Formula 2 is back after the summer break sees a triple header to start the second half of the season and wow its been a good weekend. Here’s everything that took place over the weekend at Spa.
Free Practice
Well it wouldn’t be Spa with a bit of unpredictable weather. Ralph Boschung returned to his Campos Racing Car topping the free practice on Friday morning. The weather which caught some drivers out with the rain but that didn’t faze Boschung when he topped the table with a time of 2:01.376 ahead of Amaury Cordeel and Ayumu Iwasa.
Free practice saw a halt by a red flag caused by Iwasa which was on a fast lap 0.742s up in the first two sectors but unfortunately led to a huge spin into the gravel through Stavelot, this was moments after Boschung set the fastest lap.
With 8 minutes to go free practice resumed but with rainfall continuing on saw both Enzo Fittipaldi and David Beckmann go off in separate incidents at turn 1, these led to another red flag and was decided not to resume the session with 6 minutes left on the clock.
Qualifying
Similar to free practice there was rain on the horizon, drivers tried to go out on the soft tyres to set their best time before the rain was set to come down. Jack Doohan on a fast lap locked up and spun on his second warm up lap proving how tricky the track was for qualifying. However he wasn’t the only driver to suffer a spin in this session, Juri Vips spun out coming out of turn 1 but unlike Doohan he was unable to keep his engine going thus resulting in the red flag.
With 23 minutes left to go drivers did not hesitate to waste anytime to go back on track, with clouds and fog looming in the distance.
Top position was consistently changing, Marcus Armstrong, Dennis Hauger and Logan Sargeant all close in fighting for the top spot.
While drivers went back to pits something that has been seen in a lot of the qualifying sessions this season Felipe Drugovich choose to stay out and was good enough to have provisional pole going under the 2 minute mark but only just with a time of 1:59:990s.
However that was short lived with David Beckmann was looked to take the spot but with traffic led him to bail out. Boschung took pole for only a moment as Jehan Daruvla taking it but again was short lived as Jack Doohan went faster.
But it was our current leader in the driver standings Felipe Drugovich taking the top spot with a time of 1:58.232, seven-tenths cleared from any other driver. And it was a Brazilian front row for the feature race with Enzo Fittipaldi going second fastest, followed by Logan Sargeant and Doohan. Theo Pourchaire second in the standings was able to finish in the top 10 with a p8 position.
Sprint Race
Well drama unfolded before the race could even start, with Ralph Boschung taking pole for the reversed gird after finishing p10 in qualifying it was the driver in p2 position that caused the start of a dramatic sprint race. Jehan Daruvala’s day was brought to an early end before the lights had even gone out as the PREMA Racing driver pulled over on the reconnaissance lap. Daruvala’s absence left the door wide open for someone to slip through the gap in the P2 slot and fifth-placed Lawson exuded confidence off the line. Dipping a toe into the grass to avoid a slow starting Pourchaire, the New Zealander immediately leapt up into second and put the pressure on Boschung, who nailed a textbook getaway to hold on to the lead.
There was major battling for Pourchaire, Liam Lawson, Richard Verschoor and Doohan to the point it went 3 wide between them but unfortunately it was Pourchaire who could not make it work letting the other two drivers pass.
Lap 11 lead to even more drama with Logan Sargeant the Williams academy driver losing his rear end on the exit of Pouhon and skidding into the barriers thus triggering a safety car. Under the safety car Drugovich decided to take the risk and pit for the softs moving from sixth to twelfth but it paid off he was faster and by lap 15 the safety car went in and was overtaking all the way to p5.
But out front Liam Lawson took victory comfortable 3.8s clear of second place driver Doohan who overtook Boschung. with DRS enabled on the last lap, Drugovich used this to past Verschoor on the inside of Rivage to cross the line 4th, strengthening his gap of the drivers championship as his rival crossed the line in P6.
Feature Race
It was a double podium weekend for two of the drivers, but strategy played a key role in this feature race.
Drugovich surged off the line and Doohan cleared Enzo Fittipaldi to take second into La Source. David Beckmann
followed through down the Kemmel Straight on the Charouz Racing System driver at Les Combes to take third.
Logan Sargeant dropped down also, falling from third on the grid to seventh on the opening lap. Lap 2 Lawson goes for Fittipaldi going side by side into Les Combes leading Fittipaldi to take the escape road and held the position over the Carlin driver but ultimately had to give up his position due to leaving the track and gaining an advantage but this didn’t take place until lap 5 but strategically allowed the Brazilian driver to enable DRS to once again battle for the position but Liam emerged out better to take 4th.
It was heartbreak for second driver in the championship who suffered a DNF due to an issue in the car, could see him in clips very visibly upset as this allowed Drugovich to take an even larger lead in the standings. Drugovich being informed of this lead to a more reserve driving style throughout the race.
Towards the end of the race it was Jack Doohan who had things under control out in front ahead of Drugovich and took victory without a threat on the final lap. The Virtuosi Racing driver pulled off an undercut and held the MP Motorsport driver at arm’s length for the remainder of the race to secure the victory. The MP driver extended his Championship lead with another podium while Lawson claimed his second podium of the weekend in third. Verschoor ended up fourth ahead of Fittipaldi, Sargeant, Beckmann, Iwasa, Vips and Novalak in the top 10.
Standings as it is
With only a handful of races left Drugovich’s lead of 205 points is extended to a 43 point gap between him and Theo Pourchaire, Logan Sargeant remains in third with 127, and with double podiums for both Doohan and Lawsons gives them fourth with 121 points for Doohan and fifth with 114 points for Lawson for the season so far.
So what’s next?
Well as mentioned its a triple header since returning from the break with our next race taking place in the Netherlands at Zandvoort on September 4-6. Will Drugovich extend his lead even more? Will there be any surprises, check in this weekend to see how it all unfolds!