In the hands of the Spa racing gods
F2 rolled around to Belgium and iconic Spa, a track that is chaotic enough without adding twenty two young drivers into the mix, but here we are…
Practice: Signs
Luckily the scene had transformed back from horror movie (what’s lurking in the misty forest…?) to race track by the time F2 Practice got underway. Despite initially looking like it could rain at any moment, the sun eventually emerged marking a lack of intent from the Spa gods to intervene with any further weather excitement, although the signs were clear that they were there and watching… The result was a very calm and sensible practice session, despite some effort by Victor Martins who had a couple of scary moments but ultimately remained unscathed. The top three after 45 minutes were Alex Dunne, Gabriele Minì and Martins.
Qualifying: Appeasement
The weather at the start of Qualifying looked uncharacteristically lovely, seriously which F2 driver made a substantial offering to appease the Spa weather gods? Maybe it was Dunne because he was soon 0.4 seconds ahead of everyone else, which is how it remained until the final minutes when they all went out to do one final fast lap. None of their efforts made the slightest difference though as somehow, despite everyone doing new fast laps, including Dunne, he was still 0.4 seconds ahead. Behind Dunne, finishing second fastest was Ritomo Miyata, while Roman Staněk was third.
Despite his best efforts in the closing moments, championship leader Richard Verschoor couldn’t manage to drag himself into the top ten, ending the session in eleventh place and the knowledge that his championship battle this weekend would now be a struggle. Bet he wished he’d thought to carry out an ancient ritual for the trackside deities before the weekend started.
Sprint Race: Redemption (or not)
Oliver Goethe was the lucky reverse-grid pole sitter for the Belgian Sprint Race, with Amaury Cordeel starting in second and Leo Fornaroli third. It was also still dry, shock horror. Fornaroli said he thought there would be a lot of fights, Cordeel said he thought the start would be the most important and Goethe talked at length about how he needed to redeem himself, no doubt because he’s a Red Bull junior and intense psychological pressure is obviously a part of the benefits package when you sign up.
Sadly for Goethe, redemption didn’t arrive in the first corner, that was instead Fornaroli who had a great start and launched himself into the lead. Cordeel maintained second place, while Goethe dropped down to third; Martins was just behind them in fourth. Things were also going badly further back, where championship rivals Verschoor, Luke Browning and Jak Crawford were having a three-way incident, sandwiching each other into a corner until it was all crunch, spins and gravel. Verschoor spun but managed to keep going and Crawford needed a trip to the pits before heading out again, but Browning’s race was over. The Safety Car was deployed while the marshals cleared up the track.
As the Safety Car ended, they all got ready to go racing again, all except the front-wing endplate on fifth-placed Pepe Martí’s car which disappeared at high speed, possibly from fright at the pressure it was under from Arvid Lindblad behind. That pressure didn’t last long, however, as a few laps later it was Lindblad who was under pressure from Minì, with Dunne catching them both too. Not putting anyone under pressure, however, was Kush Maini, who pulled into the pits to retire.
Up front, Goethe was also feeling under pressure as Martins loomed in his mirrors. He dealt with the situation by complaining that Cordeel ahead was going over track limits while attempting an ultimately unsuccessful defence as Martins flew by. At this point it seemed like tyres were a struggle for everyone, apart from Martins who soon caught Cordeel and was attempting an overtake around the outside when Cordeel drifted into Martins before ricocheting into the gravel. “He crashed himself out,” declared Martins immediately as he took second place. Cordeel’s demise meant it was once more Safety Car time and while the top three (Fornaroli, Martins and now Goethe again) lined up behind the Safety Car, almost everyone else jumped in the pits to get fresh, new tyres.
