BENSCHOP – The main race of the Formula 2 in Bahrain ended for Richard Verschoor in tears and a lot of frustration. Yesterday the Benschopper won the sprint race. Today he failed to finish.
Verschoor started the race in ninth position. He won a few places at the start, but eventually came through ninth after the first lap. By the 15th lap Veschoor had moved up to third place by postponing his pit stop. Then the trouble started.
After Verschoor had been in for new tires, he dropped back outside the top 10. Then the Trident driver battled Roy Nissany for 10th place and the last World Cup point for a long time. The Israeli pulled out all the stops to keep Verschoor behind him, against the intolerable.
Furious with NIssany
The pushing and pulling between the two only seemed to produce losers, as the chasing drivers came closer and also managed to get into the fight. Verschoor’s race came to an end on lap 27 when Enzo Fittipaldi braked at the end of the start-finish line and tapped De Benschopper around.
Nissany eventually finished 8th and still took points. The victory went to the Frenchman Théo Pourchaire. Behind him, Liam Lawson and Jüri Vips finished 2nd and 3rd.
For example, Verschoor closes the first race weekend with ten points. That puts him in 6th place. Pourchaire leads with 25 points.