Before the action we’re sure to get from F1 sprint qualifying, we have another Formula 2 race, the 2nd of the 3 this weekend. The first race this morning gave us a big shift in the championship after the championship leader Guanyu Zhou dropped down to 3rd overall behind the 2 Premas.
Written by Olly Radley, Edited by Morgan Holiday
For the second race, Richard Vershoor starts from pole having made a risky pitstop during the first race to progress up to 10th and take pole for this afternoon’s affair. Behind him is Marcus Armstrong who took a solid 9th finish earlier. Dan Ticktum, the home hero, starts from 3rd and he will be desperate to take victory at home like he did last year in 2020. The new championship leader, Oscar Piastri starts from 5th with an opportunity to really extend his lead with his rivals starting from 9th, 10th and 22nd.
So far this season, Christian Lundgaard has had a torrid time of things, with very few points finishes, a win robbed by an issue at Monaco and today his year got even worse, stalling on the grid as the formation lap began. He did eventually start the race, albeit from the pits and the back of the pack.
As the 5 lights went out there wasn’t much movement up and down the order. In and around the Top 5, Lawson and Piastri were attacking and defending hard for the early positions as well as Vips and Drugovich behind them, all battling for an early advantage. Further back we had a big smash through the loop, causing Boschung and Deledda to retire. Boschung had to go onto the grass to avoid his teammate who jerked to the right, this move caused Boschung to spin around his car then rolled backwards towards the apex where Deledda unfortunately couldn’t avoid the pirouetting Swissman.
The Safety Car was required and quickly deployed to move the 2 totalled cars and stayed out for 3 laps, giving the brilliant Silverstone marshals enough time to clear the cars and debris.
Another incident later on in the race involving Jehan Daruvala and Bent Viscaal beached Viscaal’s Trident Car at Stowe. Daruvala, who is backed by Red Bull, had to fix oversteer mid-corner as they were side by side; the Indian punting Viscaal into the gravel trap, which earned Daruvala a broken front wing and a 10-second time penalty.
Throughout the race, Lawson and Piastri, 2 rookies, battled very fiercely for 4th right from the off, which carried on until Lap 18. Piastri had to have a few attempts at nabbing the place from his fellow Oceanian, but come Lap 18 he utilised DRS well to overtake Lawson into Brooklands corner, and then get away from the Red Bull junior.
Going into the final corner to start his final lap, Robert Shwartzman executed a perfect pirouette that cost him points and positions, similar to what Callum Ilott did the year prior that cost him a win at home.
By the time the 21st lap came and the chequered flag was waved over the ‘Hamilton Straight’, Verschoor was in the lead like he had been all race, a brilliant master class victory from the Dutchman to take his first F2 victory and 15 points towards his championship. Marcus Armstrong gets his first F2 podium since Styria 2020 as he comes home 2nd, ahead of Ticktum who will feel bitter-sweet about his 3rd place finish, I’m sure he would’ve hoped for the win but 3rd is a podium nonetheless. Piastri came home 4th to take 8 points, but there were no points for his teammate Shwartzman. Guanyu Zhou, who started last, seemed to be making good progress, moving up to 13th by Lap 8, but by the end of the race, he only managed 12th so no points for the Uni-Virtuosi driver, dropping him further down the championship order.
We have just one more F2 race this weekend, tomorrow morning, but today the F2 action has acted as an entertaining undercard for the main event, F1 Sprint Qualifying later this afternoon. Bye for now.
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