Nicholas Latifi secured a maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship victory at Silverstone as he led from start to finish to triumph in Sunday’s Sprint race.
The Canadian, a development driver for the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team, had started sixth during Saturday’s Feature race but found himself ending the race in eighth, with the DAMS driver admitting to finding it difficult to follow other cars around the high speed Silverstone circuit.
However, the eighth place on Saturday gave him pole position on Sunday, and he got a great getaway to lead into turn one. Despite a late safety car thanks to Ralph Boschung crashing on the Hangar Straight, Latifi made a good restart to maintain his position over Luca Ghiotto to take the victory.
“Practice felt great, I equalled my best result with fourth and was confident ahead of Friday,” said Latifi. “I made a mistake on my fast lap in qualifying and was quite disappointed with sixth, but I knew I could fight with the cars ahead.
“Race one was probably the trickiest I’ve driven in. It was difficult to follow cars ahead and eighth was the best we could manage.
“Starting on pole in race two, I got away OK and managed the gap behind. It got close at the end with the safety car, but I’m very happy with my first win and it’s great for the team!”
