Arvid Lindblad dominated the feature race around Barcelona in the F2 Spanish GP weekend. Making it back to back wins in Spanish feature races, first in F3 and now F2.
Arvid Lindblad suffered a difficult Sprint race which left him collecting a ninth place, but starting on pole at Campos’ home race, the young Brit was hoping to leave the weekend with a win.
Alex Dunne made up the places in the sprint race, coming back from his 13 place grid penalty to make the podium. With just a three place penalty for the Feature, Dunne was looking for another podium at least.
Lindblad had a strong launch, leading the field into turn 1 with Montoya slipping comfortably behind the Brit. Pepe Martí had a strong start, moving up from 11th to sixth. Fighting behind Luke Browning on home soil.
Fornaroli lost a place at the start of the race and to make a difficult start worse for the F3 champion, he was given a 10-second stop and go penalty for a starting procedure infringement.
Dunne was on the alternative strategy, opting for the hard tyres instead of the soft. Crawford was on the same strategy ahead, but both were losing places.
Pit stops
Dürksen was the first driver to pit, coming in on lap 7. It was a quick stop for the driver searching for points this weekend. Meanwhile, out front, Lindblad had built a gap of 2.7 seconds to Montoya behind.
In the coming laps, more drivers dove into the pits, swapping the soft tyres for the hard tyres. Montoya pitted on lap 11, but Lindblad stayed out, leading the field with a nine-second gap to his teammate now behind.
Dürksen made a brave move around the outside of Luke Browning, but was pushed to the outside, cutting the corner. AIX came on the radio, telling their driver to give the place back to the William’s junior.
Notably, Dürksen didn’t take the side road, which they’re supposed to if they cut the corner. Leaving him open to a potential penalty.
On lap 13, Lindblad dove into the pits, he came out in front of Montoya, but he had Cian Shields in the AIX just ahead, closing the gap between Lindblad and Montoya.
With all the primary strategy runner’s pit stops completed, Lindblad held the lead, from Montoya and Verschoor.
Dürksen was given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which unfortunately for Browning still left the AIX car in front of him.
In a fight with Miyata, Browning clipped the side of ART and damaged his front wing, forcing him to dive into the pits needing a replacement. He left the pits in last.
The final push
While Lindblad settled into a comfortable lead, Montoya was struggling under pressure for Richard Verschoor behind him. The gap between the two just 0.8 seconds.
Villagomez had an issue, with his VAR stopped at the side of the road. A yellow flag was waved, but luckily the marshals were able to quickly reverse the car off the track, preventing the need for a VSC or SC.
Although Lindblad’s lead from Montoya was four seconds, the worry for the Campos team was Jak Crawford two place behind who was quickly closing the gap to the podium runners. Crawford brought the gap from six seconds down to just 1.2 in the space of 3/4 laps.
Campos were quick to come on the radio, telling Lindblad to push to keep his lead. Crawford got the lap down 0.3 but just as he neared the gearbox of Verschoor, Leonardo Fornaroli ran through the gravel which brought out a safety car.
Finishing the race under the safety car, Arvid Lindblad made it Campos’ first home race victory with Montoya staying ahead of the Dutchman behind, and Verschoor completing the double in Spain.
Full Results:
- A. Lindblad
- S. Montoya
- R. Verschoor
- J. Crawford
- A. Dunne
- J. Martí
- K. Maini
- V. Martins
- R. Miyata
- G. Minì
- R. Stanek
- O. Goethe
- J. Dürksen
- S. Meguetounif
- A. Cordeel
- M. Esterson
- D. Beganovic
- J. Bennett
- C. Shields
- L. Browning
- L. Fornaroli – DNF
- R. Villagomez – DNF
