Richard Verschoor took his second Formula 2 victory of the season after a late safety car shook up the field. He, Alex Dunne and Rafael Villagómez all made recovery drives to the podium after switching to soft tyres for the final six racing laps. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

It seemed as though Verschoor had lost his shot at victory early with a slow start off the line that dropped him from his grid position of fifth to 10th in the first few corners. But a late safety car allowed him to make a winning charge from 11th to first in the final six laps. 

“This one was definitely crazy,” Verschoor said in the post–race press conference. “Beginning of the race I was just hanging on. Of course, I stalled at the start, so that was a bit of a shame. And once the safety car came out, the team did the right call. They told me very confidently to box, I followed what they told me, and in the end we had a great race… really happy to in the end be first.”

Luke Browning had a phenomenal start from third, threading the needle between Leonardo Fornaroli and Joshua Dürksen on the front row to emerge from the first corner in the lead. Jak Crawford, who also started on the second row, hung around the outside of Fornaroli at Turn 3 to steal second. 

On lap four, Crawford made another around-the-outside pass at Turn 4, briefly bumping wheels with Browning as he snatched the race lead from him. From there, the race settled into rhythm with a DRS train covering most of the field and the lead gap hovering around a second. 

At the beginning of lap 14, Verschoor attempted to pass Arvid Lindblad and nearly went off on the inside of the track on the run to Turn 1. As Lindblad attempted to make the corner, the pair made contact, sending Lindblad into a spin. The move was ruled a racing incident and neither driver was penalised.

Though both cars continued, Verschoor felt he was slower on the straights and said his MP Motorsport machine ‘was not straight anymore’. 

“We were about to box because I thought I had big damage, but then I just tried to hang on and we managed to finish first,” he said. 

The race turned on its head after Gabriele Minì attempted to pass teammate Sebastián Montoya around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 18 but made contact with him. Both drivers spun, and while Montoya got going again, Minì did not, resulting in a safety car. 

A number of drivers chose to pit during the safety car period, including Verschoor from eighth and Dunne from 10th. After the pit stops concluded, the top 10 drivers were all on the primary hard compound, while drivers from 11th-placed Verschoor downwards were on the alternate soft tyre. 

“I was right behind the crash between Gabi and Seb, and as soon as that happened I said, ‘If there’s a safety car, I think we should box.’ And then as soon as the safety car came out, I pitted straight away,” Dunne said. 

“We didn’t know the difference between the soft and the hard,” Verschoor said. “I knew it was going to be big for two, three laps, but I didn’t know it was going to be big for all the laps we did. The grip difference was just insane.”

The soft tyres proved to be the right decision. At the restart on lap 21, Verschoor, Dunne and Victor Martins quickly dispatched Oliver Goethe, Dino Beganovic, Pepe Martí and Roman Staněk, although Martins was shuffled back down the pack to outside the points after running wide exiting Turn 13. 

After having passed Miyata and Maini on lap 22, Verschoor passed Fornaroli to take third place at the beginning of lap 23. He then passed Browning for second at Turn 7 and made another move at Turn 1 on the next lap to take the lead from Crawford.

Dunne followed Verschoor into second with a move on Crawford at Turn 3 the same lap. Behind the pair, Villagómez passed Crawford for third around the outside of Turn 12 on lap 25. 

“Obviously we run through different scenarios before the race, and we knew if a safety car was on the table towards the end of the race we were going to pit, so that was confirmed with the team,” Villagómez said. “But then I realised that we were going to be on the podium two laps to go when they told me that the next car was Jak and he was P3.”

Among the three recovery drives, Villagómez’s was the most dramatic, as he made up 19 places. Having run 17th before the collision between Montoya and Minì took place ahead of him, the Mexican driver emerged from the pits in 15th, climbing 12 positions in six laps after the restart. 

The result marked his first podium finish in F2 in his second season. It was also just the third time Van Amersfoort Racing scored points this season after Villagómez took sixth in the Bahrain sprint and ninth in the Monaco feature race. The result surprised even him. 

“Starting last, and with the qualifying we had, if you told me this morning, ‘You’re gonna finish on the podium,’ I maybe would’ve said, ‘That’s really nice from you but we didn’t have the pace,’” he said.

All three drivers said that they couldn’t have predicted the result before the race, and each highlighted the role of a well-timed safety car. 

“Today was purely luck,” Verschoor told Feeder Series. “Of course the team made the right decision, but I think we’re just the first one with not so many points who could take the risk.” 

Verschoor became the third multiple race winner of the season, with his victory in the Spanish sprint adding to his triumph in the Jeddah feature race. There, he also had a comeback win, going from ninth to first on the alternate strategy and, as he put it, ‘pure pace’. 

“I just feel confident to take risks. Also because F2, it’s sometimes so crazy that you have to take a bit of risk, and sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. 

“On the other hand, also, especially the further the season goes on and if we keep fighting for the championship, at some point things like Jeddah we cannot do anymore because it’s just too much risk.

“Today, to be honest, was very lucky, but you still need to finish the job of course.”

Crawford managed to hang on for fourth ahead of Martins on fresh softs, while Browning, Fornaroli and Lindblad occupied the final points-paying positions. Montoya initially crossed the line in fifth but received a five-second penalty for his collision with Minì, demoting him to 11th.

Dunne took the extra point for the fastest lap on lap 25. With that, he retook the championship lead by four points over Browning, with Verschoor a further three behind in third. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency