History Books Miss Out Leclerc's Spa Brilliance

FORMULA 2 SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (B) AUGUST 26-27 ROUND 8/11

- Alex Kalinauckas

THE HISTORY BOOKS WILL STATE THAT Charles Leclerc came away from Spa in 2017 with just 10 points, pole and a fifth-place finish to his name. But that would not even be scratching the surface of the saga of this Formula 2 weekend. 

Leclerc arrived in Belgium after a month “really disconnected from racing” and no doubt hoping that his disqualification from qualifying in Hungary and his mechanical dramas in the second race there were but a blot in the past.

But in practice the Ferrari Formula 1 junior encountered his first issue. Running through Eau Rouge early in the session his cockpit fire extinguisher went off, which cost him a huge chunk of running and left him relying on team-mate Antonio Fuoco’s set-up feedback.

No matter, the 19-year-old still took a seventh pole of the season in a wild wet session, ahead of DAMS duo Nicholas Latifi and Oliver Rowland. Same old story.

That familiar theme continued in the feature race. First the luckless, but impressive in qualifying, Latifi failed to start, undone by a “broken valve that went into the piston, [which] exploded”, per DAMS boss Francois Sicard.

Then, after fending off Rowland at La Source – driving over his title rival’s front wing in the process, but there were no hard feelings from the Briton – he simply shot away from the pack. Rowland briefly threatened to make an undercut pit strategy work, but by the finish Leclerc was 26.6 seconds clear out front, taking a crushing sixth win of 2017.

Artem Markelov finished second, less than 0.1s ahead of Rowland after using a contra-strategy – medium-to-soft tyres – to hunt down P2. The pair, each mindful of their recent clashes at Silverstone and in Hungary, were respectful right up until the last corner.