F2 Imola: Armstrong holds off Daruvala for sprint race win

The Hitech driver passed polesitter Logan Sargeant at the start and managed to hold off the quick-running Jehan Daruvala to take his first win of the season.

Williams junior driver Sargeant suffered excess wheel spin on the grid, leaving him to flounder in fifth as he was also swallowed up by Prema team-mates Daruvala and Dennis Hauger, as well as DAMS racer Roy Nissany.

Nissany's excellent start briefly put him into third position, before reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Hauger cleared him to score his maiden F2 podium, holding position behind Daruvala to the flag.

There was a first lap safety car after David Beckmann, driving in place of an injured Cem Bolukbasi at Charouz, went off at the Tamburello chicane, while Clement Novalak suffered a broken front wing on his MP Motorsport-run car after he was unable to avoid the spinning German.

There were contrasting fortunes for championship leader Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport) and feature race polesitter Juri Vips (Hitech). Drugovich started 12th after a poor qualifying on Friday, but had made it up to seventh by the end of the first lap, while Vips ran wide and dropped to the back of the pack.

As racing resumed on lap five, Armstrong continued to fend off Daruvala and Hauger, the Norwegian seemingly untroubeld by a loose sidepod cover. Further back, Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire (ART) both made it past Ralph Boschung in the battle for sixth, before the Campos Racing driver came to a halt at Turn 1 to prompt a virtual safety car.

The front three had built up a five-second gap to Nissany in fourth place by the halfway point, with the Israeli driver holding off Sargeant and Drugovich. Nissany gradually pulled away from Sargeant, who lost out to Drugovich on the start-finish straight in the closing laps.

Armstrong held firm to take his first win since the first Jeddah sprint race in 2021 by 1.4 seconds over Daruvala, the Kiwi moving up to fifth in the standings as a result and just three points behind Daruvala in third.

Prema team-mates Daruvala and Hauger congratulate each other on their podium finishes

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Behind Nissay, Drugovich continued his run of scoring points in every race this year and extended his advantage over Liam Lawson (Carlin) to 14.

Pourchaire finished seventh, with Lawson taking the final point in eighth after an early pass on Ayumu Iwasa (DAMS).

Following his early brush with the gravel, Vips made his way back up to 15th at the chequered flag but couldn't trouble the points-scorers.

F2 Imola Sprint Race Results - 25 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	-
2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	1.400	1.400
3	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	2.200	2.200
4	Roy Nissany	DAMS	2.800	2.800
5	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	7.000	7.000
6	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	9.800	9.800
7	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	12.300	12.300
8	Liam Lawson	Carlin	12.800	12.800
9	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	13.400	13.400
10	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	17.700	17.700
11	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing	20.100	20.100
12	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	21.000	21.000
13	Richard Verschoor	Trident	21.400	21.400
14	Calan Williams	Trident	22.900	22.900
15	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	23.200	23.200
16	Marino Sato	Virtuosi Racing	24.200	24.200
17	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	24.600	24.600
18	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	25.800	25.800
19	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	26.200	26.200
	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	16 laps
	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System
	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing
View full results