Liam Lawson claimed victory and took his third podium finish of the season in Saturday’s chaotic FIA Formula 2 sprint race.
After Jack Doohan was disqualified from qualifying, PREMA’s Dennis Hauger started the race on pole and maintained the lead after a clean start to the race.
The clean start didn’t last too long as just 2 laps into the race, Amaury Coordeel collided with the wall after losing control of his car. The safety car was deployed and he was quickly out, though it wasn’t until lap 6 when all resumed.
In true Saudi Arabian fashion, it didn’t take long for the safety car to make a comeback as there was another incident during the rolling start. Jack Doohan was mistaken in thinking the action had resumed at the front – in a very similar incident to F1’s 2020 Tuscan GP – the Aussie ran into the back of Williams Academy driver Logan Sargeant, leaving them both out of the race.
Whilst the debris from Doohan and Sargeant was attended to, a bizarre incident under the safety car lead leading car Hauger to go through the pit lane – he was the only one to do so – and re-join the pack in 12th. The PREMA driver was then handed a further 10 second stop-and-go penalty for entering the pit lane when it was closed.
When the safety car returned to the pits on lap 14, Hauger served his penalty and rejoined at the back of the pack, allowing Trident’s Calan Williams to take the lead. Williams’ defensive efforts didn’t prove too fruitful as by turn 4, Van Amersfoort’s Jake Hughes saw an opportunity and took P1 for himself, soon followed by Lawson.
The action didn’t end there as Hitech’s Juri Vips scored a double overtake of Armstrong and Iwasa followed by a move on Williams, which took him from 6th to the final podium place.
With just two laps remaining, Marcus Amstrong’s Hitech ground to a halt leaving one racing lap after the safety car. Lawson remained comfortably in the lead after the restart, but there was a chase right down to the line for P2 which fell to Juri Vips, leaving Hughes to settle for P3.
In a well deserved win, Lawson scored his third consecutive podium of the season. In fact, the kiwi is yet to leave the podium having come 3rd in Bahrain sprint race, 2nd in Bahrain feature race and 1st in the Saudi Arabian sprint race. Will the success continue in Sunday’s feature race? Time will tell.
Post-Race Penalties
It was a truly chaotic race, but the drama didn’t end there as post-race decisions caused the final result to shift massively.
After a well fought race, Jake Hughes was disqualified from the race result due to a technical conformity. Jeddah would have marked a maiden podium for both Hughes and his team Van Amersfoort however his car’s skid plank was found to not meet the required thickness. MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich was therefore promoted to P3 after his P4 race finish.
Ralph Boschung was found to have been in front of his starting grid position before the lights went out. Because of this he received a 20 second time penalty, dropping him from P8 to P15.
Following his disqualification from qualifying, this weekend will be one to forget as Jack Doohan was given a further penalty. Due to his collision with Sargeant during the rolling start, Doohan was given a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s feature race – a race he is already starting from last place.
Final Classification
The F2 feature race begins Sunday at 2:35pm, follow us on all socials (@JoinEF1) to stay updated.