Drugovich in control for dominant sprint race win in Austria

FIA Formula 2 – Sprint Race RESULTS

Felipe Drugovich marked his maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship race weekend with a superbly composed victory in the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.

The Brazilian, making his debut with MP Motorsport, has been one of the standout performers this weekend after qualifying on the front row for the feature race, even if he slipped back to an eventual eighth at the chequered flag.

Nonetheless, that earned him pole for the sprint race and he made no mistake this time, holding the lead from the first turn and holding his nerve amid multiple safety cars to complete a commanding win.

The success is all the more surprising given Drugovich steps up to F2 following an anonymous campaign in F3 last year in which he managed just a single points’ finish.

In second, Louis Deletraz couldn’t quite cling onto the car ahead on the restart of three safety car periods – each called to clear broken down cars – but had enough in hand to hold off Dan Ticktum, the Briton himself landing his maiden podium for the DAMS team.

2019 F3 champion Robert Shwartzman completed a solid first weekend for Prema Racing with fourth position, ahead of Christian Lundgaard and expert defender Nobuharu Matsushita, who repeatedly held off Mick Schumacher’s attempts to pass into turn three and four to ensure a big pay day for the MP team.

Behind Schumacher – who battled to seventh from 11th on the grid – Jack Aitken picked up the final point in eighth, making the most of a late error for feature race winner Callum Ilott, who couldn’t make progress from the fourth row as he went away empty-handed this time.

Elsewhere, Marcus Armstrong was on course for a second podium of the weekend before technical issues intervened, while Guanyu Zhou – who retired from the lead in the feature race – couldn’t make up ground from the back of the grid after being sent off track in avoidance of contact between Luca Ghiotto and Jehan Daruvala.