Artem Markelov sprints to win in Spielberg
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| Written by: Fanni Váradi | Photo: F2 Media |
Artem Markelov started from pole position on the sprint race as he finished 8th on Saturday’s sprint race.
Markelov got the start well, conversely Ralph Boschung who got stuck at start. Raffaele Marciello who started from the very back of the grid crashed into his car. Followed by this the safety car had to come to the track and lead the drivers through the pit. In the meantime, at Turn 3 Sean Gelael flipped but could continue the race.
Markelov was still in the front, followed by Albon, Rowland, Fuoco, King, Leclerc, Latifi and Visuio.
Safety car retired and the race restarted.
The championship leader Charles Leclerc started well and overtook King, taken over P5. His teammate Antonio Fuoco was fighting with Oliver Rowland, when Leclerc tried to fine place by his teammate’s side. The 2 Prema car contacted and Charles Leclerc got out of the race. After this incident, drivers had virtual safety car for a lap.
The race had more accident to come. On 7th lap Racing Engineering’s Gustav Malja crashed into Luca Ghiotto. Rapax’s Nyck De Vries seeing this incident, passed by both. Malja’s car got damaged due to the crash and the Swedish driver was forced to pit but could retire to race again.
Nicholas Latifi got a 5 seconds penalty, for ignoring speed limits in the pit.
Artem Markelov was still leading the race uninterruptedly ahead of Albon, Rowland, Fuoco, King, Latifi, Ghiotto and Visoiu.
Campos Racing’s driver Ralph Boschung could not continue the race, supposedly as a result of the damage after the crash at the start.
The top 8 seemed to be unchanged until Luca Ghiotto overtook Latifi for P6 on lap 16. The Italian driver continued hunting drivers and caught Jordan King, then tried to catch Fuoco.
Nobody disturbed Markelov, who scored the fastest lap of sprint race on lap 21 with a time of 1:16.199.
There were some action at Turn 4 on lap 24 and 25 when Luca Ghiotto caught Fuoco up and passed by the Prema driver, taking P4. Robert Visoiu tried the same against Nyck De Vries. The Campos driver estimated the situation wrongly and crashed into the Dutch getting both of them out of the race just before the end.
Artem Markelov won the sprint race, getting his second victory of the season ahead of Alexander Albon and Oliver Rowland.
Leclerc is still leading Drivers’ Championship, with 151 points ahead of Rowland on 102, Markelov on 99, Latifi on 72 and Ghiotto on 66 points, while in the Teams’ Championship PREMA Racing and DAMS share a seat at the top of the table on 174 points each ahead of RUSSIAN TIME on 165 and ART Grand Prix on 130.
The next round of F2 is taking place in Silverstone this weekend!
Sprint Race Provisional Classification
Driver Team
1. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME
2. Alexandre Albon ART Grand Prix
3. Oliver Rowland DAMS
4. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME
5. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing
6. Jordan King MP Motorsport
7. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden
8. Nicholas Latifi DAMS
9. Sergio Canamasas Rapax
10. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport
11. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden
12. Nabil Jeffri Trident
13. Louis Delétraz Racing Engineering
14. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix
15. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering
16. Nyck De Vries Rapax
17. Robert Visoiu Campos Racing
Not Classified
Ralph Boschung Campos Racing
Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing
Raffaele Marciello Trident
Fastest Lap
Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:16.119 on Lap 21