Felipe Drugovich dominated the Saudi Arabian F2 feature race, taking the race win and the championship lead.
Cem Bolukbasi from Charoux racing was ruled out of the feature race as a result of his accident in Friday practice that gave him a concussion. In Saturday’s sprint race, Van Amersfoort’s Amaury Coordeel suffered a crash that caused significant damage, leaving him also unable to race.
After a chaotic Saturday sprint race, Sunday’s feature race couldn’t have been more different as it largely ran without interruption. With all laps spent under a green flag, it was the first uninterrupted session spent in Jeddah that weekend.
MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich ran a clean and dominant race. After starting on pole, he largely held onto that position, Richard Verschoor tried to get a look in, but ultimately failed as Drugovich soon pulled out clear of DRS. This is the Brazilian’s first win since 2020, and in taking the championship lead, he has confirmed his resurgence with MP Motorsport.
Tragedy struck for Theo Pourchaire and Liam Lawson, the two had been 3rd and 1st respectively in the drivers championship, but both had to DNF within a lap of each other. Sauber junior Pourchaire lost use of the car’s gears and was forced to retire in the pits, whilst Red Bull’s Lawson pitted from P4 but a loose wheel marked the end of his race. Lawson now stands P2 overall and Pourchaire P5.
Jake Hughes, who was disqualified from his P3 finish on Saturday due to a “technical non-conformity”, lead his own redemption race and took P4 after a late lunge on Marcus Armstrong.
With the alternate strategy working in his favour, last year’s F3 winner Dennis Hauger lead the race for a period. When he eventually pitted on lap 23, he dropped down the field to take P6 – his best result in F2 so far. F2 rookie Jack Doohan also took the alternate route and after starting last on the grid, made his way up to P9 and took fastest lap.
After starting P14, PREMA’s Jehan Daruvala stormed his way up to P3 and none were more surprised that the Red Bull junior himself. In the post-race press conference he was rightfully very pleased with his performance:
“It makes it even more satisfying that in a race without any incidents and Safety Cars I still managed to come from 14th to third.”
Jehan Daruvala in Press Conference
Final Classification
F2 returns on April 22nd when the championship takes to Imola. Follow us on socials (@JoinEF1) to keep up to date with all the goings on between now and then.