Spa F2: Sette Camara wins after huge Matsushita crash

Luca Ghiotto completed the podium ahead of Arden International’s Norman Nato.

Championship leaders Charles Leclerc and Oliver Rowland charged back to fifth and eighth, with both scoring points after being excluded from the feature race for technical infringements.

At the start, Sette Camara shot off the line to jump from third to first, demoting polesitter Nato, who was then challenged by De Vries and eventually lost second to the Dutch driver on the run to Les Combe.

In the pack behind, Rowland made a bold move to get past Nabil Jeffri the first time through Eau Rouge as he battled his way up to 14th from last on the grid on the opening lap, with Leclerc just one place behind.

The Monegasque driver then pulled off his own stunning move going up Eau Rouge – getting by Nobuharu Matsushita in breath-taking fashion on lap two of 18 – before then getting ahead of Rowland as they raced along the Kemmel Straight.

Up front, Sette Camara gradually eeked out a gap over De Vries, as they moved clear of Nato in third.

Leclerc continued his charge with moves on Robert Visoiu at the outside of the Fagnes chicane and Louis Deletraz at Les Combes.

He caught up to the points paying positions and passed his teammate Antonio Fuoco – who had made a sensational move on Artem Markelov around the outside of Blanchimont – as the Italian lost out to both Leclerc the DRS-aided Russian Time driver on the Kemmel Straight.

Leclerc then dispatched promoted Race 1winner Markelov – who reported an engine problem soon afterwards and failed to finish – and then challenged former F1-racer Roberto Merhi.

He tried a move around the outside of Les Combes but went wide, with Merhi following him off track and taking the place back.

That incident was investigated with no penalties were handed out, but Leclerc did pass Rapax’s Merhi on the run up the Kemmel Staight one lap later.

Shortly after Luca Ghiotto overtook Nato for third using DRS on the approach to Les Combes on lap 15, the race was suspended when Matsushita crashed heavily at the top of Eau Rouge.

The ART Grand Prix driver lost control following Gustav Malja through the famous high-speed sequence and smashed sideways into the barrier – although he was able to quickly climb out of the car.

The safety car was deployed as Matsushita’s car was recovered and the race finished under its authority, which sealed Sette Camara’s first F2 win.

Merhi ended up sixth ahead of Fuoco, with Rowland claiming the final place after making his own exciting 12-place charge through the pack that featured attacking moves on Santino Ferrucci – 10th at the end – and Malja.

Nicholas Latifi, who also started at the back after suffering an engine problem ahead of the feature race, made similar progress through the pack to finish ninth, just outside of the points.

Race results

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	14	Sergio Sette Camara	MP Motorsport	18	-
2	3	Nyck de Vries	Racing Engineering	18	0.6
3	5	Luca Ghiotto	RUSSIAN TIME	18	2.4
4	20	Norman Nato	Arden International	18	3.1
5	1	Charles Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	18	3.8
6	19	Roberto Merhi	Rapax	18	4.8
7	2	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Powerteam	18	5.4
8	9	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	18	5.8
9	10	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	18	6.6
10	17	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	18	9.2
11	4	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	18	9.6
12	18	Louis Deletraz	Rapax	18	10.5
13	11	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	18	10.8
14	15	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	18	11.0
15	16	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	18	12.0
16	12	Robert Visoiu	Campos Racing	18	13.7
17	21	Sean Gelael	Arden International	18	14.1
18	8	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	18	17.5
Ret	7	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	14	4 laps
Ret	6	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	12	6 laps