Théo Pourchaire won the Formula 2 feature race at Imola after an attritional race that saw other leaders crash out.
Jüri Vips had taken pole during the disrupted, dark and mixed conditions qualifying session on Friday, Ayumu Iwasa lining up alongside him with Jack Doohan and Ralph Boschung on the second row.
Boschung was immediately into the lead off the line, only to be passed by Roy Nissany, up from sixth, into the first Tamburello. Iwasa held on to third, Vips relegated to fourth while Doohan was immediately out of contention with damage from colliding with first Dennis Hauger and then the rear of Vips’ car.
Hauger was left out of the race from the contact, his car stranded in gravel near the pit exit, prompting an immediate Safety Car to be called. Doohan managed to limp back to the pits but his race had effectively been ended by the contact before reaching turn one.
The race restarted on lap five, Nissany holding the lead from Boschung and Iwasa. Nissany, Boschung, Iwasa, Vips and Theo Pourchaire were all on the supersoft tyre, while Jehan Daruvala in sixth was the highest of the medium tyre starters, having moved up from eighth following Doohan and Hauger’s retirements.
Vips lost it into Villeneuve on lap six, hitting a polystyrene board and ricocheting back across the track to end his race in the barriers. Another Safety Car was called, with drivers on supersofts immediately heading into the pits at the start of lap eight. Daruvala inherited the lead and took the restart on lap 10, with sprint race winner Marcus Armstrong and Liam Lawson behind him.
The top ten on the restart was made up of drivers who had started on the medium tyre, bar Nissany in tenth, who effective still held the net lead of the race.
DRS was enabled on lap 12 but the pack stayed largely stable, bar Pourchaire passing Boschung for net second, until on lap 20 Nissany made an error that saw him clatter the wall out of the second Rivazza and into the pit lane entry.
For drivers on the…