Paul Ricard F2: De Vries and Prema win, new car problems continue
McLaren Formula 1 junior Nyck de Vries took his and Prema's first 2018 Formula 2 victory in France, as Lando Norris extended his championship lead amid drama for George Russell
After Tadasuke Makino had a bad start from pole, de Vries was behind early leader Nicholas Latifi and Louis Deletraz in the early running at Paul Ricard.
Deletraz unseated Latifi at Turn 1 with the assistance of DRS on lap four of 21, and looked to build an advantage.
But de Vries was soon rid of Latifi a couple of laps later and began to hunt down the leader.
De Vries stalked Charouz Racing System driver Deletraz, and finally moved into the lead on lap 13 at the entry to the chicane before the Mistral straight.
After that he drove off into the distance and and his winning margin was well over five seconds come the end of the race.
Deletraz sustained second comfortably ahead of Luca Ghiotto, who completed a strong weekend having been handed a podium on Saturday with the exclusion of Roberto Merhi from third place.
Antonio Fuoco appeared to be struggling but held Sergio Sette Camara at bay for a large portion of the race.
With six laps to go, Norris successfully attacked Carlin team-mate Sette Camara having made his way through the field from 16th on the grid.
Latifi struggled on his tyres in the latter stages and fell back from third, eventually being passed by Norris on the penultimate lap.
He then hit Norris in the left-rear trying to retake fifth from him at Turn 1 and shot off the road.
Norris held on without apparent damage to take fifth behind Fuoco, and his points lead now rises to 13 points as Saturday winner Russell was among a host of drivers who encountered technical issues.
There was chaos before and during the start of the race. Russell was wheeled off the formation lap grid with throttle problems, while his ART team-mate Jack Aitken spun on the formation lap at the final turn.
Nirei Fukuzumi, Merhi, Ralph Boschung and Artem Markelov all stalled either on the formation lap or at the start.
Makino retired out of fifth with what he reported to be the same throttle sensor problem that forced Albon out of Saturday's race.
Sette Camara and Albon moved up to sixth and seventh on the last lap as Latifi's incident dropped him to eighth.
Santino Ferrucci pulled off some smooth moves to reach the top 10 in ninth, ahead of Roy Nissany.
Sprint race result
Pos | Driver | Team | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nyck de Vries | Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing | 21 | 38m28.325s |
2 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz Racing System | 21 | 9.648s |
3 | Luca Ghiotto | Campos Vexatec Racing | 21 | 9.870s |
4 | Antonio Fuoco | Charouz Racing System | 21 | 16.678s |
5 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 21 | 17.752s |
6 | Sergio Sette Camara | Carlin | 21 | 20.405s |
7 | Alexander Albon | DAMS | 21 | 20.732s |
8 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 21 | 24.445s |
9 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | 21 | 35.726s |
10 | Roy Nissany | Campos Vexatec Racing | 21 | 41.643s |
11 | Maximilian Guenther | BWT Arden | 21 | 49.489s |
12 | Nirei Fukuzumi | BWT Arden | 21 | 53.765s |
13 | Arjun Maini | Trident | 21 | 59.010s |
14 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 20 | 1 Lap |
15 | Roberto Merhi | MP Motorsport | 20 | 1 Lap |
16 | Ralph Boschung | MP Motorsport | 20 | 1 Lap |
17 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 19 | 2 Laps |
18 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing | 19 | 2 Laps |
- | Tadasuke Makino | RUSSIAN TIME | 6 | Retirement |
- | Jack Aitken | ART Grand Prix | 0 | Not started |
Drivers' standings
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Lando Norris | 104 |
2 | George Russell | 91 |
3 | Nyck de Vries | 75 |
4 | Alexander Albon | 73 |
5 | Artem Markelov | 71 |
6 | Sergio Sette Camara | 68 |
7 | Antonio Fuoco | 59 |
8 | Jack Aitken | 49 |
9 | Luca Ghiotto | 47 |
10 | Louis Deletraz | 44 |
11 | Nicholas Latifi | 33 |
12 | Sean Gelael | 29 |
13 | Roberto Merhi | 23 |
14 | Arjun Maini | 23 |
15 | Maximilian Guenther | 20 |
16 | Ralph Boschung | 10 |
17 | Tadasuke Makino | 8 |
18 | Santino Ferrucci | 4 |
19 | Nirei Fukuzumi | 4 |
20 | Roy Nissany | 0 |
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