Felipe Drugovich celebrates victory ins his debut round in Formula 2

This weekend, the Red Bull Ring, in Austria, was the stage for a perfect debut of the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich in Formula 2, the last category before Formula 1. After taking a qualifying session in which he guaranteed a place in the front row on the starting grid on Friday (3) and finishing 8th in the first race on Saturday, this Sunday (5) he won the race two, becoming the main highlight of the season’s opening round.

Felipe Drugovich, using the regulation that determines the inversion of the order of arrival in the first eight positions in race one, started in pole position in race two in Austria. The Brazilian driver made a good start and remained at the top, leading the group that brought the Swiss Louis Deletraz into second place.

The first laps of the race were marked by three safety car entries, which naturally caused three restarts, when Felipe Drugovich again knew how to impose himself against the competitors. After the race resumed its normality, the racing driver of the dutch team MP Motorsport remained without making mistakes and scored the best lap of the race several times, always opening up an advantage over Deletraz.

In the last laps, already more than one second ahead of the Swiss driver, Drugovich was not concerned with the possibility that Deletraz could use the DRS and try a final approach. The Racing driver from Maringá (PR) opened an even greater distance, which would reach 2,469 seconds in the flag to win in his debut round in Formula 2.

The 8th place conquered on Saturday, the victory earned on Sunday and the points obtained for having established the best lap of the race (1: 17.277) afforded Felipe Drugovich the third place in the championship standings, 6 points from the British Callum Illot and 2 points from the Russian Robert Shwartzmann.

“Extremely happy is not even close to how I'm feeling today”, summarized the 20 year-old Brazilian Racing driver. “Since yesterday (Saturday) the car has already shown good performance, but an error in the car's balance didn't let us translate that on the track. The tires are very sensitive and if we don't have a good balance it is difficult to maintain a good pace. We fixed that for today and then I managed to run the race according to my dreams”, added Felipe Drugovich.

The need for the safety car several times hindered Felipe Drugovich's strategy a little. “There were several restarts and I always tried to establish a difference of one second for Deletraz so he could not use DRS, which is very important for all drivers. When I finally did it, I was able to relax and open a good advantage in the last part of the race”, he finished.

Formula 2 returns to the same track on next weekend, again as Formula 1 preliminary at the Red Bull Ring, for its second double round of the season

Felipe Drugovich has the support of Drugovich Auto Peças, which operates in spare parts for heavy trucks and buses business segment, and Noma, highlight in road implements in Brazil.

The complete result of the second Formula 2 race in 2020:
1 Felipe Drugovich (BRA) – MP Motorsport – 28 laps – 42:05.526
2 Louis Deletraz (SUI) – Charouz Racing System – 2.469
3 Dan Ticktum (GBR) – DAMS – 2.790
4 Robert Shwartzmann (RUS) – Prema Racing – 3.330
5 Christian Lundgaard (DIN) – ART Grand Prix – 5.396
6 Nobuharu Matsushita (JAP) – MP Motorsport – 9.177
7 Mick Schumacher (ALE) – Prema Racing – 9.741
8 Jack Aitken (GBR) – Campos Racing – 14.041
9 Callum Illot (GBR) – UNI-Virtuosi – 40 voltas – 14.272
10 Nikita Mazepin (RUS) – Hitech Grand Prix – 15.395
11 Yuki Tsunoda (JAP) – Carlin – 17.528
12 Roy Nissany (ISR) – Trident – 18.471
13 Pedro Piquet (BRA) – Charouz Racing System – 19.118
14 Guanyu Zhou (CHI) – UNI-Virtuosi – 19.668
15 Guilherme Samaia (BRA) – Campos Racing – 22.082
16 Jehan Daruvala (IND) – Carlin – 24.290
17 Marino Sato (JAP) – Trident – 24.909
18 Artem Markelov (RUS) – BWT HWA Racelab – 1 lap
DNF Marcus Armstrong (NZL) – ART Grand Prix
DNF Luca Ghiotto (ITA) – Hitech Grand Prix
DNF Sean Gelael (INA) – DAMS
DNF Giuliano Alesi (FRA) – BWT HWA Racelab

KG COM Assessoria de Comunicação - Erno Drehmer (MTb/RS 14.706)