DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi comfortably finished first in the Formula 2 sprint race at Spa-Francorchamps to take his first victory in the series this season.
The Canadian driver – who has only appeared on the F2 once this season until today – inherited reverse grid pole after finishing eighth in the feature race, and was able to keep ahead of the field when the sprint race started.
Feature race winner Nyck de Vries got a fantastic start to move up to third from eighth position by the end of the first lap, and moved up into second place on lap 5 after passing Luca Ghiotto.
While De Vries tried to put pressure on Latifi over the next few laps he started to fall back in the final quarter of the race, with Latifi winning the race by over 10 seconds at the chequered flag.
Having used up more of his tyres De Vries had Carlin’s Lando Norris catching him, with the British driver looking to close the gap to championship leader George Russell.
By the penultimate lap Norris was less than a second behind, setting up for a battle to take second, although Latifi’s DAMS team-mate Alexander Albon and Russian Time’s Artem Markelov were closing in on the pair.
Norris was able to get past De Vries at the end of the Kemmel Straight on the final lap to take second, but Albon was able to take advantage at Les Combes to move up to third.
While Albon was noticeably the quicker of the two drivers, Norris was able to hold on to second place at the line to reduce the championship gap to Russell – who was only able to finish in seventh – down to five points.
Markelov was close to being able to nick fourth from De Vries at the line just like he did with Ghiotto in the feature race this weekend, but the Dutch driver was able to hold onto fourth.
Ghiotto fell down the order during the race having originally started in second place, but was able to stay in sixth place at the chequered flag.
Trident’s Arjun Maini made his way through into the top 10 during the final four laps of the race to finish eighth ahead of Norris’ Carlin team-mate Sergio Sette Camara, taking the final point scoring position of the race.
