Nicholas Latifi claimed victory in the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
His championship rival Jack Aitken came home second after passing third place Guanyu Zhou in the closing stages.
The race began with Luca Ghiotto on pole position but dropped as far down as the back of the pack when he came together with Dorian Boccolacci towards the end of the opening lap. The Italian’s race was saved however due to Giuliano Alesi spinning his Trident into the gravel trap at Turn 4 and bringing out the safety car.
As the pit stops got underway after the mandatory Lap-6 window, Sergio Sette Camara caught the pit entry bollard and carried too much speed into the pit lane, resulting in a ten-second stop/go penalty. A technical issue shortly after put the Brazilian out of contention of scoring any points.
Whilst those who had started at the front began the race on the softer compound, Ralph Boschung, Anthoine Hubert and Jordan King carried on their first stints on the harder medium compound. With seven laps to go, Latifi found his way past Zhou into Turn 1 and had put him effectively back into a race winning position once the top three ahead of him pitted.
On the penultimate lap, Aitken duplicated Latifi’s overtake and found himself second ahead of the Chinese driver by the end of the feature race. Ghiotto completed a recovery drive to fourth, with Nyck de Vries and Anthoine Hubert fifth and sixth.
Jordan King set the fastest lap of the race and brought his MP Motorsport car home in seventh place at the expense of Callum Ilott, who will start from reverse-grid pole for tomorrow’s sprint race with his eighth place finish. Sean Gelael and Ralph Boschung took the final points in ninth and tenth.
This result sees Nicholas Latifi’s lead extended to twenty-six points at the top of the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Jack Aitken, with Luca Ghiotto a further six points back in third position.
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