Lawson Lunges In Le Castellet To Win Sprint

Liam Lawson has clinched his second win of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season with a brilliant display at Circuit Paul Ricard which saw him overtake Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala en route at the Mistral chicane.

Daruvala led for the majority of the race after starting on reverse grid pole position but a mid race Safety Car bunched the field back up and caused a nine car battle on the French tarmac.

Championship leader Felipe Drugovich was bumped up to the final podium position after local hero Théo Pourchaire was handed a five-second post-race penalty for forcing Armstrong off the track while overtaking him at turn 11.

It was a clean start when the five lights went out with Daruvala getting a good start while the rest of the grid battled behind him. Cem Bölükbasi was the biggest gainer, jumping from twenty-first on the grid to thirteenth by the time the first lap was completed.

After bogging down the order with some wheel-spin at the start, Lawson kept close to his fellow countryman Armstrong and sent it around the outside at turn eight on lap four.

The Red Bull junior completed the move on the exit of turn nine after the pair navigated the chicane while staying millimetres apart from each other.

It was all happening at the Mistral chicane with Charouz Racing System’s Enzo Fittipaldi and Campos Racing’s Roberto Merhi making contact on Lap 9 which drew an appearance from Bernd Mayländer in the Safety Car.

The pair were battling for fifteenth place when the incident happened which left the Brazilian driver stranded in the middle of the chicane. He was then collected by Amaury Cordeel, forcing both drivers to retire from the race.

When the green flag was shown on lap 13, Lawson was immediately putting pressure on the leading Daruvala while championship candidates Pourchaire and Drugovich battled behind for fourth place.

It wasn’t long before the Red Bull F1 Test Driver stuck a move on his fellow Red Bull junior, benefiting from some DRS which helped him past Daruvala on the entry into the mid-lap chicane.

Daruvala was unable to keep up with Lawson who set off into the distance and quickly lost the DRS advantage to the Carlin, leaving him vulnerable to the DRS train whcih had formed behind him. Armstrong was the next driver in line to attempt a move.

The move came on Lap 19 at everybody’s favourite overtaking place, the Mistral chicane. Armstrong dove down the inside but entered with a little bit of more speed than he would have hoped and forced Daruvala to take the escape road.

Armstrong was then left vulnerable on the exit and Pourchaire took the inside line into turn 11, slightly forcing the Kiwi wide as he took the position which earned himself a five-second penalty.

Due to being ran off the track, the Hitech Grand Prix driver dropped down the sixth position as Jack Doohan and Drugovich made the most of the battle ahead of them.

Lawson comfortably led the rest of the race, stretching out a three second lead by the time the chequered flag fell.

POS	NO.	NAME	NAT	TEAM	TIME (21 Laps)
1	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	41:22.995
2	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	+3.206
3	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	+4.835
4	3	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	+5.709
5	9	Frederik Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	+7.948
6	17	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	+8.260
7	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	+9.552
8	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	+9.654
9	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	+10.586
10	24	David Beckmann	GER	Van Amersfoort Racing	+10.979
11	8	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	+12.087
12	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	+12.477
13	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	+12.530
14	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	+14.433
15	23	Cem Bölükbasi	TUR	Charouz Racing System	+15.861
16	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	+16.536
17	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	+16.643
18	14	Olli Caldwell	GBR	Campos Racing	+17.338
19	15	Roberto Merhi	ESP	Campos Racing	+4 Laps
20	20	Richard Verschoor	NLD	Trident	+5 Laps
21	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	DNF
22	25	Amaury Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	DNF

F2: Le Castellet – Sprint Race Classification