Clément Novalak won a dramatic Formula 2 Feature Race at Zandvoort, taking his first single-seater race victory since 2019, but it was a disastrous race for the championship contenders.
All of the championship contenders endured a torrid morning at Zandvoort, with series leader Theo Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti, Ayumu Iwasa, Jack Doohan, Victor Martins and Oliver Bearman either crashing out or making errors.
Saturday’s Sprint was called off after only a handful of laps thanks to a three-car incident on Lap 2, a lengthy repair to the barriers and concerns over adverse weather conditions.
The weather threatened to intervene once again ahead of the start of the Feature, with an 80% chance of rain a looming concern.
In fact, rain had fallen before the session, leaving patches of damp around the circuit and prompting the field to get underway behind the Safety Car, as the majority of the runners started on slick tyres.
Pole-sitter Jak Crawford got the field underway and kept the holeshot, but there was drama behind him.
Bearman was tagged at Turn 1 by Juan Manuel Correa, with Bearman’s Prema teammate Vesti also having a moment in the same corner, relegating the championship contender to the back of the order.
Martins took evasive action in the chaos via the gravel trap at Turn 1, but it was disaster further back for Doohan, who spun into the wall at the final corner as the field was coming round to take the rolling start, ending his race and prompting the release of the Safety Car.
Pourchaire was able to advance to sixth from tenth on the grid thanks to the chaos, as the field prepared to go back to green at the start of Lap 4.
Most of the field was able to get going smoothly, as Crawford led the restart, but further down the order Ayumu Iwasa locked up trying to put a move on Kush Maini, tagging the Campos Racing driver and taking both of them to the gravel trap.
Iwasa, third in the standings when the race got underway fell back to 11th as a result, with a 10-second time-penalty heaping more misery on DAMS driver.
Crawford and Hauger pitted from the first two leading places at the end of Lap 8, switching from soft to mediums and exiting the slippy pit lane without incident.
This handed the top-to places to Isack Hadjar and Pourchaire, with both of them called into the pits at the end of Lap 9.
Pourchaire jumped Hadjar in the pits, and both of them emerged ahead of Crawford and Hauger, but it was disaster for the series leader moments later.
Less than a lap after emerging from pit lane, Pourchaire spun on approach to Turn 7 and stuffed his car into the wall at speed, ending his race.
This prompted a flurry of pit stops as drivers attempted to switch rubber before the Safety Car emerged as a result of Pourchaire’s incident – with a Zandvoort-only rule preventing stops under the Safety Car caution.
There was then a slight reprieve for Porchaire as second in the standings Vesti lost both of his rear wheels on Lap 11 – the victim of a botched double-stack pit stop for the Prema team.
Novalak now led behind the Safety Car, ahead of Crawford and Zane Maloney, with Richard Verschoor in fourth, Martins in fifth and Bearman in sixth.
Racing resumed on Lap 17 and Novalak kept the lead and Maloney put a pass on Crawford to take second.
Moments later Bearman attempted a pass on Martins, with the pair tussling all the way to Turn 3.
Martins then attempted to put the squeeze on Bearman with the Prema driver ending up hitting the wall and retiring as a result.
A 10-second time penalty was handed to Martins for his part in the incident, meaning another championship contender endured misery at Zandvoort.
As the race went on – the timing clock emerged to count down the remainder of the action with 17 minutes plus a lap left to decide the winner.
Novalak continued to control proceedings out in front, stretching out his advantage to 2.2 seconds as the race entered its final fifteen minutes.
Maloney then came under pressure from Crawford in the final stages as Novalak kept his cool out front.
Novalak took the checkered flag to ensure victory after starting 13th on the grid and 19th in the standings, to the delight of his Trident crew.
Maloney held onto second ahead of the late charge from polesitter Crawford with Verschoor and Hauger completing the top five.
Hadjar finished in sixth place, with Enzo Fittipaldi coming home in seventh.
Eighth went to Invicta’s Amaury Cordeel, with Martins’ penalty demoting him to ninth.
The top-10 was completed by Van Amersfoort’s Correa.
Following his incident with Maini and the resulting penalty, Iwasa could only muster a 13th-place finish, ensuring all of the top six in the standings bar Martins ended proceedings pointless.
After all the drama, Pourchaire kept a hold of his championship lead, but it will be maiden winner Novalak with the biggest smile on his face as F2 heads to Monza next weekend.
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