Richard Verschoor clinched a sensational victory in the F2 sprint race at the Spanish Grand Prix, leading home Alex Dunne, who took the chequered flag +0.380 behind.
The Irish driver also took the extra point for setting the fastest lap, and he regained the lead in the championship standings, now three points clear of Luke Browning. Verschoor is a further four points back.
Rafael Villagomez rounded out the podium places in third, with Jak Crawford and Sebastian Montoya completing the top five at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The latter was handed a five-second time penalty, dropping him to P11, which Victor Martins taking his place.
Browning stormed into the lead from third on the grid as the packed headed down to the first corner, before Crawford forced his was past on lap four.
Having fallen back from pole position, on lap 14, Verschoor and Arvid Lindblad touched at the first corner, inducing a spin for the Red Bull junior. It was promptly noted by race control, with the Dutchman later cleared of wrongdoing after a stewards' investigation.
Whilst a safety car was avoided on that occasion, Montoya and Gabriele Mini's clash would trigger one on lap 18 of 26, the PREMA team-mates coming together at Turn 1. Montoya was subsequently placed under investigation after the race, before stewards determined his punishment.
The former managed to get going again, but the latter lost his engine and became the second retirement of the race, after John Bennett.
As a result, a number of cars came in to pit for fresh soft tyres, rolling the dice in an attempt to move into the eight points-paying places over the final six laps. It blew the race, that does not usually see pit stops, wide open.
Verschoor, who had initially fallen out of the points, was the biggest winner of that gamble. That was also the case for Dunne and Villagomez, who had started in P19 and last on the grid, respectively.
Dunne had originally qualified in fifth, but his 10-place and first three-place grid penalty pushed him down the order. He will start the feature race in eighth, after his second three-place penalty is applied.
Check out the full F2 sprint race results from the Spanish Grand Prix below. All results are provisional and being updated.
Barcelona F2 Sprint Race Results
Position | Driver | Team | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 10 |
2 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport | 9 + FL |
3 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 6 |
4 | Jak Crawford | DAMS Lucas Oil | 5 |
5 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 4 |
6 | Luke Browning | Hitech TGR | 3 |
7 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | 2 |
8 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | 1 |
9 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | |
10 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin Motorsport | |
11 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema Racing | |
12 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | |
13 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | |
14 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | |
15 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech TGR | |
16 | Kush Maini | DAMS Lucas Oil | |
17 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | |
18 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | |
19 | Max Esterson | Trident | |
20 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | |
OUT | Gabriele Mini | Prema Racing | |
OUT | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing |
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Be sure to join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes and Nick Golding, as they dissect the opening day of the Spanish Grand Prix.
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