchaire finished in sixth, with Armstrong and Beckmann in seventh and eighth to round off the points positions.

F2 Spa Sprint race result - 18 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	Liam Lawson	Carlin	18
2	Jack Doohan	UNI-Virtuosi	18	3.800
3	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	18	5.700
4	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	18	6.300
5	Richard Verschoor	Trident	18	8.400
6	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	18	8.600
7	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	18	9.400
8	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort Racing	18	10.000
9	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	18	10.800
10	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	18	11.100
11	Roy Nissany	DAMS	18	11.600
12	Marino Sato	UNI-Virtuosi	18	14.000
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	18	15.800
14	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	18	16.300
15	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	18	16.700
16	Calan Williams	Trident	18	17.600
17	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	18	18.500
18	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	18	18.500
19	Tatiana Calderon	Charouz Racing System	18	19.000
20	Lirim Zendeli	Campos Racing	18	23.200
	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	10
	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	0
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