Felipe Drugovich closed the F2 weekend in Spain with two wins on his account. The Brazilian started the race from 10th place, climbed the pack and crossed the finish line more than 5s ahead of the second place, Jack Doohan
Felipe Drugovich was the big name of the F2 weekend in Spain. After winning the sprint race, the pilot dictated the pace this Sunday (22) at the Barcelona circuit, made a great recovery race after starting only in tenth and crossed the finish line once again in first place. The Brazilian still had to accelerate in the final stretch, since he was under investigation for an irregular pit-stop entry that could cause a 5s punishment to his time.
Pole-position Jack Doohan was second, followed by Frederik Vesti, completing the podium. The top-10 also included Logan Sargeant, Clément Novalak, Enzo Fittipaldi - in a solid 6th place after starting from 11th on the grid - Marcus Armstrong, Théo Pourchaire, Liam Lawson, and Roy Nissany.
It was up to F2 to prepare the ground - more precisely the track, by rubberizing it - for Formula 1. The thermometers read 28 degrees, but the asphalt temperature reached 40 degrees, setting the tone for what the drivers would have to face: a lot of heat and the challenge of taking good care of the tires so as not to compromise their performance.
Cars lined up, lights out, the drivers set off for the 37 laps of the Spanish stage. Doohan kept the lead, while Vesti, in third, started better than Vips and took the second position. The ART driver threatened to take the lead before the first corner, but the Virtuosi driver defended well.
Tenth on the grid, Drugovich was on the outside and managed to jump to a good seventh place, ahead of Pourchaire, his main rival in the fight for the title. Enzo Fittipaldi gained a position, taking 10th place.
The start was smooth, but before the drivers completed the first lap, Dennis Hauger and Olli Caldwell tangled and fell to the last positions.
First lap completed, the order of the top ten was as follows: Doohan, Vesti, Vips, Sargeant, Jehan Daruvala, Ayumu Iwasa, Drugovich, Pourchaire, Calan Williams, and Hughes.
In fifth place, Daruvala was holding the field because he had started on hard tires. On lap 4, however, he had a loss of power and was hit by Iwasa. The Prema driver was left stranded on the track and caused the safety car to come on.
At the restart, Drugovich - who inherited a position with Daruvala's problem - jumped to fifth and began his hunt. First, he began to pressure Sargeant for fourth place.
On lap 8, the drivers who had started on soft tires began their stops. First on the list was Vips, who went in and put on the hard compounds. A problem changing the left front, however, jeopardized the driver's chances of fighting for the win.
Liam Lawson also stopped next, with the same strategy of doing a long stint with the harder rubber on the abrasive Barcelona circuit. Porchaire also followed suit, returning 14th. Meanwhile, Drugovich was already third.
In turn 11 it was Vesti's turn to stop, leaving the Brazilian second, behind Doohan. But on the next lap, the leader came to make his stop, while Drugovich remained on the track.
At this point, the lap times showed that the best thing for the Brazilian MP, equipped with the soft compounds, was to stay on track. Turning around 1min34s, the Brazilian was faster than the main opponents already on hard tires, who turned in 1min35s.
Fittipaldi was second, with an inverse strategy. On hard tires, the Brazilian from Charouz remained on track, but 15s7 behind his fellow countryman.
The dispute, however, was between Drugovich and Doohan. On lap 15, the computer showed that the MP representative was 0s3s faster than Doohan, even without stopping. The care with the tires was having an effect and allowing Felipe to enter the fight for the victory.
On lap 17, Fittipaldi finally had to stop, and he momentarily took the lead. But the Brazilian from MP lost time, which cost Doohan and Vesti positions.
Drugovich returned to the track in ninth, but determined to take the difference in the arm. And the climb to the top started on lap 20, with the driver overtaking two cars at once and jumping to seventh. In the meantime, Novalak was overtaking Fittipaldi, who was starting to show a drop in performance due to the wear on his tires.
In the 21st round, the information came to light that Drugovich's pit-stop was under investigation. The reason: he had crossed the white line at the entrance. An eventual punishment could result in an extra 5s in the Brazilian's final time.
On the track, still unaware of the investigation, Drugovich continued determined to chase Doohan, leaving Caldwell behind and taking fourth place. The next victim was Nissany, who offered no resistance.
The gap to Doohan was already 1s7. Armstrong - who had not stopped and was leading until then - was quickly overtaken by both the Virtuosi driver and the Brazilian. From then on, it was Drugovich x Doohan, and judging by the lap times, the Brazilian became the favorite.
Drugovich needed only one lap to be in a position to open the wing. On lap 27 he put the car on its side and closed lap 1 in the lead.
With a very strong pace, the Brazilian was finally warned that he was under investigation for pit-stop irregularities. In response, he only said "okay", but he knew exactly what to do: he had ten laps to open a lead of more than 5seconds and not risk losing the victory. And so he did.
GRANDE PRÊMIO has Eric Calduch on location to cover the action of the category at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and follows everythingLIVE and in REAL TIME. On Sunday, the start of F1 is scheduled for 10 AM [Brasilia, GMT-3]. Before that, however, F2 will start at 6:35 AM.