Armstrong wins short F2 race in Austria

Marcus Armstrong converted first place on the partially inverted grid into victory in the short Formula 2 race in Austria.

Marcus Armstrong converted his first place on the partially inverted grid into victory in the short Formula 2 race in Austria.

Armstrong got off to a good start and kept ahead of Theo Pourchaire, driving his rival out of his DRS zone on lap five when he opened up a gap of more than a second.

On lap 13, Liam Lawson stopped on the outside of turn 3 and caused a virtual safety car period. He was able to restart his car and slowly returned to the pits.

The last few laps were marked by a large number of track limit warnings throughout the pack.

Pourchaire was cautioned on the 15th pass, when he was second and a half behind Armstrong and with Jack Doohan closing in.

Armstrong received two cautions, the first on lap 17 for turn 1 and the second on lap 22 for turn 10. Porchaire got another caution on lap 21.

Roberto Merhi took a five-second penalty for the same infraction, while it was confirmed that Pourchaire will be investigated after the race - which allowed him to take the podium in second.

Armstrong received the checkered flag with no further cautions, followed by Pourchaire and Doohan.

Felipe Drugovich came in fourth and maintained his lead in the championship, losing only three points to Pourchaire.

Race standings:

Pos.NO.Driver
17Marcus Armstrong
210Theo Pourchaire
33Jack Doohan
411Felipe Drugovich
58Juri Vips
620Richard Verschoor
76Logan Sargeant
817Ayumu Iwasa
922Enzo Fittipaldi
101Dennis Hauger
112Jehan Daruvala
129Frederik Vesti
1316Roy Nissany
1421Calan Williams
1512Clement Novalak
1625Amaury Cordeel
1724Jake Hughes
1814Olli Caldwell
1915Roberto Mehri
2023Cem Bolukbasi
215Liam Lawson
22Marino Sato