Marcus Armstrong wins exhilarating FIA Formula 2 Jeddah debut

Marcus Armstrong has won the opening race of the FIA Formula 2 weekend in Saudi Arabia ahead of exhilarating battles throughout the high-speed Jeddah circuit.

The twenty-lap affair felt much longer as drivers tested the street circuit for the first time in anger, with overtakes happening wherever you looked throughout the field.

"It feels fantastic," said Armstrong, "because its been a tough 18 months in general, so to finally get a trophy, let alone a first place one, it feels good, definitely."

"To see the smile on all of my engineers' faces, and my mechanics as well, its a great reward for a lot of work that hasn't really been rewarded so far this season."

"I'm feeling over the world, but yet again, I know that in about four hours' time I'll be back on track for another race, so we can't really linger on the enjoyment."

"We need to crack on and get straight back into it."

Red Bull junior Liam Lawson started the reverse-grid race on pole position alongside his Marcus Armstrong and the two kiwis went side-by-side into turn one.

It was Armstrong who came out on top, with Lawson running wide and handed the position back to Armstrong as he rejoined.

"Two kiwis going wheel to wheel at turn one, it was getting dicey, but it was cool," said Armstrong.

Further back, Olli Calwell ran into the rear of Guilherme Samaia on the approach to turn one, sending the Brazilian flying into Marino Sato.

The collision brought out the safety car as Caldwell was handed a ten-second penalty for the incident.

Armstrong led the field away well at the restart at the race sprung into life behind him.

Guanyu Zhou attempted a move around the outside of turn one past Christian Lundgaard and the two came together and brought out the virtual safety car.

When the race resumed, all eyes were on Dan Ticktum as he was on a charge through the field.

The Briton was in a spirited battle with Bent Viscaal throughout the better part of a lap before making a lunge down the inside, with both drivers squirrelling off the track.

Ticktum showed a cool head when he handed back the position to Viscaal, and the battle resumed, with Ticktum making his way past in the following laps.

Meanwhile, Juri Vips was past Ralph Boschung for the final podium position, and the day went from bad to worse for the Campos Racing driver as he began to fall down the running order behind Felipe Drugovich.

It was on for young and old as Robert Shwartzman attempted a move around Théo Pourchaire for sixth place, but both ran wide, with Shwartzman keeping the position and Pourchaire falling down to eighth.

Shwartzman then led the assault on Boschung, passing the Swiss driver for fifth and followed by Christian Lundgaard and Théo Pourchaire, Oscar Piastri, Jehan Daruvala, and Dan Ticktum.

The leading PREMA driver was handed a five-second penalty for his clash with Pourchaire, something the field had time to process when the field was neutralised once again behind the safety car.

Pourchaire had found the barriers into turn 22, and retired from the race.

Drawn into the battle for sixth, championship leader Piastri attempted to move around the outside of Lundgaard into turn 23, but Jehan Daruvala was able to thread the needle to sneak past both cars into sixth.

At the front, Armstrong held his gap ahead of Lawson and Vips, taking the race victory to become the tenth winner of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 season.

"We have two more races, so I think the rest of the weekend can be quite strong as well," concluded Armstrong.

Lawson revealed after the race that he had struggled to disengage the speed limiter on the restart, limiting his chances of battling for the lead in the final section of the race.

Oscar Piastri finished ninth after being passed by Ticktum on the final lap, with Bent Viscaal to start the second sprint race on reverse-grid pole position after finishing tenth.

Fellow Aussie Jack Doohan finished eleventh in his first FIA Formula 2 outing.

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