Back at a familiar track, the F2 paddock arrived in Barcelona off the news that the calendar would return to 14 rounds as Paul Ricard was announced as the replacement for Sochi, the round taking place on the weekend of the 23rd/24th of July in support of the French Grand Prix.
F2 also welcomed back Cem BölĂĽkbaşı after injury kept him out of the last two rounds. The grid shrank back to 21 drivers, however, as Campos’ Ralph Boschung withdrew after Free Practice with a neck injury. In a predictably dull affair where the action was at a premium – one driver was head and shoulders above the crowd. Here are the report cards from round 4 of the 2022 season.
Top of the class:
Felipe Drugovich – Qualifying: 10th | Sprint: 1st (+FL) | Feature: 1st
There was only one driver that could top this list; and that was MP Motorsport’s Brazilian star. Felipe followed up his victory in Imola by taking doing the double in Barcelona, joining a star-studded list (including the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg) of drivers that have won two GP2/F2 races in the same weekend.
He achieved this feat with relative ease, the only error he made was blocking ART Théo Pourchaire in qualifying, for which he received a 3-place penalty for the Sprint Race. Relinquishing the reverse pole for P4 didn’t matter one bit as Felipe took the lead into turn 1 and never looked back, also taking the Fastest Lap and the maximum 11 points available on Saturday.
On Sunday he was already up to P4 by the time the leaders pitted around lap 10, yet Drugovich took the soft tyres all the way to lap 16, which gave him much fresher tyres to hunt down the drivers ahead. He picked off Frederik Vesti (ART) and Jack Doohan (Virtuosi) and breezed his way to a second victory in as many days.
There were some doubts over the result as he, alongside the two ART drivers, was investigated for a pitlane infringement, but no penalty was adjudicated so Felipe kept the victory. The 36-point haul saw him take the lead in the Championship and he now has a 26-point margin over Pourchaire in P2. But, if we know anything in F2 is one bad weekend can change everything.
Jack Doohan – Qualifying: 1st | Sprint: 6th | Feature: 2nd (+FL)
Much like JĂĽri Vips, Jack has undeniable speed but a combination of silly errors and team issues have meant that the Australian driver has failed to capitalise on promising weekends. That is, until now.
The Virtuosi driver was in fine form in Friday’s qualifying session to claim a last gap pole position with a time of 1:28.612, just 0.023 seconds faster than Vips.
On Saturday, Doohan rose from 10th on the grid to take P6, which at the time was his best result after his early-season struggles. In the Feature Race, Jack did everything he could, but Drugovich’s experience shone through as his lengthier first stint on the soft tyres left him with much fresher rubber as he swept past Doohan after the mandatory pit stops.
Nonetheless, Doohan tried to keep within the five-second gap in case a penalty materialised (which it did not), but the Australian crossed the line second to take his maiden podium in F2 and took an extra point for the Fastest Lap.
Owing to a successful weekend in Spain, Jack now sits 10th in the standings and after the noted issues in the first few rounds, he should be very satisfied with his performance in Barcelona.
Frederik Vesti – Qualifying: 3rd | Sprint: 7th | Feature: 3rd
As one of the only drivers that found some consistency in Imola, the Mercedes junior was aiming to take the momentum to Barcelona, and he did that emphatically. Vesti popped his ART into P3 in Friday’s qualifying session, outqualifying teammate Pourchaire for the first time and was less than three tenths off his maiden pole.
Frederik took advantage of mistakes and tyre wear from the drivers in front to take P7 in Saturday’s Sprint Race, on Sunday a strong start saw Vesti climb to P2 in the early stages. He ultimately slipped back to third as Drugovich steamed his way from P10 to the victory, but solid pace saw him clear the pack behind and was enough to take his first podium in F2.
Vesti took a huge step forward in performance at this round, particularly his one-lap pace which had been lacking at the start of this season. He now sits P13 in the standings but is in striking distance of the top 5, and in such an early stage of the season, it’s looking positive for Frederik.
Logan Sargeant – Qualifying: 5th | Sprint: 3rd | Feature: 4thÂ
The Williams junior followed up a solid weekend at Imola with his best qualifying and race finishes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Logan took P5 in qualifying, 11 places higher than his more-experienced teammate Liam Lawson.
Saturday saw the American taste champagne for the first time in F2 as he rose from 6th on the grid to take the chequered flag in P3, a strong start to the race where he took two places set the foundation for his best-ever finish in the series.
Logan followed that up with a P4 in Sunday’s Feature Race. He didn’t quite have the pace to challenge the podium contenders but had enough pace to protect him from the alternate strategy drivers that finished on fresher soft tyres. That result eclipsed the pair of P7 finishes at Bahrain and Imola as his best Feature Race result.
The haul of 18 points doubles his total for the season and moves Sargeant into P6 in the Driver’s standings which is a pretty strong place for a rookie after just 4 rounds.Â
The struggle bus:
Jüri Vips – Qualifying: 2nd | Sprint: DNF | Feature: 17th
The Estonian got the opportunity to take the Red Bull RB16 for a spin in F1 Free Practice, and he’ll probably wish that was the end of his weekend. Once again silly accidents and tragic Hitech Pitstops ruined another weekend that started with much promise.
The Sprint Race saw Vips make a strong start to be running P6 on lap four but he then span into the gravel at turn 4 and beached his Hitech in the gravel, a second costly error in as many races left JĂĽri out of the race.
Making the strategic move to pit on lap 7 during the feature race was clearly too early as the hard tyres were going to fall off at the end, but to rub salt into the wounds it has to be mentioned that race winner Drugovich did double the length of this stint on the same tyre. Not only that, but the Hitech team were firmly on the struggle bus after a lengthy delay taking the front left tyre off, which saw him drop behind the top-10 starters who were on the same strategy.
It was a long trundle to take a lowly P17 and as a result. The Estonian failed to pick up any points and lost further ground to the leading pack in the Championship. The next two rounds at Monaco and Baku are going to be key to re-ignite the seemingly faint hopes of a Championship.
Amaury Cordeel – Qualifying: 15th | Sprint: 19th | Feature: 15th
Feels like déjà vu whacking the Belgian in this list but once again, and he certainly hasn’t helped himself by getting yet another penalty in Barcelona.
The Van Amersfoort Racing driver received two penalty points and a 10 second stop/go penalty because he failed to retake the positions in time after being slow to get away on the Formation Lap of the Sprint Race. He now sits on 11 penalty points and will almost certainly have to serve a race ban in the near future.
His Feature Race was nothing extraordinary but there were signs of progress as he was able to battle towards the points, ultimately fading to 15th as the alternate strategy runners came through in the end. That and the Qualifying improvement are really the only silver linings Amaury can take from the weekend.
Next up, the paddock makes the short hop along the Mediterranean coast to tackle Monaco in support of F1. Can anyone stop the Felipe Drugovich dominance? You’ll just have to tune in to find out
