Charles Leclerc dominated Race 1 of the FIA F2 Championship at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Artem Markelov and Oliver Rowland battled for the podium until the last corner.
Latifi, who was meant to start on P2, was unable to take part in the race. Leclerc kept first place at the start, but he wasn’t free of trouble as Rowland made contact with his rear tyre and broke some parts of the front wing. Matsushita stalled on the grid and Delétraz broke his front wing after hitting Sette Câmara and the debris gave King a puncture. After the Virtual Safety Car, Leclerc led ahead of Rowland, Fuoco, Ghiotto, Markelov, Malja, Albon, De Vries, Merhi and Sette Câmara.
Ghiotto overtook Fuoco for P3, while Albon had some damage on his front wing which made him lose a lot of pace and positions. Rowland pitted very early, on lap 7. Malja and Sette Câmara followed his steps 2 laps later. Ghiotto had a slow pace and was holding back Fuoco and Markelov, so he pitted. Markelov, who started on the harder compound, overtook Fuoco right afterwards. He was the new leader of the race after Leclerc’s pit stop.
After all the pit stops were completed, Leclerc was P1 with a 13s gap with Rowland. Ghiotto, Malja, De Vries, Markelov, Fuoco, Sette Câmara, Visoiu and Merhi completed the top 10. Markelov quickly overtook both Racing Engineering and went for the podium. Fuoco overtook De Vries and Malja as well, while Markelov stole P3 from his teammate. He finally overtook Rowland in the last corner, an action which is being investigated because he was pushed off-track.
Result:
1 Leclerc 2 Markelov 3 Rowland 4 Ghiotto 5 Fuoco 6 Malja 7 De Vries 8 Sette Câmara 9 Merhi 10 Nato 11 Ferrucci 12 Visoiu 13 Jeffri 14 Albon 15 Boschung 16 Delétraz 17 Gelael OUT King DNS Latifi