Sergio Sette Camara has claimed his first FIA Formula 2 Championship victory in fine style with a storming drive in this morning’s sprint race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, making an astonishing getaway when the lights went out and running off into the distance to win from Nyck De Vries and Luca Ghiotto.

The result was made at the start: when the lights went out the Brazilian made a barnstorming escape from P3, slicing between poleman Norman Nato and Roberto Merhi to have a clean run into La Source.

De Vries’ start was almost the equal of it, but the Dutchman was slightly squeezed by Nato on the inside of turn 1, forcing him to hold position until he could pass the Frenchman at Les Combes, ahead of Merhi, Ghiotto and Gustav Malja.

Oliver Rowland and Charles Leclerc made their customary strong starts from the back of the grid, with the Briton leading his rival from P12 at the end of the first lap, with the positions swapping next time through after the Monegasque mugged Rowland at the Bus Stop: the pair changed positions all the way to Les Combes before Leclerc finally made it stick.

The Ferrari Academy driver was soon tearing through the field into the points, looking to make up for his disappointments of yesterday: he dispatched Santino Ferrucci and Robert Visoiu for 10th on lap 4, and Louis Deletraz and Gustav Malja two laps later, to put himself behind teammate Antonio Fuoco, with the Italian unable to delay Artem Markelov for long as the Russian looked to stay away from Leclerc to help with his championship fight.

The 3 were soon in a fierce battle for P6: Fuoco mugged the Russian at the Bus Stop before being outdragged by Markelov and Leclerc at Kemmel: the Russian looked to have the fight under control before a mechanical gremlin slowed him and forced his imminent retirement a few laps later.

Ahead of them Ghiotto had taken the appearance of his teammate as a hurry up, and started leaning on his tyres to dispatch Merhi as he hunted down another podium finish.

On lap 15 the Italian clinically dispatched Nato on the Kemmel straight and was closing on De Vries, who in turn was closing on Sette Camara, but a potentially explosive finish was defused by a big crash at the top of Eau Rouge for Nobuharu Matsushita, with the resultant safety car shutting down the race as the marshals looked to replace the barriers.

But with time (and laps) running out Sette Camara was delighted to claim his maiden win ahead of De Vries, who was greeted with a roar of approval from the thousands of countrymen surrounding the circuit, and Ghiotto, who had hoped for more but was nevertheless satisfied with another podium.

Nato just held on from Leclerc, who mugged Merhi before the safety car, for P4, with Fuoco and Rowland filling the final points positions.

Preliminary Sprint Race Classification

Charles Leclerc put in a crushing display of dominance for victory in this afternoon’s FIA Formula 2 Championship feature race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, storming off from pole when the lights went out and leaving his rivals floundering in his wake as he brought home his sixth win of the season by almost half a minute, ahead of Artem Markelov and Oliver Rowland.

The start was the best chance his rivals had of stopping the Monegasque driver, who sat alone on the front row when P2 man Nicholas Latifi failed to make the grid: a storming start by Oliver Rowland saw the title rivals run side by side through La Source before touching, with an element of the Briton’s front wing detaching as he watched Leclerc pull ahead and away when the pair headed towards Eau Rouge, ahead of Antonio Fuoco, Luca Ghiotto, Gustav Malja, Nyck De Vries, Markelov and Alexander Albon.

Further back Jordan King picked up a puncture after complaining of debris, with the tyre slowly disintegrating around the circuit, while Louis Deletraz and Sergio Sette Camara came together to the Swiss driver’s detriment: he was soon limping back to the pits as a VSC period opened to remove the debris and get the race underway once more, with Markelov soon lining up behind his teammate until Ghiotto slid past his countryman Fuoco to put himself on course for a podium.

Markelov was filling the Italian’s mirrors while further forward Rowland was the first driver to pit for fresh rubber, on lap 7: Malja followed him in next time around, with Ghiotto and De Vries repeating the process on lap 10, but all eyes were on the leader, who stopped next time by and re-emerged ahead of the one-sided fight between Norman Nato and Rowland in P3, with the Briton soon dispatching the Frenchman but unable to get close to Leclerc, who was simply faster than everyone else on track.

