Drugovich seals first F2 victory on maiden weekend in Austria

Felipe Drugovich converted his reverse-grid pole into victory in only his second Formula 2 race at the Red Bull Ring.

The MP Motorsport driver led every single lap from start to finish, fending off challenges from Louis Deletraz and Dan Ticktum in the early stages.

It was also an incident-packed Sprint Race, beginning with the first Safety Car due to Guiliano Alesi stopping out on track with an engine failure.

When the race was back on again, Drugovich led from Deletraz, Marcus Armstrong, Ticktum, Robert Shwartzman, Christian Lundgaard, Nobuharu Matsushita, Callum Ilott, Mick Schumacher and Roy Nissany in 10th.

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Lap 8 and Luca Ghiotto was spun round by Jehan Daruvala at Turn 4, causing the Italian to retire in the gravel trap and another appearance for the Safety Car. Daruvala would be penalised five seconds for causing the collision.

Lap 14 and Armstrong slowed with losing power and coming to a halt at the bottom of the hill before Turn 3. A third Safety Car period was necessary, bunching up the pack again.

Not too much changed in the pecking order between then and the chequered flag apart from Schumacher moving up a couple of places to seventh behind Matsushita and Ilott down to ninth behind compatriot Jack Aitken. Nikita Mazepin rounded out the top ten.

Drugovich’s weekend was complete with an extra two points for the fastest lap and in third place in the Drivers’ Championship, six points behind leader Callum Ilott.

The FIA Formula 2 Championship will be back racing again at the Red Bull Ring next weekend, part of the Styrian Grand Prix weekend.