Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Joshua Duerksen returned to the top step of a Formula 2 podium with a commanding victory in the sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Invicta Racing driver led home Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne and DAMS driver Dino Beganovic.
It was Prema’s Sebastian Montoya who led the field away at lights out but the Colombian quickly came under pressure from Stenshorne behind.
Benefiting from the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight, the Norwegian cruised past while further back, Roman Bilinski found himself dropping out of the points from his fourth place grid slot after a torrid getaway.
Stenshorne continued to extend his lead upfront and, by lap six, moved himself over a second clear of Montoya who was having to fend off the charging Duerksen behind.
Without the benefit of DRS, Montoya was powerless as Duerksen shot around his outside heading into Le Combs.
Stenshorne’s advantage was quickly slashed though as the safety car was released after Cian Shields came to blows with Ritomo Miyata, the AIX driver finding himself beached at turn 6.
After just one lap of neutralised racing, Stenshorne led the field away with Duerksen in hot pursuit having dropped Montoya behind.
The polesitter was continuing to struggle and a lock up into turn 1 opened the door to Beganovic who cruised past heading out of Eau Rouge to snatch the final podium place away.
By lap 10, Stenshorne found himself under increasing pressure from Duerksen who had clung on to the DRS at the safety car restart and was now within half a second of the leader.
Heading into Le Combes Duerksen pulled alongside and breezed down the inside to take the lead of the sprint race with eight laps remaining.
Further back, Montoya continued to struggle, with championship leader Nikola Tsolov beginning to challenge for fourth.
The Campos driver’s good fortunes continued as his championship rival, Gabriele Mini, pulled into the pits to retire with a mechanical fault.
Not long after the safety car was required once more, John Bennett (having just been passed by Rafael Camara for eighth) spun to a stop coming out of Blanchimont and was lucky not to be collected by his teammate behind.
Three laps behind the safety car meant that once the stricken Trident was clear just one lap of racing remained with Duerksen leading Stenshorne at the restart.
All the attention was on Montoya though who was caught napping by Tsolov, the Bulgarian diving down the inside of turn 1 to claim fourth.
That move left Montoya off line and vulnerable to Alex Dunne behind who went around the outside of Eau Rouge.
Montoya’s misery continued as he ran wide at Eau Rouge which left him powerless to the charging pack behind who dropped him out of the points into ninth.
Up at the sharp end though Duerksen was able to claim his second win of the season having last won at the opening race in Melbourne. He led home Stenshorne and Beganovic with Tsolov and Dunne wrapping up the top five.