Verschoor takes home F2 Qatar Sprint Race win in dramatic finish

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Formula 2

Richard Verschoor took a calm victory out front in Qatar during the Formula 2 Sprint Race, as chaos behind him cost Nikola Tsolov the chance at a podium on his debut.

How it happened

The Sprint polesitter, Richard Verschoor, is one of the few drivers still mathematically in contention for the title. He started today's race ahead of Joshua Dürksen and Rafael Villagomez.

As the lights went out it was Dürksen took off smoothly, jumping ahead of Verschoor well before the first corner and inheriting the lead of the race. Verschoor slipped to second as Nikola Tsolov jumped past Villagomez to get up into the podium positions in his F2 debut.

Further down the field, championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli made a strong move to jump into the points, taking eighth place from Victor Martins. This move made way for him to battle with Roman Staněk, his Invicta Racing teammate.

While it's not uncommon for drivers to slip down the pack after losing the lead, Verschoor had not given up and retook the lead from Dürksen on Lap 4. Dürksen quickly dropped out of DRS range, and within two laps had slipped down to two seconds behind the leader.

Also moving out of DRS range was Villagomez, giving rookie Tsolov a much needed gap in his fight to secure a maiden podium on debut.

The title contenders were spread throughout the grid, Verschoor leading, Alex Dunne in sixth, Fornaroli in eighth, Jak Crawford up to 10th from his starting place of 15th and Luke Browning running down in 17th after a disastrous qualifying on Friday.

The first yellow flag of the day came out on Lap 14 for Trident's James Wharton. Wharton lost control after his teammate Laurens Van Hoepen made contact with him, ending Wharton's chance at a successful debut.

The Safety Car came out to recover Wharton's car and seven drivers made their way to the pits to make the switch to the soft compound tyre, Staněk among them. Staněk pitting promoted Fornaroli to seventh place and Crawford up to ninth, the American driver now sitting on the edge of the points.

At the restart on Lap 17, Verschoor led Dürksen who was fighting to stay within DRS range this time around, but by the time DRS was enabled Verschoor had pulled the critical one second gap.

Further down the field Crawford was fighting to score a point and was on the offense against Martinius Stenshorne to take eighth place.

Even on the soft tyre, the drivers who opted to pit struggled to beat the times of the drivers ahead of them, Staněk as the highest placed driver on softs was unable to make quick work of Gabriele Minì in 12th place.

On Lap 20 the Safety Car was called out for a second time as AIX Racing's Cian Shields spun and was unable to continue. With just three laps remaining in the race, they were able to clear Shields' car just in time for one more lap of racing.

It was at the restart that Tsolov's hope at a maiden podium or even maiden points came to an end, as a scrap with Villagomez on the final lap ended with the Bulgarian driver going off the track and dropping down to 10th.

As a result, Villagomez was promoted to third, and Crawford was able to secure eighth place in the final moments of the race to score a point.

But out in front it was Verschoor who took the win, taking crucial championship points ahead of Dürksen and Villagomez. Sebastian Montoya squeezed through to fourth place, and Dunne finished fifth. Fornaroli, Stenshorne and Crawford completed the final points-scorers of the day.

Full results can be found here.