Frederik Vesti drove from sixth to first to claim his first win of the season in the F2 Jeddah Feature Race.
The F2 Jeddah Feature Race saw a dramatic shootout between PREMA Racing driver Frederik Vesti and ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins for the win, before Martins spun out of the race. Vesti leapt up the order from sixth to first, with Jack Doohan collecting valuable points in P2 and Daruvala making it back-to-back P3 finishes.
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At Lights Out
Oliver Bearman started strong, taking the lead over Martins into turn one as Doohan slotted into third. Contact between Brad Benavides and Amaury Cordeel saw a Virtual Safety Car be deployed on the second lap, with Benavides retiring.
The Virtual Safety Car was withdrawn going into lap three. Bearman had a clean break from the pack on the restart. Doohan successfully held onto third, as Vesti closed in on the podium in fourth. Bearman sat over a second in front of the field by lap 6.
Lap 7 saw the first drivers enter the pits. Drivers Doohan, Vesti, Ayumu Iwasa, Théo Pourchaire and Kush Maini from the top ten pitted for medium tyres.
Martins had closed on Bearman prior to the pitstops and successfully overtook Bearman on lap 10. However, he was then forced to give the position back having gone beyond track limits on the pass.
Martins tried again on the following lap and made it stick, leading into the first corner with DRS. The scuffle let Vesti close in. He quickly took second off of his teammate after Bearman ran wide out of the second corner. Continuing to gain momentum with consecutive fastest laps, Vesti began to put pressure on Martins and closed to within half a second by lap 15.
Tragedy Strikes
A spin at turn 22 on lap 16 sent Bearman tumbling down to the standings behind Daruvala and Iwasa, after successfully keeping Doohan at bay for a good portion of the race.
Martins was the one to spin out moments later through turn four, triggering a Virtual Safety Car and seeing Martins’ race ended prematurely.
Arthur Leclerc led the race as the VSC ended on Lap 18, having not yet entered the pits for the compulsory stop. As he came in for his stop on lap 24, delay left him in ninth 23 seconds behind the leader, Vesti. Bearman was now struggling with flat-spotted tyres and Leclerc passed him with DRS for eighth on lap 26. Isack Hadjar sent Bearman to tenth as they entered the final lap of the race.
Vesti continued to pull away from the field after taking the lead and was the first to reach the chequered flag. The win sees PREMA get their first win since the 2022 Monza Feature Race. Doohan took second with Daruvala in P3.
Iwasa claimed fourth, successfully holding off Denis Hauger in fifth. Richard Verschoor finished sixth, Enzo Fittipaldi seventh, and Leclerc ahead of Hadjar and Bearman.
Frederik Vesti celebrated;
“Thank you to PREMA, the car was amazing. First Feature Race win this year, I’m just so proud.”
Formula 2 Championship Standings
Ralph Boschung stays in first place after today’s race with 33 points. Théo Pourchaire failed to score any points but holds onto second place overall. Ayumu Iwasa moves up to third with 31 points.
Campos Racing remain first in the Teams’ Standings on 51 points. ART Grand Prix remain second, but DAMS and MP Motorsport have closed the gap to the top two teams. DAMS sit on 44 points in third, MP in fourth with 43 points.
Image courtesy of Clive Mason/Getty Images // F2
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