Bahrain madness opens F2 season, Trident celebrates win after six years

Together with F1 and F3, the Formula 2 season has also started. Drivers with the vision of participating among the elite of motorsport started the series, which will visit 13 tracks, at the Bahrain circuit. There are many candidates for the title, so the details will decide. As in Formula 3, the youth series returns to a two-race format. Richard Verschoor and Théo Pouchaire were the first to enjoy the season.

In the Middle East, the F2 series is already a regular feature. Like F3, the second youth series has returned to one sprint and one main race per weekend.

Unlike F3, however, the Sunday main race includes a mandatory pit stop and only the top eight are awarded points in the sprint race. In the sprint only the top ten from qualifying are also rotated (in F3 the top twelve are rotated – ed.).

Qualifying

In qualifying, a red flag appeared on the track right from the start when Japan’s Ayumu Iwasa “parked” in the gravel. After that, however, the fight for pole position was on. And it was last year’s F3 runner-up, Jack Doohan, who was best able to deal with this battle. The UNI Virtuosi driver was joined on the front row by the young Frenchman Théo Pourchaire, while the third place belonged to Estonian Vips.

Sprint race

There was no shortage of great battles and changes in the standings in the sprint race. Right from the start Felipe Drugovich dropped from the first place, but after the first corner he improved only one place from the sixth place. On the other hand, Richard Verschoor from Trident had a great start.

The Dutchman took the lead right from the start and didn’t let go until the end of the race. It was the first F2 win for Trident since 2016.

Verschoor was joined on the podium by Jehan Daruvala and Liam Lawson, who chased the Dutchman in vain. For the 21-year-old driver, it was his second career F2 win.

The main race

Sunday’s race also offered pit lane manoeuvring, which is mandatory in the main race. The strategy was complicated a little by the early exit of the Safety Car after Frederik Vesti’s retirement. But let’s start from the beginning. Jüri Vips got to the front at the first corner after a fantastic start. The Swiss Ralph Boschung also had a great start, but he subsequently fell through the start list.

The Estonian not only held on to the lead, but managed to increase it steadily. But then came a very botched pit stop for the Hitech GP team and Vips dropped back. Problems also befell the man starting from first place. Jack Doohan broke off a piece of his front spoiler just as he exited the pits and had to return to the mechanics.

After pit stops, Théo Pourchaire took the lead followed by Felipe Drugovich and Liam Lawson. Just before the end of the race, the real formulaic chaos was yet to come. The Safety Car took to the track after another incident and some drivers decided to pit. There, however, Dennis Hauger and Calan Williams suffered a bad pit stop and both ended up with only three laps to go.

Fortunately, the extremely dangerous situation was avoided without any injuries and the restart could be resumed. A one-lap sprint awaited us. Nothing changed at the front of the race there, and Pourchaire took his first win of the season after a crazy race. He was followed on the podium by Liam Lawson and Jüri Vips.

F2 continues next week in Saudi Arabia. Lawson will start as championship leader in Jeddah, but the first weekend cannot be taken as a commitment yet.

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