2017 Catalunya FIA Formula 2 round

  2017 Catalunya Formula 2 round

Round details
Round 2 of 11 in the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Layout of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
Location	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.655 km (2.892 mi)
Feature race
Date 13 May 2017 Laps 37 Pole position Driver Charles Leclerc Prema Racing Time 1:29.285 Podium First Charles Leclerc Prema Racing Second Luca Ghiotto Russian Time Third Oliver Rowland DAMS Fastest lap Driver Artem Markelov Russian Time Time 1:34.294 (on lap 29)
Sprint race
Date 14 May 2017 Laps 26 Podium First Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix Second Oliver Rowland DAMS Third Nicholas Latifi DAMS Fastest lap Driver Nicholas Latifi DAMS Time 1:34.811 (on lap 3)

The 2017 Catalunya FIA Formula 2 round were a pair of motor races held on 13 and 14 May 2017 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain as part of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. It was the second round of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship and was run in support of the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix.

Report

Background

The Catalunya round marked the second round of the season and the first to be staged within the European continent. Following the previous round in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc entered the second round as the championship leader, with Artem Markelov and Oliver Rowland in second ad third respectively. Campos Racing announced a driver-change for the Catalunya round, with former-Formula 1 driver, Roberto Merhi replacing Stefano Coletti after only one outing for the Monégasque driver. This turned out to be a one-off for Merhi, although he later returned to race with the Rapax team.

Pirelli supplied the field with P Zero Orange hard tyres and P Zero Yellow soft tyres for the round. The abrasive surface as well as the demanding nature of the track meant that tyres played a vital role in the races - as much as they did in the previous round in Bahrain. ^[1]

Practice and qualifying

The conditions for practice were optimal, opening the door for fast lap times. Leclerc topped the timing sheets in free practice with a time of 1:29.974, followed closely by former teammate, Alexander Albon. Albon completed a time just 0.042 of a second off of Leclerc and given the strong performance in pre-season testing, looked set for an equally strong weekend ahead. In third was another debutant in Sergio Sette Camara, who was half a second off of Leclerc. ^[2]

The immaculate conditions remained for the qualifying session, where Leclerc took his second pole position in succession. Jordan King set the initial benchmark with Nyck de Vries right behind him. As time went in qualifying, the times started to tumble until eventually Luca Ghiotto set a time of 1:29.478 to go fastest and seemed sure to be the pole position time. Elsewhere around the track, Artem Markelov's fire extinguisher let loose in his car, hampering his run and Nabil Jeffri ground to a halt, owing problems with his car. This subsequently brought out the red flag with six minutes remaining. Once the session resumed, the remainder of the field looked forward to eclipse Ghiotto's time. Alexander Albon improved his time to take fourth, but Leclerc went purple in the final two sectors to go two-tenths faster than Ghiotto and take the pole position for the second time in succession. ^[3]

Races

Feature Race

Leclerc led into turn one, but found himself under fire from Ghiotto and Albon after locking up. Ghiotto lunged down the inside into turn four, but couldn't make the move stick. The battle ensued for the next few corners as Leclerc struggled to maintain a rhythm following the lock-up. Artem Markelov and Antonio Fuoco came together at the end of the first sector which caused damage to Fuoco's front wing. He along with Johnny Cecotto came in for an early pitstop owing to damage brought on in the opening laps after having run into the back of Louis Deletraz at the end of the opening lap. Leclerc began to pull away from Ghiotto, who began to fall into the clutches of Albon, who subsequently made a move into turn one and took second place from Ghiotto. Leclerc pitted on lap seven, along with Matsushita, leaving Albon with the lead of the race. Canamasas ground to a halt on lap 10 owing to problems with the car. Despite this, he did not pull off the track to retire - instead remaining on the track and gesturing to the marshals asking for a push-start. The dangerous position of the car initially brought out the virtual safety car and eventually, the safety car itself. Eventually, the mercurial Spaniard conceded defeat and retired from the race. As the race resumed, Leclerc and Ghiotto began to scythe through the pack. Rowland eventually pressured Albon into a mistake to take the lead of the race, although both still had an impending pitstop to make. Eventually, the leaders made their stops, handing the lead once again to Leclerc. With the fresh rubber, Albon and Rowland were staging a comeback with both drivers challenging for the podium toward the latter stages of the race. Rowland gained on the third-placed Matsushita and eventually passed him on the main straight with use of DRS. Jordan King and Artem Markelov engaged in an epic battle for eighth spot which ultimately saw Markelov prevail to take the spot and pole position for the sprint race. For Charles Leclerc though, the win was rather comfortable and proved once again that he and the Prema outfit looked to be the team to beat for this years championship.

Sprint Race

Nicholas Latifi made a blinder and shot through to the lead heading into turn one. Ralph Boschung stalled on the grid and contact between Nyck de Vries and Antonio Fuoco brought out the safety car before the end of the first lap. As the race resumed, Latifi maintained a relatively comfortable lead as the race remained stagnant for some laps. After a lock-up from Malja, Matsushita took second place and proceeded to pursue Latifi, whilst Rowland passed him further down the circuit. After battling for a number of laps, Leclerc finally passed Albon for fifth place and soon thereafter passed Malja for fourth. Latifi seemed to have had the race wrapped up until lap 22 when he ran wide and speared off into the gravel. He recovered and got back on track, but not before Matsushita passed him for the lead. His teammate Rowland passed him further down the circuit, as well. Matsushita remained in the lead and took his first win of the season, with the DAMS pair of Rowland and Latifi taking the remaining slots on the podium.

