Verschoor bounces back to win Jeddah F2 feature race

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Richard Verschoor bounced back from his sprint race penalty to win the Formula 2 feature race in Jeddah and claim the points lead.

The MP Motorsport driver made the alternate strategy work, staying out long on his first stint to emerge in a net second place. He swept past Jak Crawford to take the race lead at the start of the final lap and held off the DAMS driver to take the win.

Verschoor started from ninth on the grid and was the leading driver on the alternate strategy. Those ahead of him started the race on supersoft tyres, while he ran mediums.

It meant Verschoor wasn’t part of the battles ahead of him in the first part of the race. Crawford held onto the lead from Victor Martins, while Leonardo Fornaroli battled with Luke Browning and Alex Dunne for third.

Most of the lead group, including Crawford, pitted on lap eight, just as an incident for John Bennett left debris scattered across the start-finish straight. Martins stayed out an extra lap and managed to emerge from the pits ahead of Crawford.

A virtual safety car to clear debris gave Martins time to warm up his tyres, but he couldn’t hold Crawford off once the track turned green again.

The net leaders were running ninth, behind those who had started on medium tyres. At the front of the group was Verschoor, who was unchallenged by Kush Maini in second. Verschoor set multiple fastest laps of the race as he extended his advantage at the front of the field.

Finally, on lap 24 of 28, Verschoor came into the pits. He didn’t quite have the gap to Crawford, but emerged in front of Victor Martins in a net second position. Martins tried to find a way past Verschoor, but the MP Motorsport driver kept him behind. He quickly broke out of DRS range of the ART Grand Prix driver and set about closing the gap to Crawford.

In the closing laps, Verschoor had closed onto the back of Crawford. Crawford attempted to defend but as they crossed the start-finish line to begin the final lap, Verschoor moved ahead.

Crawford spent the final lap trying to find a way back through, but had to settle for second behind Verschoor.

Martins picked up third ahead of Fornaroli, who enjoyed a quiet second stint.

Behind him, Pepe Marti, Browning and Dunne spent the second half of the race battling for position. The trio ran side by side multiple times over the course of the race, losing time to those ahead and those on the alternate strategy. Browning ran wide multiple times, but on at least one occasion it was through Dunne forcing him off track. The incident resulted in a five-second penalty for Dunne.

Eventually the trio stopped battling and closed the gap to those ahead, preventing any of the alternate drivers slipping ahead of them. Marti held off Browning to finish fourth, while the five-second penalty dropped Dunne to eighth, behind Arvid Lindblad. Gabriele Mini and Maini completed the top 10.

Race results (28 laps)