Spain – F2 – Race 1: George Russell manages rain and VSC

The path to victory was anything but smooth sailing for George Russell as the race did not even manage to go the full number of laps planned. The reason? The four virtual safety car periods that were triggered due to track excursions. After the race, the Briton acknowledged that the exercise was far from easy: « There were a number of VSC periods that we had never tried or used before. So we were a bit in the dark, which was tricky for all of us.”

The first neutralization was triggered as early as the second turn when Maximilian Günther found himself stuck in the gravel. But before that, Nyck de Vries had managed to take the lead, ahead of George Russell and Luca Ghiotto, while Alexander Albon, who started at the front, had a very clumsy start. The Italian from Campos held onto this third place for only one lap after the resumption of racing, as Alexander Albon was determined to make up for lost positions.

Once again, Nyck de Vries struggled to control the debates as he was in the lead and was successively overtaken by George Russell, then by Alexander Albon. Between the two overtakings, a second safety car was deployed as Roberto Merhi was leaning generously on his teammate from MP Motorsport, Ralph Boschung, at the end of the straight. The Swiss driver was forced to retire after hitting the barriers, and the Spaniard had to come back to the pits to change his front wing.

The race was once again suspended to evacuate Arjun Maini’s Trident, which had stranded itself in turn 5. The three leading drivers, having started on medium tires, did not immediately dive into the pit lane, unlike their rivals on soft tires, with the first representative being Lando Norris.

Free to fight, Nyck de Vries regained his position on the grid, finding an opening on an Alexander Albon struggling with his tires. He was very close to taking the lead during the tire change but the ART Grand Prix mechanics were able to release George Russell just in front of his rival from Prema. He made an unsuccessful first attempt before trying his luck again during the restart linked to the fourth VSC, caused by the collision between Louis Deletraz and Sean Gelael. The Swiss was found guilty of causing a collision and was penalized with a five-place grid drop for race 2.

In the end, Nyck de Vries was forced to defend himself against his fellow McLaren development program teammate, Lando Norris, allowing George Russell to surge towards his second consecutive victory, following the one in the Baku Sprint race.

Note the fantastic comeback of Artem Markelov, who started 19th on the grid and crossed the line in 8th position after overtaking his teammate on the final lap. He also seized the opportunity to score the two points for the fastest lap of the race, as Nicholas Latifi had to settle for 14th and last place.

The final ranking is:

ICYMI – Here are the complete results from today’s #F2 feature race. pic.twitter.com/ioE9rknhlG

— FIA Formula 2 (@FIA_F2) May 12, 2018

In the championship, George Russell moves up to third place while Lando Norris now has a 15-point lead over Alexander Albon.

From our special correspondent in Barcelona.