Logan Sargeant only lost the lead when he stopped to change tires, but soon retook first place in England and never left it again. Felipe Drugovich passed Frederik Vesti on the last lap and finished fourth
Logan Sargeant dominated race 2 of the British round of F2, held this Sunday (3). The Carlin driver held the lead at the start and only lost the first position when he stopped to make the mandatory tire change, but returned when the places were realigned on the track and never left it.
It was the American's first victory in Formula 2. Théo Pourchaire, who had a great start, finished second, further narrowing the gap to Felipe Drugovich in the standings. Liam Lawson completed the podium in third.
Drugovich finished fourth, gaining the position from Frederik Vesti on the last lap. Jüri Vips was sixth, followed by Jehan Daruvala and Marcus Armstrong. Jack Doohan and Jake Huges rounded out the top-10. Enzo Fittipaldi was right behind in 11th with Charouz.
The images on the grid showed that the leaders would start the first stint on soft tires, so the tactic was clear: open the advantage as much as possible to ensure the position at the time of the pit stops.
Lined up third, Drugovich succumbed to the aggressive attack from Pourchaire, Liam Lawson, and Ayumu Iwasa and dropped to fifth. Vesti also started badly and completed the first corner only sixth, after being second fastest in qualifying. Meanwhile, in the middle of the pack, Enzo Fittipaldi gained two positions and was just behind in seventh.
On the second lap, the safety car came into action. Roy Nissany ran off the track and came back to attack Dennis Hauger, who was thrown off the track. But the Prema representative got back on track with a damaged car and took off, stopping right on top of Nissany. Once again, the halo proved to be an indispensable item in today's racing.
The restart came on lap 6 without any problems, with Sargeant holding the lead, followed by Pourchaire, Lawson, Iwasa, and Drugovich. Four turns later, the first pit-stop window began, and Vesti, Fittipaldi, Armstrong, and Cem Bölükbasi were the first to go into the pits to change tires. On the next lap, the front group started to stop, led first by Lawson and Iwasa, and then the leaders Sargeant and Pourchaire. Drugovich remained on track, and on lap 12 was the virtual leader.
In the next round, however, the PM radioed the Brazilian that it was time to stop, and he did so. The team's work was not the best, with Drugovich returning to the track behind Vesti, but Iwasa's pit-stop problem allowed the Brazilian to maintain, in theory, fifth place.
Meanwhile, the drivers who had opted for the hard tires were leading the race. Jüri Vips was in the lead, followed by Daruvala, Doohan, Jake Huges, Marino Sato, and Calan Williams. Sargeant was immediately seventh, but virtually first when the others stopped.
On lap 23, the pit stops finally began for those who had started on hard tires. Vips was the first to go into the pits, but Hitech's work was very poor and he returned only 12th. Daruvala was next, with Sato and Williams also coming in on the same lap. Drugovich was already seventh.
Doohan, winner of the sprint race, entered the pits on lap 24, but lost a lot of time due to a problem when putting on the left rear tire and returned 12th, losing all the advantage built with the strategy of delaying the stop.
With four laps to go, and the field realigned, Sargeant was back in the lead, but was being attacked by Pourchaire, who was less than a second behind. Lawson, just behind, made a mistake and allowed Vesti to get closer, and Vesti put pressure on the Carlin driver to fight for the podium.
But Drugovich was also in the fight, and on the final lap he managed to overtake the ART driver and finished fourth.