Nyck de Vries claims F2 points lead with disrupted Paul Ricard feature win

Photo: Joe Portlock / FIA F2 Championship

ART Grand Prix?s Nyck de Vries has taken the Formula 2 points lead by scoring his third victory of 2019 in the Paul Ricard feature race.

De Vries started fourth but performed an excellent start and was first exiting the first corner. Before he could pull out a gap, the race was interrupted due to a red flag for multiple incidents.

The Prema pair of Mick Schumacher and Sean Gelael had their races ended on the opening lap with Gelael misjudging his braking and causing Schumacher to get airborne.

In addition, Ralph Boschung and Nikita Mazepin had contact further around the lap. Mazepin started superbly from the back after a qualifying problem but his race was ended on the opening tour.

The red flag came after Campos?s Dorian Boccolacci came to a stop with an unidentified issue.

Once the race got going again, de Vries had to fend off Boccolacci?s team-mate Jack Aitken. The pair, running the conventional strategy of starting on softs, stopped one lap apart and while Aitken was able to pass de Vries, the former McLaren junior passed the Renault junior back almost immediately.

From there, de Vries controlled the race and covered off those on the alternate strategy, led by Virtuosi?s Luca Ghiotto.

Polesitter Sergio Sette Camara claimed second place, some 8.3 seconds behind winner de Vries, after passing Aitken late on, while Guanyu Zhou finished fourth after battling with team-mate Ghiotto late in the race.

Former championship leader Nicholas Latifi had a difficult afternoon but consolidated fifth place. He had frantic battles with Ghiotto and Juan Manuel Correa.

Ghiotto, who was complaining of steering issues after his pitstop, was running slowly on the soft tyre, and made contact with Correa that ended his race early.

Correa, also on the alternate strategy, was passed for sixth late on by MP Motorsport?s Jordan King ? returning to the series after his Indianapolis 500 run last month.

Frenchman Anthoine Hubert will start the sprint race from pole position after battling past Nobuharu Matsushita on the final lap

After starting from the pitlane following a post-qualifying penalty, Giuliano Alesi secured his first F2 point by finishing in 10th, ahead of Tatiana Calderon and Mahaveer Raghunathan ? the latter two the last classified runners.

Callum Ilott could have been on for a good result but came into contact with Matsushita when trying to pass at Le Bousset, which ended his race.

Louis Deletraz?s weekend continues to be difficult, as his car suffered problems mid-race. He did return to the race towards the end, albeit nine laps down.

Race results (30 laps)