Teenager Matheo Tuscher becomes youngest Formula 2 winner at Paul Ricard
Matheo Tuscher claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory at Paul Ricard by winning the first race of the weekend
The 15-year-old led away from pole position as second and third place men Markus Pommer and Daniel McKenzie got dreadful getaways.
This gave Luciano Bacheta the chance to jump from fourth to second by the first corner and begin to challenge Tuscher. After a brief safety car period caused by a Plamen Kralev spin, Tuscher pulled out a 1.2-second lead, just enough to keep him out of Bacheta's reach and become F2's youngest ever winner.
Of more concern to Bacheta was the chasing pack. In the closing laps he came under immense pressure from McKenzie and Dino Zamparelli, but ultimately those two swapping places regularly meant that Bacheta was able to hold his second place.
After starting on the front row of the grid, Pommer ended the race in a distant fifth position. The German got a poor getaway, but was still in contention for the podium places in the early stages. His race pace, though, was non-existent, and he slid back to finish four seconds off the pack in front.
Kevin Mirocha drove a strong race from ninth on the grid to finish in sixth position.
Christopher Zanella showed strong pace, but when attempting to pass Mihai Marinescu for sixth he went straight on at the chicane on the Mistral straight. Inexplicably, he opted not to give the position back to Marinescu and it was not long before he received his inevitable drivethrough penalty. He recovered to finish in eighth, passing Axil Jefferies and Hector Hurst on the final lap.
Results - 19 laps: Pos Driver Time/Gap 1. Matheo Tuscher 39m11.727s 2. Luciano Bacheta + 1.192s 3. Daniel McKenzie + 1.628s 4. Dino Zamparelli + 2.056s 5. Markus Pommer + 6.329s 6. Kevin Mirocha + 7.298s 7. Mihai Marinescu + 17.744s 8. Christopher Zanella + 28.336s 9. Hector Hurst + 28.440s 10. Axcil Jefferies + 28.990s 11. Mauro Calamia + 32.635s 12. Plamen Kralev + 37.943s 13. David Zhu + 49.391s 14. Alex Fontana + 56.903s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments