F2 Saudi Arabia: Iwasa endures chaotic race for win as Pourchaire crashes

The DAMS driver lined up fourth, snatching second place off the line before securing the lead from fellow Red Bull junior Jak Crawford on lap two.

He held the lead until the end, fending off challenges from Ralph Boschung, Jehan Daruvala and Victor Martins to take his third series win.

Martins put in an astonishing drive for ART to finish second, having lined up 10th as he starts on pole for Sunday’s feature race, while Daruvala settled for third.

With the whole field running the medium tyres, a brilliant start from Iwasa saw him jump Kush Maini and Campos team-mate Boschung off the line.

Martins was already up into seventh after the first few corners, as he tussled with former F3 rival Ollie Bearman, who in turn sent Jack Doohan wide at Turn 1.

Iwasa took the lead from Crawford despite a shortened DRS zone down to Turn 1 on the second tour, and before the first safety car was prompted by a spinning Zane Maloney, whose Rodin Carlin car came to a stop on track at Turn 2.

Racing resumed on lap five, with Boschung taking second from Crawford at Turn 2 as both Bearman and Daruvala gained places. Further back, Martins took sixth from Maini at Turn 13, with team-mate Pourchaire also passing the Campos rookie.

But the Alfa Romeo F1 reserve driver ended both his and Bearman’s races on lap seven while attempting to pass Martins down to Turn 1, outbraking himself and crashing into the side of the Prema.

Victor Martins, ART Grand Prix (Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd)

This prompted another safety car, taking the field through the pitlane as the stricken ART and Prema cars were recovered, with Pourchaire approaching Bearman to apologise for the incident.

The action resumed on lap 10, with Martins taking fourth from Crawford at Turn 1 as he continued his charge through the field.

Daruvala made it past Boschung into second the following lap at Turn 27, with a fierce battle ensuing, the pair trading places several times before the Indian driver emerged in front.

Martins then made it past the Swiss driver for third before setting about the leading pair.

Daruvala briefly took the lead from Iwasa on lap 15 but ran wide and let the Japanese driver back through, allowing Martins to close in.

The rookie then took second three laps from the end, and despite closing in on the leader, had to settle for second but clear of Daruvala.

Boschung finished fourth for Campos, with Maini in fifth and Frederik Vesti in sixth for Prema, while Doohan and Dennis Hauger rounded off the points paying positions.

F2 Saudi Arabia - Sprint race results - 20 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Gap	Interval
1	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS
2	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	0.700	0.700
3	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	1.100	0.400
4	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1.900	0.800
5	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	2.500	0.600
6	Frederik Vesti	Prema Powerteam	2.900	0.400
7	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	3.300	0.400
8	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	4.500	1.200
9	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	4.500	0.000
10	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	6.400	1.900
11	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	6.800	0.400
12	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	7.600	0.800
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	8.300	0.700
14	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	13.100	4.800
15	Clement Novalak	Trident	13.700	0.600
16	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	13.700	0.000
17	Roman Staněk	Trident	14.200	0.500
18	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	20.500	6.300
19	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	35.400	14.900
	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam
	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix
	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin
View full results