Classifications

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
1	1	Charles Leclerc	Prema Racing	1:29.285	–	1
2	5	Luca Ghiotto	Russian Time	1:29.478	+0.193	2
3	18	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	1:29.550	+0.265	3
4	15	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	1:29.585	+0.300	4
5	8	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1:29.732	+0.447	5
6	9	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1:29.744	+0.459	6
7	20	Norman Nato	Arden International	1:29.790	+0.505	7
8	2	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Racing	1:29.834	+0.549	8
9	10	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:29.885	+0.600	9
10	7	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:29.975	+0.690	10
11	3	Louis Delétraz	Racing Engineering	1:30.046	+0.761	11
12	11	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:30.065	+0.780	12
13	6	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	1:30.177	+0.892	13
14	14	Sérgio Sette Câmara	MP Motorsport	1:30.231	+0.946	14
15	12	Roberto Merhi	Campos Racing	1:30.389	+1.104	15
16	19	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Rapax	1:30.441	+1.156	16
17	21	Sean Gelael	Arden International	1:30.772	+1.487	17
18	4	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	1:30.814	+1.529	18
19	17	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	1:31.148	+1.863	19
20	16	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	1:32.303	+3.018	20
Source: [4]

Feature Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time / Gap	Grid	Points
1	1	Charles Leclerc	Prema Racing	37	1:02:33.684	1	25 (4)
2	5	Luca Ghiotto	Russian Time	37	+3.730	2	18
3	9	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	37	+11.146	6	15
4	7	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	37	+14.103	10	12
5	8	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	37	+17.319	5	10
6	10	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	37	+23.879	9	8
7	4	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	37	+24.779	18	6
8	6	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	37	+25.403	13	4 (2)
9	15	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	37	+30.967	4	2
10	18	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	37	+43.832	3	1
11	3	Louis Delétraz	Racing Engineering	37	+50.283	11
12	11	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	37	+58.201 1	12
13	2	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Racing	37	+1:05.970	8
14	14	Sérgio Sette Câmara	MP Motorsport	37	+1:05.973 2	14
15	21	Sean Gelael	Arden International	37	+1:08.333	17
16	20	Norman Nato	Arden International	37	+1:09.241	7
17	19	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Rapax	37	+1:27.784 1	16
18	16	Nabil Jeffri	Rapax	37	+1:29.521	20
19	12	Roberto Merhi	Campos Racing	33	Brakes	15
Ret	17	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	8	Brakes	19
Fastest lap: Artem Markelov (Russian Time) – 1:46.038 (on lap 24)
Source: [4]

Notes

1. ^ – Boschung and Cecotto Jr. received 20-second penalties after having been deemed to have insufficiently slowed for the VSC (Virtual Safety Car). ^[5]

2. ^ – Câmara was handed a five-second time penalty during the race. Having failed to take the penalty earlier in the race, an additional five-second penalty was given. ^[5]

Sprint Race

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time / Gap	Grid	Points
1	7	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	26	42:20.450	5	15
2	9	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	26	+3.309	6	12
3	10	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	26	+4.621	3	10 (2)
4	1	Charles Leclerc	Prema Racing	26	+9.177	8	8
5	15	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	26	+15.333	9	6
6	4	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	26	+17.987	2	4
7	5	Luca Ghiotto	Russian Time	26	+18.092	7	2
8	8	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	26	+21.135	4	1
9	6	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	26	+21.552	1
10	19	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Rapax	26	+30.744	17
11	17	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	26	+31.549	20
12	12	Roberto Merhi	Campos Racing	26	+34.434	19
13	20	Norman Nato	Arden International	26	+35.271	16
14	3	Louis Delétraz	Racing Engineering	26	+38.090	11
15	14	Sérgio Sette Câmara	MP Motorsport	26	+39.446	14
16	21	Sean Gelael	Arden International	26	+46.950	15
17	11	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	26	+50.226	12
18	16	Nabil Jeffri	Rapax	26	+59.912	18
Ret	18	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	0	Collision	10
Ret	2	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Racing	0	Collision	13
Fastest lap: Nicholas Latifi (DAMS) – 1:34.811 (on lap 3)
Source: [4]

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Charles Leclerc 73 2 Oliver Rowland 47 3 Luca Ghiotto 38 4 Artem Markelov 34 5 Nobuharu Matsushita 31

Teams' Championship standings Pos Team Points 1 Prema Racing 75 2 DAMS 75 3 Russian Time 72 4 ART Grand Prix 52 5 MP Motorsport 26

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. http://www.fiaformula2.com/News-Room/News/2017/05_May/P-Zero-Hard-and-Soft-tyres-for-Barcelona/
2. http://www.fiaformula2.com/News-Room/News/2017/05_May/Leclerc-tops-free-practice-in-Barcelona-/
3. http://www.fiaformula2.com/News-Room/News/2017/05_May/Leclerc-flies-to-Barcelona-pole-/
4. "2017 FIA Formula 2 Spain results". FIA Formula 2 Championship . FIA Formula 2. 14 May 2017. Archived from the original on 3 November 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
5. "ROUND 2 FEATURE RACE PENALTIES". FIA Formula 2 Championship . FIA Formula 2. 13 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.

External links

• Official website

Previous round: 2017 Bahrain FIA Formula 2 round	FIA Formula 2 Championship 2017 season	Next round: 2017 Monaco FIA Formula 2 round
Previous round: 2016 Catalunya GP2 and GP3 Series rounds	Catalunya FIA Formula 2 round	Next round: 2018 Barcelona FIA Formula 2 round