Lawson Wins Third Sprint Of The Season At Spa

Liam Lawson has won his third Sprint Race of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season after starting from fifth on the grid at Circuit de Spa–Francorchamps.

The Red Bull Reserve Driver was joined on the podium by Jack Doohan and Ralph Boschung who battled for the second spot on the podium in the late stages of the race.

Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor rounded out the top five respectively, with Théo Pourchaire in sixth and Marcus Armstrong in seventh.

David Beckmann doubled his point-tally for the season as he clinched the final points paying position of the race in eighth place.

As the five lights went out, Lawson made a hugely committed move and took to the grass to take second place at turn one behind pole-sitter Boschung who got away cleanly.

It didn’t take the Kiwi driver long to take the lead of the race with him making use of the slip stream on the second lap down the long Kemmel Straight to blast past the Campos Racing driver.

Verschoor, Doohan and Pourchaire rounded out the top five as the rest of the grid settled into their track positions.

It wasn’t long before the order was shaken up again with Doohan making use of the added DRS to take third place away from Verschoor into Les Combes on lap six.

The two championship rivals of Drugovich and Pourchaire were hot onto the gearbox of the Trident ahead of them while Lawson stretched out a five second lead on Boschung.

That lead was instantly evaporated after his Carlin team-mate Logan Sargeant lost the back end whilst sending it around Pouhon and ended up in the barriers which resulted in a Safety Car.

Some drivers took the opportunity of a free pit-stop under the Safety Car to bolt on some fresh tyres for the remaining laps, including Drugovich who dropped from sixth place to twelfth on track.

The SC limped back into the pits for four laps of green flag racing and Lawson led them away in a calm and collected restart.

The championship leader, Drugovich, put in a championship winning performance in those final four laps, climbing all the way up to fourth position on the soft tyres. Four laps, eight positions gained.

That wasn’t the only action in the final few laps, with Doohan snatching second place from Boschung on the final lap of the race after going around the outside at Les Combes.

Sunday’s Feature race will see Drugovich line up on pole against his compatriot Enzo Fittipaldi in second place with Logan Sargeant starting from third.

POS	NO.	NAME	NAT	TEAM	TIME (18 Laps)
1	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	40:22.343
2	3	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	+3.868
3	15	Ralph Boschung	CHE	Campos Racing	+5.718
4	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	+6.360
5	20	Richard Verschoor	NLD	Trident	+8.407
6	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	+8.686
7	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	+9.422
8	24	David Beckmann	GER	Van Amersfoort Racing	+10.065
9	17	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	+10.833
10	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	+11.134
11	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	+11.615
12	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	+14.089
13	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	+15.801
14	8	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	+16.393
15	9	Frederik Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	+16.767
16	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	+17.669
17	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	+18.553
18	25	Amaury Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	+18.594
19	23	Tatiana Calderon	COL	Charouz Racing System	+19.044
20	14	Lirim Zendeli	GER	Campos Racing	+23.207
21	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	DNF
22	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	DNS

F2: Spa-Francorchamps – Sprint Race Classification