Sargeant Inherits Austrian F2 Win After Verschoor Disqualification
Grid Talk Reporter 10:41 10/07/2022
Logan Sargeant took a second successive Formula 2 feature race win after original race winner Richard Verschoor was disqualified following the conclusion of the race.
The Dutch driver had stopped on track midway through his cooldown lap, and during post-race Scrutineering Car #20 could not provide the 0.8kg of fuel required, with only 31.3 grams extracted from the fuel tank. The Trident driver had dominated the race after he gambled with slicks on the grid while the top half of the field opted for wets, which proved to be an inspired decision. In the end, he crossed the line by some distance to the tune of 13.7s, only to be thrown out following the conclusion of the race. Jehan Daruvala and Logan Sargeant rounded out the podium. The PREMA Racing driver benefitted from a time penalty for Roberto Merhi to seal second, while Sargeant recovered from his start on wet tyres and made the podium.
Daruvala though also received a post-race drive through penalty, which since it could not be served during the race, was converted to a 20-second penalty in the final classification. The stewards found that the PREMA Racing team had attempted to dry the track surface at his grid slot ahead of the race commencing. It drops the PREMA driver down to 12th position. Enzo Fittipaldi was then promoted to second with Merhi third despite his penalty. Dennis Hauger, Jake Hughes, Olli Caldwell, Ayumu Iwasa, Jüri Vips, Roy Nissany and Liam Lawson each made up the rest of the top 10.
There was a mix of strategy on the grid with half the grid starting on slicks and the other half on the full wets. A dry line was beginning to form on the track surface, but the rooster tails remained on the formation lap. Vips soared into the lead at lights out as pole-sitter Frederick Vesti bogged down and lost second to Iwasa. At Turn 4 the ART Grand Prix man took the place back, finding grip on the wet patches of track ahead of him while Iwasa was left to run over the dry line. Sargeant was wasting no time and moved clear of Jack Doohan around the outside of Turn 9 with a brave pass. Sprint race winner Marcus Armstrong didn’t get close to repeating his victory. He came to a halt at Turn 3, bringing out the Safety Car. Meanwhile drivers on the wets sought out every single patch of wet track as the sun beat down during the reprieve that ended heading onto Lap 5.
Vips led comfortably at the restart, but Théo Pourchaire was on the move, clearing Doohan into Turn 3 at the first time of asking. Meanwhile, Felipe Drugovich tumbled down the order, falling from within the top 10 to 18th on his overheating wet tyres. Those on slicks were comfortably quicker than anyone on wets entering Lap 6. Verschoor and Daruvala cleared Sargeant and Iwasa with ease in the space of one corner onto the seventh lap. The Trident driver then secured the lead with Daruvala and Merhi close in tow. Everyone who had started on wets was in for the slick tyres at the end of the lap. After his fast start, Pourchaire suffered a slow stop and re-joined behind Drugovich in P19. The damage was done though, with the lead runner who started on wets, Vesti, some 40 seconds down on Roy Nissany, the lowest-placed runner on slicks. Merhi was enjoying his deputising role and was up to second on Lap 11, sliding down the inside of Daruvala into Turn 3, up 19 positions from where he started the race. The PREMA Racing driver was in at the end of the lap for his mandatory pit stop and switch to mediums.
Sargeant was on the move once again, this time taking 12th from Vesti into Turn 3 with DRS assistance. Merhi, Dennis Hauger and Enzo Fittipaldi were in on the next lap to make their stops. A sticky left rear cost the Norwegian position to the Charouz Racing System driver. The American’s charge continued on Lap 15 at the expense of Hauger, clearing his rival into T3 once more. He was by Fittipaldi around the outside of Turn 6 on the next tour and quickly on the rear wing of teammate Liam Lawson. Another dive to the inside of Turn 3 gave the American P4. His enthusiasm to push might have earned him places early on but it put him under pressure from the Brazilian, who’d saved his tyres a little more than the Carlin driver and was trailing by just 0.5s. Doohan’s podium in the Sprint Race was now a distant memory. He was relegated to 17th by Calan Williams on Lap 26 and collected two-time penalties for track limits violations. Meanwhile at the front, the other Trident was flying. Verschoor’s lead was up to over five seconds heading into the final 10 laps of the race. That advantage was up to 8.5s with five remaining, the Dutch driver in a class of one out in front.
Merhi broke into DRS range of Daruvala in second in the final five laps. The Campos Racing driver trailed the PREMA by just 0.6s with three laps remaining. On the penultimate lap, Daruvala was wide at Turn 1 allowing Merhi to force him defensive into Turn 3. A nice switchback for the Spaniard gave him the inside line at Turn 4 and he got the move done for second. His hard work was undone though for exceeding track limits, and he received a five-second time penalty moments after securing the pass. Verschoor was untroubled and took crossed the line by almost 10 seconds in the end, which turned out to be in vain when he stopped trackside due to low fuel, leading to his disqualification. Merhi crossed the line P2 but was demoted to fifth which, following Daruvala's penalty became third behind victor Sargeant and runner-up Fittipaldi. Hauger was followed by Hughes, Caldwell, Iwasa – who also received a track limits time penalty - Vips, Nissany and Lawson who capped off the top 10.
