A staggering 10-weeks had passed since F2 was last in action in Sochi, so you can forgive the drivers for any rustiness. Unfortunately, they had to navigate the unforgiving Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which is making its debut in the series.
There were also several driver changes leading up to the weekend as four graduates from the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship were promoted, MP Motorsport replaced both Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendelli with runner up Jack Doohan and third-place finisher Clément Novalak. Seventh place finisher and new Williams junior, Logan Sargeant, replaced Jake Hughes at HWA in the team’s penultimate round before exiting the Championship. Campos selected eighth-place finisher, Olli Caldwell, to replace David Beckmann. So there were quite a few fresh faces around the F2 paddock.
After a chaotic trio of races, here are the report cards from round 7 of the 2021 Championship:
Top of the class:
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 1st | Sprint 1: 8th | Sprint 2: 1st (+FL) | Feature: 1st (+FL)
Oscar took a huge step towards the title with two victories, becoming only the second driver after Charles Leclerc to secure four successive pole positions in Formula 2.
He kicked off in the perfect manner by setting a 1:40.878 in Friday’s qualifying session, nearly two tenths clear of teammate Robert Schwartzman. The reverse grid Sprint Race was a case of survival, Oscar moved up two places to secure some vital points.
From P3 on the grid in SR2, Oscar was quickly past Trident’s Bent Viscaal and pressured Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala into a mistake at turn 1. The Indian driver cut the first corner and would get a five-second penalty. Due to a number of safety cars Oscar was destined to win the race, but he still took the lead with a neat move into turn 27 to at least take the chequered flag P1.
Sunday’s Feature Race was curtailed by a dramatic startline shunt involving ART’s Théo Pourchaire and Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi with the former stalling on the grid. The race resumed after a delay and with half points, but would only run four laps before being red-flagged due to another incident. Piastri led the pack from the start and took the fastest lap to boot.
36.5 points in the bag! Which means that Piastri has a huge 51.5-point lead heading into the final round, needing to be just 44 points clear after SR1 at Abu Dhabi, we could be crowing the latest F2 Champion with a few races to spare! It’s also worth noting that with the help of Schwartzman, Prema secured the Teams’ Championship for a second consecutive season.
Marcus Armstrong – Qualifying: 9th | Sprint 1: 1st | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature: 8th
The Kiwi has had another difficult season in F2, so I was really pleased for Marcus to see him take a long-awaited maiden victory in the series. Having qualified in P9, Marcus made a storming start from the front row of the reverse-gird SR1 to take the lead. After which he never looked back and nailed two safety car restarts on his way to victory.
Fortunes changed quickly in SR2 when he was the innocent party in Clément Novalak’s first corner incident, with Marcus retiring after being tagged into a spin by the Frenchman. The Feature Race saw Marcus take P8 and a handful of points in a difficult race for the series.
The results may not change Armstrong’s position in the Championship (P13), but the SR1 performance should give him a great confidence boost going forward.
Jack Doohan – Qualifying: 16th | Sprint 1: 11th | Sprint 2: 7th (promoted to 5th due to penalties) | Feature: 13th
The Australian driver will be hoping to follow the footsteps of fellow countryman and Champion-elect Piastri in 2022, and this weekend was a great building block to lay his foundation with.
Considering it was his first weekend in the Championship, 16th was a respectable qualifying position, and he would make excellent progress in SR1 to finish P11. In SR2, the MP Motorsport driver would claim his maiden points crossing the line in 7th, later promoted two further places due to penalties for drivers in front. Not only did Jack claim points, but he was embroiled in a fascinating duel with Carlin’s Dan Ticktum for a large portion of the race.
Jack couldn’t do much with only four laps of racing in the Feature Race, but the early signs are positive that Doohan would fit in well in the series should he secure a full-time drive for next season.
Ralph Boschung – Qualifying: 7th | Sprint 1: 15th | Sprint 2: 9th | Feature: 3rd
The Campos driver’s experience shone this weekend, as he landed his first podium in F2 at the 77th time of asking. Despite struggling for pace in SR1, a decent recovery drive got Boschung to the fringes of the points finishes, but the real prize came on Sunday.
It may have come in fortunate circumstances with the few laps they did, but Ralph had a really strong start and the P7 from Friday’s qualifying was the perfect catalyst for the result. That combined with the news of securing another season in F2 for 2022, results in things looking quite rosy in the Boschung camp.
The struggle bus:
Guilherme Samaia – Qualifying: 20th | Sprint 1: DNF | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature: 17th
Driving the struggle bus from Jeddah is the Brazilian, in all honestly the distance to Abu Dhabi is probably further than what he was able to drive over the course of the weekend.
Samaia endure a double first lap retirement on Saturday – and whilst he was the innocent party in Sprint Race 1, he was the catalyst for the accident in Sprint Race 2.
The Brazilian would make it just four corners before being taken out by Novalak in the first of Saturday’s races and he wouldn’t even negotiate turn 1 in the second. In avoiding the Campos of Ralph Boschung, Samaia completely missed his breaking marks and slammed into the side of HWA’s Alessio Deledda, ending the race for both drivers. Guilherme escaped a penalty for the incident, but it certainly was another clumsy turn of events involving the Charouz driver.
Guilherme would be in the wars again in the Feature Race, this time tangling with Campos’ Olli Caldwell which brought a premature end to the race after just four laps of running.
With a number of drivers struggling to string a budget to compete in the series, one must wonder how long Samaia has left in F2. No points this year or in 2020 and being outqualified by three of the four F3 graduates for this weekend is not a good look for him or the team. The clock is ticking.
Clément Novalak – Qualifying: 12th (started 15th due to penalty) | Sprint 1: 14th | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature: 19th
The weekend was a reality check for the French driver, despite a strong maiden qualifying, as the rookie caused two pretty significant first lap crashes on Saturday. In SR1 the MP Motorsport driver harpooned Charouz’s Guilherme Samaia into turn four, collecting Trident’s Marino Sato in the process. Novalak continued racing but received a 10-second penalty and would finish the race down in P14.
His second race didn’t even survive turn one, as he locked the rears and speared into the pit wall before collecting race 1 victor Armstrong, both of them would retire as a result of the incident.
He would earn a three-place grid penalty for the Feature Race, relegating him from 12th to 15th on the grid, and would get caught up in the melee on the opening lap. A contrast in fortunes to teammate Doohan, hopefully a clean weekend at Abu Dhabi beckons for Clément to showcase his talent.
After that terrifying crash for Pourchaire and Fittipaldi, we are glad to hear that they are relatively okay considering the circumstances and we’re hoping for a speedy recovery from both drivers.
The paddock will be in Abu Dhabi this weekend for the series finale, with Oscar Piastri carrying a healthy 51.5-point lead. There’s still plenty of racing to go, so can teammate Robert Schwartzman claim an unlikely Championship from the jaws of defeat? You’ll just have to tune in to find out.
