Ayumu Iwasa was cool, has brought home his first victory in Formula 2 in Le Castellet, having narrowly missed out on a maiden win in Silverstone. The DAMS driver performed a perfect overtake on the opening lap to pull ahead of his rivals and reached the chequered flag 8.6s seconds clear of Théo Pourchaire in second.
The crowd welcomed Pourchaire’s second place finish, as the French driver, who had been demoted off the podium after a penalty in the Sprint Race, charged his way through from fifth to second. ART Grand Prix topped off their home race weekend with a double podium, as rookie Frederik Vesti came home in third, having started in third.
A late charge from Felipe Drugovich on the soft tyres saw him pass the chequered flag in fourth, and a mistake by Jack Doohan ended his podium chances as he was forced to settle for fifth. Sprint Race winner Liam Lawson continued to revive his 2022 campaign in sixth, ahead of Jehan Daruvala.
Clément Novalak took to a different strategy, stretching the soft Pirelli compound out all the way from Lap 8 to the chequered flag to snatch four points in eighth. Roy Nissany was the biggest climber, finishing in ninth despite a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, whilst Enzo Fittipaldi fought back to round out the top 10.
After warmer temperatures caused mayhem earlier on in the weekend, the cooler morning conditions in Le Castellet allowed the grid to split their strategies. The top five opted to start on the softer compound, but that didn’t help pole sitter Logan Sargeant, who suffered wheel spin off the line and dropped down to third.
Doohan was quick off the mark to charge into the lead in the opening two corners. However, the Australian driver had company in the form of Iwasa, who immediately put him under pressure. Despite the lack of DRS, the Japanese racer had got his tyres into the perfect window and used the tow down the Mishal Straight to leap frog the blue Virtuosi Racing car up into Turn 6.
Nailing his getaway once again, Pourchaire had his eyes firmly fixed on the front into Turn 1. However, he found his path blocked by teammate Vesti, giving Jüri Vips a chance to sweep past the Sauber Academy junior around the outside of Turn 3 up into fifth.
Further back, Lawson was also making moves as he climbed up two places into seventh on the opening lap. His fellow New Zealander Marcus Armstrong’s struggles continued, having already dropped from eighth to 11th, the Hitech Grand Prix driver then spun after contact with Van Amersfoort Racing’s David Beckmann at Turn 13. PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger also got tangled up in the incident.
The Safety Car was deployed quickly as the marshals picked up both Armstrong and the stricken Virtuosi of Marino Sato, who’s race ended early. Thankfully for the hard compound runners, the Safety Car ended at the end of Lap 5 – just on the cusp of the pit stop window.
Having fired up his tyres early, Iwasa pulled away from Doohan on the restart, as Lawson made a bold move on the inside of Drugovich to take seventh. Daruvala also put his foot to the floor to go the long way around the outside of Signes to take 10th back from Nissany.
Novalak became the first driver to pit on Lap 7, despite starting on the hard tyre. Two laps later and Pourchaire became the first of the front runners to bolt on a set of hard tyres from fifth. A clean stop allowed the ART driver to come out in P12, meanwhile Juri Vips’ stop didn’t go according to plan. An issue with the left rear tyre left him stationary and sent him tumbling down the order. Once he returned to the track, he instantly began to struggle against Novalak and Fittipaldi on their warmer tyres.
Sargeant also fell victim to pit stop issues on Lap 13; the Carlin driver was unable to pull away from his pit box and was forced to retire, having looked like a podium could have been on the cards. One lap later and Doohan entered the pits in an attempt to get the undercut on race leader Iwasa, but he was forced to wait for Drugovich to pass before being released. Coming out of the pits in eighth sent him straight into Pourchaire’s path and there was nothing Doohan could do to defend on cold tyres.
Pourhaire’s pace put Iwasa under pressure and to avoid losing too much time, DAMS decided to pit him one lap later and sent him back out in clean air in fourth. Vesti also managed to get the overcut on Pourchaire, but was immediately vulnerable, with his ART teammate and Doohan flying past and up into sixth and seventh, respectively.
Iwasa regained the race lead as Daruvala – the last driver to enter the pits – did so, and wasted no time in extending his lead out front, helped by the ongoing battle for second between Pourchaire and Doohan. Doohan darted up the inside of the chicane on Lap 19, however his risk failed to pay off with the Virtuosi driver going too deep into the corner and running over the kerb, which caused him to lose his rear end and sent him into the path of Pourchaire. The Frenchman managed avoid the Doohan, who then lost out to Vesti in the second ART.
In the battle for the final few points, seventh-placed Nissany was under huge pressure from Richard Verschoor. However, the Trident driver soon found himself under attack as Daruvala lunged down the inside of the Dutchman for eighth before overtaking Nissany the following lap.
Out front, Iwasa’s gap to Pourchaire continued to grow with almost a second being added lap by lap. Determined to earn his second podium of the weekend, Drugovich’s soft tyre advantage came into play as he closed to within a second of Doohan. There was nothing the Australian could do as the MP Motorsport driver breezed past him on the run into Turn 7 and the Championship leader set about catching up to Vesti as the final laps ticked down.
On the final lap, Verschoor reported over the radio that something was on fire, and the Trident came to a halt on the pit straight and his potential P8 finish vanished before his eyes – promoting Fittipaldi into the points he had begun the day down in 19th.
However, the late drama didn’t stop Iwasa from storming to his first F2 victory at his team’s home race, ahead of Pourchaire and Vesti, who managed to hold Drugovich off all the way to the finish line.
Ayumu Iwasa, race winner for DAMS said:
“Finally, I got P1 in a Feature Race! I’m really, really happy about this. Also, I want to say thank you to my supporters. Also, I’m happy about winning in France because I’m racing for DAMS, so it’s really positive for them.
“The pace was really good, and the car was amazing for me, so I could manage the tyres well. This is really positive for the next event, so I’ll keep pushing to the end to get on the podium and win.”