Formula 2 Report Cards: Saudi Arabia

The F2 paddock arrived at the Jeddah Corniche circuit amidst the backdrop of uncertainty following the nearby missile attack on Friday evening. The racing continued, although the weekend won’t go down as a classic – with lengthy Safety Cars dominating the first race and generally poor Race Direction impacting the race results. Here are the report cards from Round 2 of the 2022 Formula 2 Championship:

Top of the class:

Felipe Drugovich – Qualifying: 1^st | Sprint: 4^th (promoted to 3^rd due to penalties) | Feature: 1^st

Felipe is back after a rather anonymous Bahrain, the Brazilian driver took a dominant pole and Feature Race victory in Saudi Arabia. His time of 1:40.422 was a comfortable two-and-a-half tenths quicker than his nearest rival to take the two bonus points in qualifying.

Starting in 10^th for the reverse-grid Sprint Race, he cut his way through the field to take P4 at the chequered flag, which was turned into a podium when Van Amersfoort’s Jake Hughes was excluded from the classification due to a technical infringement.

In the Feature Race, the MP Motorsport driver led from the P1 slot and never really looked back from there. He had to get by a couple of the alternate runners after his pit stop, but he was in complete control from start to finish.

His fourth victory in the series and first of 2022 means that Felipe now leads the Championship by 11 points heading into round 3, he’s certainly a driver to keep an eye on.

Richard Verschoor – Qualifying: 2^nd | Sprint 6^th (promoted to 5^th due to penalties) | Feature: 2^nd

Making the jump from honourable mentions to top of the class this week is Trident driver Richard Verschoor. He was one of a few drivers that gambled on running again in the disrupted qualifying session to set the second-fastest time of the session, just over two tenths shy of Poleman Drugovich.

Both Sprint and Feature Races were rather quiet, but I’m sure Verschoor won’t mind that. A lonely run to P6 (elevated to P5 due to Jake Hughes’ disqualification) was followed by a solid run to P2 on Sunday, although he didn’t have the pace to challenge Drugovich up front.

Taking a haul of 22 points from Saudi Arabia means that the Dutchman now sits P3 in the Driver’s standings, it’s still early days, but considering he was the last driver to be announced this season, he is certainly repaying the faith shown by Trident.

Jake Hughes – Qualifying: 10^th (promoted to 9^th due to penalties) | Sprint: DSQ (originally finished 3^rd) | Feature: 4^th

Another solid weekend for Jake, although he will be gutted about the technical infringement that ruined his Saturday. Originally qualifying 10^th, Hughes was moved up to P9 after Jack Doohan was disqualified from P3 owing to a lack of fuel to provide a sample.

This worked against Hughes as he would be moved back from reverse-grid pole to P2. He didn’t have a strong start despite the soft tyre advantage, but did manage to cling on to the fringes of the podium.

He then found himself in the lead after troubles for Prema’s Dennis Hauger, and he would keep hold of the lead until the final few laps as he was dispatched by both Liam Lawson (Carlin) and Jüri Vips, the latter just before the finishing line.

It would all be in vain as there was excessive wear on the underfloor of his Van Amersfoort car, meaning his P3 was thrown out. He regrouped on Sunday to take a fine P4 and was less than four seconds from P3. Overall, he can be pleased that he’s hit the ground running in 2022 at a brand-new team.

Honourable mentions:

Who doesn’t quite make the top of the class list but had a solid weekend is Prema’s Jehan Daruvala. A disappointing qualifying left him down in 14^th place. He then bounced back to finish 9^th in the Sprint before being elevated to 7^th due to penalties. After which Daruvala stormed through the field in the Feature race on an aggressive early-stop strategy to take P3, his second podium of the season!

Also joining Daruvala in the honourable mentions section is Trident’s Calan Williams, this for taking his maiden points in only his second weekend in the Championship. A strong P4 finish in the Feature continues the Italian team’s brilliant start to the 2022 season.

The struggle bus:

Race Organisation

Both The Stewards and Track Marshalls come under this umbrella as they had a stinker this weekend. Throwing a premature red flag in qualifying because they lost track of ART’s Frederik Vesti rather truncated the session and left a lot of teams in limbo. Those who gambled on a late run did benefit, but there was always a feeling that the session was on a knife edge.

Then came the Sprint Race and the shenanigans really kicked off. Following a collision on a safety car restart involving Logan Sargeant (Carlin) and Jack Doohan (Virtuosi) that left two cars stranded near the pitlane, a further lengthy Safety Car was required.

Seven laps to remove two cars just emphasises how unsuitable this track is, because there are virtually no areas to put stricken cars in sector three and consequently access roads for removal vehicles to get to the track.

Then comes the debacle over information to then race leader Dennis Hauger to come through the pitlane, which was closed due to the two stricken cars. Whilst the signs were clear that the pitlane was shut, the message should never have been conveyed by Race Control in the first place. It was crystal clear that the pit entry was blocked and therefore cars wouldn’t be able to go through the pit lane.

Not only did Hauger slip out of the top 10 by coming through the pits, but he was also then slapped with a 10 second stop/go for coming in the pits when it was shut. Poor communication also needs to be leveed at the team, but it really was Race Control who fumbled the bag here.

Thankfully the Feature Race went by drama-free, but the weekend as a whole was pretty shambolic from the start, this had a particularly negative impact on the racing product.

Amaury Cordeel – Qualifying: 19^th (started 20^th due to penalty) | Sprint: DNF | Feature: DNS

The Belgian driver had a weekend to forget in Saudi Arabia after copping a 10-place grid penalty for ignoring both red and double-waived yellow flags in qualifying. Not that it had much of an impact on his starting position, his Sprint Race lasted two laps before taking a heavy whack on the wall at turn 12 – almost a carbon copy of the incident that Mick Schumacher had in F1 qualifying, despite designers not predicting cars would crash there.

The damage was so severe that Cordeel could not race on Sunday, not that he would miss much anyway as the Feature Race was surprisingly a procession. Overall, a steep learning experience for the Van Amersfoort Racing driver.

Théo Pourchaire – Qualifying: 20^th (promoted 19^th due to penalties) | Sprint: 14^th (promoted to 13^th due to penalties) | Feature: DNF

The Bahrain Feature Race winner had a mare in Saudi Arabia, whilst reliability gremlins ruined his qualifying and Feature Race, rear-ending his ART at turn 12 certainly will not have aided his weekend.

The Frenchman had a lonely race at the back to 14^th in Saturday’s Sprint race, although he would be elevated to 13^th due to penalties, not that would be any consolation as this position doesn’t score any points either.

Pourchaire would make a decent start to the Feature and was running 14^th before suffering an electrical fault at over 160mph meant his car got stuck in seventh gear. He controlled that well going into the turn 21 chicane and limped back to the pits to retire.

A pointless weekend overall on the Red Sea, fortunately for Théo, his main title rivals struggled to score points this weekend too.

Dishonourable mention:

Making this list is Ralph Boschung. He showcased his one-lap speed once again to qualify fifth and subsequently start the Feature Race fourth due to penalties, Boschung would then cop the attention of the Stewards in both races.

In the Sprint Race, Ralph was too far forward in his grid box and received a post-race twenty-second penalty, dropping him out of the points and down to 15^th. In the Feature, he cut turn 1 to defend from DAMS Ayumu Iwasa and received a five-second penalty. He would drop down the order after taking the penalty and then suffered from tyre degradation to leave Saudi Arabia pointless.

After back-to-back race weekends, the paddock will have a well-deserved break before heading to Imola for the first time. The races take place on the weekend of the 23^rd and 24^th of April in support of the Emelia Romagna Grand Prix.