The Formula 2 feature race at Spa-Francorchamps was won in dominant style by Charles Leclerc, who finished the race with a staggering 26 second lead over his nearest challenger.
At one stage, after his pitstop, Leclerc was a staggering three seconds faster than his rivals and was in a completely different league to the rest of the pack all race.
DAMS racer Rowland tried a move on Leclerc at the first corner, but after failing to get ahead, he quickly dropped back and fell into the clutches of Markelov in the final laps.
Markelov’s Russian Time car was on soft tyres after going for an alternative strategy and he was quickly catching Rowland, and was right behind him on the last lap.
He darted left and right, eventually finding a gap around the outside of the final corner. Even though he was forced wide onto the run-off, he still had superior traction with fresher tyres.
It really was a proper photo finish in the fight for P2, but Markelov just edged clear by 0.072s at the line. A complete contrast to the huge advantage Leclerc ended up with!
Update:
Leclerc and Rowland were disqualified from the feature race for excessive plank wear, so Markelov was promoted to the win even with a time penalty for gaining an advantage by going off track.
