Fredrick Vesti woke up today with one job to do, and that was to take the maximum points possible from todays sprint race. Needless to say, he did just that, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the drivers during the race.

Lap One

Vesti would line up 2nd for the sprint alongside Enzo Fittipaldi. Vesti got a good launch and went side by side with Fittipaldi through turns 1-2 with Fittipaldi emerging ahead in turn 3. Vesti went for a lunge into the hairpin at turn 5 putting him in the lead as they made their way down the straight. Behind them, Hadjar and Verschoor took advantage of the slipstream as they went nearly 4-wide for the lead approaching turn 6. Fittipaldi emerged in the lead from Hadjar, Verschoor, and Vesti who was now in fourth with some serious work to do if he wanted to win the sprint.

Behind them Juan Manuel Correa had a spin at turn 3, making contact with Victor Martins which ruined both of their races and brought out the safety car.

Mid Race

The safety car came in on lap 6 and Fittipaldi immediately pulled away from his rivals as Vesti got to work, passing Verschoor for 3rd place and chasing after Isack Hadjar for second. On lap 10 Vesti had caught up to back of Hadjar going around the outside at turn 9 to take second place with 13 laps to go. Hadjar continued to drop down the order, being passed by Verschoor on lap 13, Meanwhile Vesti was pushing for the fastest lap to get the extra point for his championship.

Last Laps

By lap 20 Vesti was looming large in the mirrors of Fittipaldi and passed him for the lead of the race going into turn 6 with his charge taking him from 4th to 1st in just 14 laps. Behind them, Hadjar had been valiantly defending 4th place from Dennis Hauger for most of the race but Hauger got the better of him on the last lap moving himself up to 4th.

But no one could stop Fredrick Vesti who took a well deserved victory and reduced to gap to Pourchaire to just 16 points. Vesti will still have lots of work to do tomorrow in the feature race starting from 9th but he’s given himself the best chance possible with his performance today.

Assuming Pourchaire doesn’t score tomorrow, Vesti would have to finish 3rd with the fastest lap or better to crown himself champion, however considering that Pourchaire went from 14th to 7th in todays 23 lap sprint there’s every chance that he’ll do the same as today or even better during tomorrows 33 lap Feature race.

Sprint Race Results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Frederik Vesti	Prema	42m24.625s
2	Enzo Fittipaldi	Carlin	+3.893s
3	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	+6.310s
4	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+13.682s
5	Isack Hadjar	Hitech GP	+14.440s
6	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing	+14.713s
7	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	+15.228s
8	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	+16.508s
9	Zane Maloney	Carlin	+17.573s
10	Ollie Bearman	Prema	+19.810s
11	Roman Stanek	Trident	+22.690s
12	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	+26.673s
13	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	+26.720s
14	Roy Nissany	PHM by Charouz	+27.309s
15	Josh Mason	PHM by Charouz	+33.640s
16	Paul Aron	Trident	+37.040s
17	Amaury Cordeel	Virtuosi Racing	+37.842s
18	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	+41.833s
19	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+43.806s
20	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	+47.128s
21	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	+48.688s
Ret	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing
Fastest lap: Martins, 1m38.722sChampionship standings 1 Pourchaire 193   2 Vesti 177   3 Iwasa 153   4 Doohan 143   5 Martins 131   6 Bearman 130   7 Fittipaldi 124   8 Verschoor 108   9 Hauger 107   10 Maloney 96