Barcelona F2: Leclerc fends off Ghiotto to win again
Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Charles Leclerc claimed his first Formula 2 feature race win after a safety car disrupted event at Barcelona.
Photo by: FIA Formula 2
Leclerc beat Luca Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland to extend his championship points lead for Prema Racing.
At the start, Leclerc defended hard against the Russian Time car of Ghiotto but held the lead on the run down to the first corner.
Ghiotto dived down the inside of Leclerc at Turn 4, briefly gaining the lead before locking up and sliding wide, which allowed the Monegasque driver to reclaim first place.
Leclerc then built up a slender 0.9-second advantage over Ghiotto, who lost second to Alexander Albon when the Thai racer dived up the inside at Turn 1 at the start of the fourth lap.
The battle at the front settled down as Leclerc continued to extend his advantage, which was up to 2.1s when he came into switch to the hard tyres at the end of the seventh tour of the 37-lap race.
Ghiotto followed him in two laps later, which left Albon, DAMS’ Oliver Rowland and Rapax driver Nyck de Vries at the front on lap nine.
It's then that Sergio Canamasas triggered the virtual safety car when his Trident GP2/11 car stopped on track at the approach to Turn 7. The VSC soon became a full-on safety car as the marshals who attended the stranded Trident driver needed to tow him to safety.
The field had bunched up when the race resumed on lap 14, where Albon and Rowland – who were both yet to stop after starting on the hard rubber – leapt clear.
Leclerc was fighting down in 12th place but began quickly cutting through the field – starting with a sweeping move on Campos driver Ralph Boschung at Turn 1 on lap 17.
Back at the front, Rowland pressured Albon before moving into the lead on lap 21 after getting a better run out of Turn 5.
Rowland quickly established a gap over Albon but was only 13.5s clear of Leclerc – now up to fifth – by the time he finally came into take the soft tyres on lap 28, which dropped him to seventh.
As the final hard-shod runners came into make their stops, Leclerc eased back into the lead and went on to win by 3.7s over Ghiotto – who had shadowed the championship leader while they battled back through the pack after the safety car.
Rowland – who at times was two seconds a lap faster than Leclerc on his new tyres – charged back to third but was a distant 11.1s behind at the flag.
Nobuharu Matsushita finished fourth after mirroring Leclerc and Ghiotto’s tyre strategies but was passed by Rowland late on.
Albon came home fifth ahead of Nicholas Latifi, Gustav Malja, Artem Markelov and Jordan King, as Boschung rounded out the top ten.
Former F1 driver Roberto Merhi was the only driver besides Canamasas to fail to finish when he stopped in the pits late on.
The Spaniard had earlier picked up a puncture from Prema’s Antonio Fuoco – who also made contact with Markelov and eventually finished in P14.
Alex Kalinauckas / Autosport
Race results
Pos. | # | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Charles Leclerc | Prema Powerteam | 37 | - |
2 | 5 | Luca Ghiotto | RUSSIAN TIME | 37 | 3.7 |
3 | 9 | Oliver Rowland | DAMS | 37 | 11.1 |
4 | 7 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 37 | 14.1 |
5 | 8 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 37 | 17.3 |
6 | 10 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 37 | 23.8 |
7 | 4 | Gustav Malja | Racing Engineering | 37 | 24.7 |
8 | 6 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 37 | 25.4 |
9 | 15 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 37 | 30.9 |
10 | 11 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 37 | 38.2 |
11 | 18 | Nyck de Vries | Rapax | 37 | 43.8 |
12 | 3 | Louis Deletraz | Racing Engineering | 37 | 50.2 |
13 | 14 | Sergio Sette Camara | MP Motorsport | 37 | 55.9 |
14 | 2 | Antonio Fuoco | Prema Powerteam | 37 | 65.9 |
15 | 19 | Johnny Cecotto | Rapax | 37 | 67.7 |
16 | 21 | Sean Gelael | Arden International | 37 | 68.3 |
17 | 20 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 37 | 69.2 |
18 | 16 | Nabil Jeffri | Trident | 37 | 89.5 |
Ret | 12 | Roberto Merhi | Campos Racing | 33 | 4 laps |
Ret | 17 | Sergio Canamasas | Trident | 8 | 29 laps |
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