Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Richard Verschoor has moved to the top of the championship standings in Formula 2 after erstwhile points leader Joshua Duerksen was disqualified from the sprint race at Bahrain.
The pair had finished second and third in that encounter, putting AIX Racing driver Duerksen on 16 points and MP Motorsport’s Verschoor on 13. By taking victory, Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti sat third in the standings on 11 points.
But post-race the diffuser strake on Duerksen’s AIX Racing-run car was found be lower than the minimum height allowed by two millimetres, even after a five-millimetre tolerance was applied. The subsequent disqualification has promoted Hitech GP’s Dino Beganovic onto the podium and means Duerksen loses six points and drops to fourth in the standings.
It is the second time in Verschoor’s five-year F2 career that he has led the championship, which he first managed when he won the first race of the 2022 season.
AIX Racing driver Duerksen had won the opening sprint race of this season in Melbourne to take the points lead, and the cancellation of the feature race there meant he left with a two-point gap to Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli.
That effectively became a zero-point margin after Fornaroli provisionally earned two points for feature race pole at Bahrain by topping qualifying, but Duerksen established himself at the top again with his podium. Verschoor now leads Marti by two points, with Fornaroli in third.
Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne has retained his 19th place finish in the Bahrain sprint race following Duerksen’s disqualification, after two five-second penalties were set to drop him to 20th. The first was for breaching delta requirements during a safety car period, and the second was for making contact with ART Grand Prix’s Ritomo Miyata. He received a penalty point for both offences.