Ritomo Miyata secured his maiden victory at the Madring as Formula 2 hit the track for its first race of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
The Hitech driver made an early move for the lead and held it for the rest of the race, benefiting from difficult overtaking and the narrow track to keep his advantage.
Emerson Fittipaldi was starting on the reverse grid pole position for the Sprint Race, with Ritomo Miyata starting alongside him. Both drivers were eager to get the jump into the first corner, with overtaking difficult around the narrow streets of the Madring.
Championship leader Nikola Tsolov was starting on the third row, with Rafa Camara, who sits second in the standings, close behind on the fourth row. Gabriele Mini starts further down the pack after a difficult qualifying for both MP drivers, lining up 13th.
Hoping to move up the field at the start, Mini had the softer compound tyre, along with a handful of others.
Miyata took the lead
Miyata got ahead of Fittipaldi into the first corner, with the Hitech driver taking the lead into the first corner. At the back of the field, John Bennett hit the kerbs hard and spun around. The TRIDENT driver continued but ran at the back of the grid.
Immediately as the field moved off the line, a yellow flag was brought out due to Nico Varrone hitting a barrier at Turn 7 after making contact with Kush Maini. With Varrone stuck in the barrier, a Safety Car was brought out.
It was a strong start for Mini despite the chaos, as he moved up to tenth when the Safety Car came out, just three places behind his title rival, Camara.
On Lap 4, they brought in the Safety Car, with the field raring to go racing again. Miyata led the field into the first corner, with Fittipaldi close behind him on track.
Further down the order, Camara was under pressure from Alex Dunne, the Alpine-liveried Rodin looming on the back of the Invicta. As the field stayed close together, John Bennett was called into the pit lane to retire the car.
Dunne looked to the inside of Camara, desperately trying to get past the Invicta. However, Camara held strong and maintained his place.
Overtaking difficulties across the grid
DRS was enabled on Lap 6, with Fittipaldi just close enough to Miyata to keep himself close and in the fight. Behind, Noel Leon was under pressure from Laurens Van Hoepen. Van Hoepen was one of the drivers on the softer compound tyres, which were holding up surprisingly well.
Van Hoepen went side by side with Noel Leon, lunging down the inside. Leon held on to the place but ran off the track in the process, and was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
On Lap 12, the order remained largely the same, with the overtaking proving to be very difficult around the Madring. However, the tension was growing between Leon and Tsolov. The duo are teammates at Campos, but Tsolov asked on the radio for a swap to boost his championship hopes.
Tsolov lunged at Leon but couldn’t stick, and the duo then went side by side through Turn 4 and Turn 5. Tsolov ran wide on the corner and took third place, but had to give it back to Leon as he gained the advantage off the track.
Disaster for Tsolov
On Lap 15, Tsolov clipped the wall at the entry of Turn 20 and spun around on track, the Red Bull Junior’s car, into the barrier and out of the race for the championship leader. A Safety Car was brought out with the Campos stuck on the track.
The Safety Car came in on Lap 17, with Miyata making a clean restart as he led the field green. While the field moved nose to tail, Mini managed to make a move back past Roman Bilinski, regaining the place he lost earlier in the race.
Miyata built a gap to those behind quickly, putting over a second between them after the first racing lap. Further back, Bilinski narrowly avoided the role while fighting Dino Beganovic for position on track.
Mini was closing on Mari Boya in eighth, but was just too far back on Lap 20 to make a move.
Into the final lap, Miyata led the field round the chequered flag with a 2.6-second margin to Fittipaldi in second. Laurens Van Hoepen crossed the line in third with Leon, Martinius Stenshorne and Camara finishing fourth, fifth and sixth. Dunne settled for seventh on the road while Mari Boya picked up the final points on offer.
READ MORE: Rafa Camara laments ‘stressful’ Madrid F2 qualifying
Discussion about this post