Formula 2: Richard Fershor ends the weekend with a victory

      Before the main race of the Saudi weekend, an interesting picture emerged in the Formula 2 individual standings: Alex Dunn and Pepe Marti had the same number of points (31 each), but the Spaniard was formally in the lead. At the same time, Leonardo Fornaroli was only three points behind them, Richard Fershor was four points behind, and Luke Browning was six points behind.

      The balance of power was bound to change by Sunday evening, and it did. Jack Crawford started from pole today, having won qualifying on Friday, with Victor Martin starting the race next to him from the front row, Fornaroli and Browning cars in the second row, Arvid Lindblad and Dunn in the third. Marty started seventh,

      meaning that all the drivers competing for the lead in the individual standings started from quite favorable positions, except for Fershor, but he wasn't that far away either – he started the race ninth.

      The start was uneventful, the top four retained their positions, but Dunn managed to get ahead of Lindblad and climb to 5th place. On the second lap, Marty pushed his teammate from Campos Racing to 6th position, and now Arvida was already starting to put pressure on Gabriele Mini, who was driving in front of Fershor.

      There were overtaking moves in the second ten, for example, Sebastian Montoya beat Rita Miata and moved up to 13th position.

      By the fourth lap, Crawford, who was leading, had pulled away from Martin by more than a second, and Victor could not resort to DRS to try to catch up and overtake his opponent. But there was a stubborn struggle for the 3rd position: Browning was riding close behind Fornaroli and was clearly waiting for the right moment to attack.

      On lap 5, such a moment presented itself to him, and on the start-finish line, a participant in the Williams youth program brought his plan to an end. But Fornaroli couldn't hold onto the 4th position either, and Dunn beat him in turn 1.

      Leonardo figured it was time to make a mandatory pit stop, and on lap 7 he was the first to get fresh tires. Mini also followed suit, with Crawford leading on lap 8 and Martin on lap 9.

      Shortly before that, the track around the last corner was strewn with debris from John Bennett's car, which was damaged after contact with a bump, so the race directorate introduced the virtual safety car (VSC) mode. But at the last moment before that, Martin managed to get ahead of Crawford – now they were driving ninth and tenth, respectively.

      Since not everyone was in the pits, Richard Ferhor led the race before the restart, Kush Maini was second, and Roman Stanek was third.

      When the fight on the track resumed, Martin and Crawford delighted the audience with a lively duel for 9th position, which lasted several turns. Victor only managed to hold her until the start of the next lap, when Jack finally got the upper hand - DRS helped.

      There was also a crucial battle for positions outside the top ten, and on lap 13, Marty beat Dunn to 13th position, after which the Spaniard aimed at Browning, who was riding 12th. In the first corner of the next lap, Pepe launched an attack that ended in his victory, but he acted so decisively that his opponent had to leave the track, so the position had to be returned.

      Curiously, on the next lap, their roles were reversed, in the sense that now Browning, fighting off the attack, forced Marty to leave the track, but did not return the position. However, on lap 16, the Spaniard was still ahead of Luke, and he almost lost his position in relation to Alex Dunn.

      There were 10 laps left before the finish, and the top seven were not in the pits yet, and Fershor continued to lead, but only formally, and after the pit stops of these riders, Crawford had to take the lead, already almost two seconds ahead of Martin.

      The race was entering its final phase when the stewards' decision to issue a 5-second penalty to Alex Dunn for inappropriate actions towards Luke Browning became known.

      The closer the finish was, the more obvious became the plan of those who delayed the mandatory pit stop to the last: they expected to switch to SuperSoft tires (in F2, this is still used) in order to gain a significant speed advantage in the end, since many rivals were already driving on well-worn tires. Oliver Goethe, Fershor's partner, was the first to implement this plan.

      But Richard himself continued to lead, and he drove very fast and recorded the best lap. He got soft tires on lap 24, the pit stop went through without a hitch, and he returned to the track in fourth place – behind Crawford, but ahead of Martin!

      The tires on the Dutchman's orange Dallara weren't warmed up yet, so Martin tried to attack him, but Richard wouldn't let up. When his tires reached the desired temperature level, he accelerated and rushed in pursuit of the leader, from whom he was separated by about three seconds. And they had to be won back in just four laps.

      On the first one, Fershor played a second, on the second – another seven tenths, and on the penultimate one he could already use DRS. No matter how hard Jack tried, Richard beat him on the last lap, and it was just a matter of technique to get to the finish line.

      So, the Dutch MP Motorsport racer won his fifth victory in Formula 2, and he did it beautifully, due to alternative tactics. There was no reason to doubt his success this time, and no one should take away Richard's first place. After all, that's exactly what happened the day before, when Fershor was stripped of victory for being too aggressive on the track.

      Jack Crawford finished second and was clearly upset, because he had done everything in his power, but he had nothing to oppose Fershor's daring tactics. Victor Martin kept them company on the podium.

      According to the results of today's race, it was Fershor who led the personal standings of the youth series: he has 53 points. Pepe Marti, who finished fifth– has 41, Leonardo Fornaroli has 40.

      The next stage of the Formula 2 season will take place almost a month later, on May 17th and 18th at the Imola classic circuit.

      The results are being prepared…