Drugovich Holds off Iwasa for Sprint Race Win in Barcelona

Felipe Drugovich took the lead of Saturday’s Sprint Race at turn one of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and never looked back on the way to his second victory of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 championship which bumps the Brazilian up into the top spot of the championship standings.

The MP Motorsport driver held off the DAMS rookie, Ayumu Iwasa, for the entirety of the race with the Red Bull junior glued to the back of him as he took the first podium of his Formula 2 career.

Drugovich was booted out of reverse grid pole due to a three-place grid penalty for impeding his championship rival Théo Pourchaire in Friday evening’s qualifying session.

This put Trident’s Calan Williams into the front spot of the grid which was the cause of early dramatics when the young Australian stalled at the start of the formation lap and was forced to start from the pit-lane..

Now starting from fourth on the grid, Drugovich benefited from the empty grid position as he powered past Jake Hughes and Pourchaire when the five lights went out to start the race. In the post race interview, Drugovich said,

“I think I was a little bit more pointed to that side so I could have a run that way but I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was just thinking to get a good start, manage the clutch well and I could do that so I’m really happy.”

Iwasa drifted in and out of DRS range as he tried to stick with Drugovich ahead of him, with Carlin’s Logan Sargeant trying to force a mistake from the young Japanese driver in third place.

The first and only Safety Car of the race was brought out on lap six after Jüri Vips found himself beached in the gravel trap on the outside of turn four. The Red Bull junior who made his Free Practice debut for Red Bull Racing on Friday afternoon tried a deep lunge on Jehan Daruvala into turn one before he lost the rear on the entry to turn four.

The Indian driver finished in fourth position ahead of ART Grand Prix‘s Pourchaire in fifth. The pole-sitter for Sunday’s Feature Race, Jack Doohan made up four positions from tenth on the grid to finish in sixth position and at the back of the leading pack of the race.

Off the back of his best qualifying result so far this season, Frederik Vesti finished in seventh place for his second points finish in a row in 2022. The Danish driver finished just ahead of Charouz Racing System’s Enzo Fittipaldi.

Carlin’s Liam Lawson and Hitech Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong rounded up the top ten finishers of the race, taking the chequered flag in ninth and tenth, respectively.

POS	NO.	NAME	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	44:12.635
2	15	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	+2.109
3	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	+4.165
4	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	+8.493
5	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	+9.251
6	5	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	+10.481
7	9	Frederik Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	+16.430
8	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	+17.256
9	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	+17.705
10	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	+18.524
11	20	Richard Verschoor	NED	Trident	+25.321
12	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	+25.997
13	14	Olli Caldwell	GBR	Campos Racing	+26.476
14	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	+29.315
15	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	+31.490
16	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	+33.781
17	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	+37.436
18	23	Cem Bölükbasi	TUR	Charouz Racing System	+53.281
19	25	Amaury Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1:05.926
20	24	Jake Hughes	GBR	Van Amersfoort Racing	+2 Laps
21	7	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	DNF

F2: Barcelona – Sprint Race Classification