Verschoor opens F2 season with win

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Richard Verschoor of Trident claimed the opening Sprint Race victory yesterday in the FIA Formula 2 Championship’s 2022 season. The event was held at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in support of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. Verschoor lined up in second on the start grid but was able to gain the lead heading into turn one. After an eventful 23 laps, Verschoor went on to claim the chequered flag in a winning time of 43 minutes 34.983 seconds.

He finished just 1.853 seconds ahead of Jehan Daruvala of defending teams’ champions Prema Racing. Liam Lawson of Carlin completed the podium places in third going 4.975 seconds behind the winner. Ralph Boschung was fourth for Campos Racing 6.981s back, Felipe Drugovich of MP Motorsport was fifth 8.801s behind, while Lawson’s teammate Logan Sargeant came sixth 9.263s adrift.

Juri Vips of Hitech Grand Prix and Ayumu Iwasa of Dams rounded out the top eight. Vips was 13.350s from the victor while Iwasa was 15.749s behind. Each of the top eight came away with points from the classification.

The F2 field will now be holding its Feature Race today to wrap up this weekend’s first round. The 32-lapper is scheduled for a 1.40 pm start and it will see Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan on the pole.

This weekend’s F2 round in Bahrain will be followed by meetings in Saudi Arabia, twice in Italy, Spain, Monaco, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE.

F2 is the chief feeder series to the top flight, with many drivers having graduated from this category and now starring in F1.

Among them is Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, George Russell of Mercedes, Lando Norris of McLaren, Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi of Williams, Mick Schumacher of Haas, Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, and Alfa Romeo rookie Guanyu Zhou.