Home Featured Felipe Drugovich fastest in F2 free practice in Sochi

Felipe Drugovich fastest in F2 free practice in Sochi

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Felipe Drugovich recorded the fastest lap time in Formula 2 free practice ahead of this weekend’s sixth round in Sochi.

The UNI-Virtuosi driver set a best time of 1m49.423s midway through the session and remained top despite a late off-track excursion at Turn 2.

However, Drugovich has been summoned by the stewards for failing to follow the race director’s instructions on rejoining the circuit.

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung had been the initial pacesetter and was the first driver to go below 1m51s. He continued to set fast times, and his best of 1m 49.444 was good enough for second at the flag.

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire set the third-fastest time immediately after pitting for fresh tyres, 0.05s ahead of championship contender, Guanyu Zhou in the second UNI-Virtuosi car.

A spin by Alessio Deledda necessitated a red flag with eight minutes still on the clock in order to allow the marshals to recover his stricken HWA Racelab machine.

Juri Vips was the only one of the frontrunners to improve his time in the final three minutes of green flag running, although he remained in fifth place.

Christian Lundgaard (ART GP) dropped back to end the session in eighth after topping the times early in the session.

Prema’s drivers struggled to match the fastest times, with Robert Shwartzman finishing in seventh place and championship leader, Oscar Piastri, back in 10th, 0.57s slower than Drugovich. Piastri and his team are also under an investigation for an unsafe release into the path of Lirim Zendeli.

Free practice results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Felipe Drugovich Virtuosi 1m49.423s 14
2 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1m49.444s +0.021s 15
3 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 1m49.602s +0.179s 16
4 Guanyu Zhou Virtuosi 1m49.651s +0.228s 15
5 Juri Vips Hitech GP 1m49.680s +0.257s 15
6 Bent Viscaal Trident 1m49.802s +0.379s 15
7 Robert Shwartzman Prema 1m49.839s +0.416s 16
8 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 1m49.871s +0.448s 16
9 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 1m49.929s +0.506s 15
10 Oscar Piastri Prema 1m49.991s +0.568s 15
11 Jehan Daruvala Carlin 1m50.052s +0.629s 17
12 Marcus Armstrong DAMS 1m50.122s +0.699s 14
13 Roy Nissany DAMS 1m50.127s +0.704s 14
14 Lirim Zendeli MP Motorsport 1m50.408s +0.985s 15
15 Liam Lawson Hitech GP 1m50.466s +1.043s 14
16 Guilherme Samaia Charouz Racing System 1m50.489s +1.166s 15
17 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab 1m50.610s +1.187s 16
18 David Beckmann Campos Racing 1m50.764s +1.341s 15
19 Enzo Fittipaldi Charouz Racing System 1m50.803s +1.380s 15
20 Marino Sato Trident 1m50.944s +1.521s 15
21 Dan Ticktum Carlin 1m50.992s +1.549s 15
22 Alessio Deledda HWA Racelab 1m52.531s +3.108s 12