Photo: Red Bull
Arvid Lindblad became the youngest ever Formula 2 race winner as he picked up victory in the Saudi Arabia sprint race.
The 17-year-old Campos Racing driver finished second on track, but a five-second penalty for Richard Verschoor promoted him to the top step of the podium. Team-mate Pepe Marti followed him across the line to take second.
The incident that cost Verschoor the victory came early in the race. He held the race lead through an early virtual safety car, but Marti found a way past on the restart. Verschoor fought back and reclaimed the position at the same corner, but forced Marti wide as he did so.
The incident was noted at the time but it wasn’t until the penultimate lap that news of a five-second penalty came through.
Since retaking the lead, Verschoor had enjoyed an incident free race. He pulled away from the rest of the field and was comfortably ahead of Lindblad, who had taken second after a wide moment for Marti. But a safety car in the closing laps bunched up the field again.
Jak Crawford had gradually been working his way forward from 10th on the grid to be battling Gabriele Mini for sixth. Crawford locked up on entry to turn one and couldn’t get the car slowed in time, making contact with the Prema driver and spinning, coming to a stop on track.
Lindblad couldn’t stay with Verschoor on the restart, but it wouldn’t matter as Verschoor couldn’t pull out a five second advantage in only four laps of green flag running. The penalty dropped Verschoor back to fourth, behind Lindblad, Marti and Alex Dunne.
Roman Stanek finished fifth after a race-long battle with Mini. Mini briefly moved up to third ahead of Marti, but slipped back again into a fight with Stanek. The fighting allowed Dunne to close onto their tail and the trio ran three wide at one point. Dunne came out of the overtake on top and quickly pulled away.
Mini and Stanek swapped positions multiple times, but Stanek managed to get ahead leaving Mini vulnerable to Crawford behind.
Despite contact with Crawford, Mini held on to sixth just 0.04s ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli. Victor Martins, Luke Browning, and Kush Maini completed the top 10.
Race results (20 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | 38m16.059s |
| 2 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | +0.578s |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport | +2.087s |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +3.492s |
| 5 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | +3.532s |
| 6 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | +4.254s |
| 7 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | +4.403s |
| 8 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +5.601s |
| 9 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | +6.185s |
| 10 | Kush Maini | DAMS | +6.672s |
| 11 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | +7.361s |
| 12 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | +7.556s |
| 13 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | +8.244s |
| 14 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin Motorsport | +9.203s |
| 15 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | +10.463s |
| 16 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | +11.113s |
| 17 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | +12.226s |
| 18 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | +13.923s |
| 19 | Max Esterson | Trident | +15.553s |
| 20 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing | +26.266s |
| Ret | Jak Crawford | DAMS | |
| Ret | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Verschoor, 1m46.313s
Championship standings |
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