Markelov was now in the lead, on the alternate strategy ahead of Fuoco, and the Russian was clearly looking to bring home a strong result following his Budapest disappointments: he could pull away from Fuoco but the Italian’s teammate was relentlessly closing the gap, shrinking it to just 7 seconds when Markelov finally pitted on lap 16, coming out in P5 and hoping his better tyres would propel him forward again.

And so it proved: while Leclerc pulled away from Rowland out front Markelov started to dispatch the drivers between them, mugging Malja on lap 18 and easing past teammate Ghiotto at the end of the Kemmel straight on lap 21, before hunting down Rowland as the laps counted down. Out front Leclerc took the plaudits for a sparkling win, while Markelov attacked Rowland at the Bus Stop, was pushed wide, and out-dragged Rowland to the line for P2.

Just behind the podium Ghiotto held off a huge attack from Fuoco for P4, while Malja won the first battle with new teammate De Vries by a second for 6th, with Sette Camara grabbing the reverse pole for tomorrow’s sprint race after finishing ahead of Roberto Merhi and Norman Nato, who claimed the final point after mugging Robert Visoiu on the penultimate lap for P10.

Preliminary Feature Race Classification

Charles Leclerc and Oliver Rowland have been disqualified from this afternoon’s feature race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps after both drivers’ cars failed post-race scrutineering due to excessive wear to the underfloor plank.

Both cars were subjected to the usual post-race scrutineering checks, which is when the damage was noted on both vehicles. The planks were removed and measured, with the thickness recorded as below the allowable limit.

The race stewards also handed down penalties to Artem Markelov and Oliver Rowland following their last corner incident: Rowland was handed a 5 second time penalty for forcing a rival off track, and Markelov was also handed a 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage, nullifying each other’s penalties before Rowland was disqualified from the race.

Markelov has now been promoted to race winner, ahead of teammate Luca Ghiotto to record a RUSSIAN TIME 1-2, with Antonio Fuoco rounding out the podium. Racing Engineering teammates Gustav Malja and Nyck De Vries are now classified P4 and P5 respectively, ahead of Sergio Sette Camara and Roberto Merhi, with Norman Nato set to start tomorrow’s sprint race from pole and Santino Ferrucci and Robert Visoiu rounding out the points places.

Charles Leclerc has claimed yet another pole position for his collection in this afternoon’s FIA Formula 2 Championship qualifying session at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, defying the rain and a resultant red flag to grab the top spot well ahead of title rivals Nicholas Latifi and Oliver Rowland.

The Monegasque driver emerged from the gloom with a time of 2:20.842, almost 22 seconds slower than his best time from free practice this morning but vitally six tenths ahead of the DAMS duo, the only two drivers within a second of the top spot in a heavily rain affected session.

Qualifying got underway on a very wet circuit following an earlier heavy storm, but with the rain holding off there was the potential for times to improve: all of the field was immediately on track just in case, with Nyck De Vries, Luca Ghiotto and Antonio Fuoco all spending time on the top spot before the Monegasque claimed the honours at the halfway mark with 2 laps in succession improving the times before most of the field headed back to the pits for fresh rubber.

The rain had started again just as they re-emerged on track, and although some drivers were improving their times, most notably Artem Markelov who set the fastest 1st sector time and was looking a real threat to Leclerc’s P1, they were all slowed again almost immediately when a spin for Sergio Sette Camara brought out the red flags, undoing all their good work.

The session eventually restarted with just under 4 minutes on the clock, but with the rain increasing there was no chance of any improvement, ensuring Leclerc retained the honours.

Behind the top 3 good drives by Gustav Malja, Fuoco, De Vries, Ghiotto and Roberto Merhi were not reflected in their laptimes, will all of them hoping that their race pace tomorrow will be able to overturn their poor luck today.

Preliminary Qualifying Classification