Minì was winner in the battle of the pitstops and was in prime position (aka fourth) to take on Goethe and his old tyres, which he duly did once the racing got back underway. Goethe dropped out of the podium positions once more, all hope of redemption today seemingly lost. Further back Lindblad had a different kind of battle with Dino Beganovic, who he bashed into at the restart. “I got hit by Lindblad,” Beganovic’s report landed straight on the stewards desk and they issued Lindblad with a five-second time penalty, not that it ultimately helped Beganovic who soon got his own five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
With those on the new tyres flying, race leader Fornaroli and his worn old tyres attempted to scramble off into the distance as fast as they could. Behind him the biggest threats were now Martí and Dunne (in fifth and sixth place), however luckily for Fornaroli, Dunne was also Martí’s biggest threat and the two proceeded to battle each other rather than focus on chasing down the leading group. The battle slowed them down so much that Staněk eventually came along and overtook Dunne himself, but then who knows what might have happened after that if it weren’t for Sami Meguetounif stopping on track and the Safety Car being deployed with only two laps to go. The race finished under the Safety Car with Fornaroli now on a big winning spree (comparatively speaking), followed by Martins in second and an ecstatic sounding Minì in third.
Feature Race: Wrath (from the gods and the stewards)
As a weekend at Spa wouldn’t be proper without rain, the Spa Gods were tired of being nice and the Feature Race was an obligatory wet one. Pole-sitter Dunne, who said his aim was to stay in first place, was probably therefore relieved to hear that there would be a rolling start. Not sure if the same can be said for second- and third-placed Miyata and Staněk.
After a couple of laps behind the Safety Car to get warmed up, the rain stopped and the race started. Staněk didn’t wait to make a move on Miyata for second place. His success was short lived, however, as he suddenly disappeared as the cars went up the hill, only to pop up again in third place, once more behind Miyata. At first glance, through the rain spray, it looked like a vengeful racing god may have picked him up and dropped him back down again but replays showed it was just a regular, albeit terrifying, mistake. As Staněk resumed his battle with Miyata, Dunne used the opportunity to pull out as much of a gap from them as he could.
By the third lap, umbrellas were up in the grandstands/hills where people just sit as the rain resumed. Leader Dunne was struggling, complaining, “my tyres are dead,” while his two and a half second lead dropped to less than half a second. Miyata got to work trying to pile the pressure on Dunne, while fifth-placed Lindblad’s engineer took up his side-hustle as race commentator, letting us know that, “Dunne’s tyres are cooked”. As Dunne clawed his way out of Miyata’s clutches, increasing the gap back up to one second, third-place Staněk was complaining about Miyata exceeding track limits, while fourth-placed Martins was actually exceeding track limits and with it received a five-second time penalty, swiftly followed by another.
They all started to take their mandatory pit stops as the rain fell even harder. Browning was the first casualty, spinning as he exited the pit lane, but he managed to get going again. Miyata also lost out in the pit stops, with Staněk getting ahead of him and taking the opportunity to pressure Dunne for the lead. The warring pair soon found themselves behind Goethe, who was yet to take his pit stop. Goethe defended hard as Dunne tried to get by, but eventually Dunne made it, declaring “Goethe is such a clown”. Next up it was Staněk’s struggle to pass Goethe and struggle he did. Soon Staněk, Miyata and Lindblad were all bundled up behind Goethe, as Dunne pulled away from them. Goethe eventually pitted, while Lindblad used the moment to pass Staněk for second place.
Meanwhile, Browning had recovered from his spin by embarking on yet another wet-weather masterclass. He had overtaken Beganovic, Fornaroli and Martins and was now up to sixth place behind Martí. Taking inspiration from Browning was Miyata, although sadly it was the spin rather than the overtaking that he emulated, with a trip off track demoting Miyata to fourth behind Dunne, Lindblad and Staněk. None of the top four were looking safe, however, as Browning continued with pace, overtaking Martí for fifth and chasing down the leaders. That is until spin fever spread to Sebastián Montoya, who lost it, spun, and stopped on track. “I spun and stalled,” he explained sadly as the Safety Car was deployed.
Championship leader Verschoor, who was still running out of the points and desperately had to try something, decided to gamble on pitting during the Safety Car, hoping for a repeat of yesterday and the chance to sprint through the last few laps on newer tyres. However, Goethe’s engine had other plans for Verschoor, as it blew spectacularly while they were driving around behind the Safety Car. The huge plume of smoke representing Verschoor’s hopes of holding onto the championship lead, as the race was red flagged, not to be resumed. Goethe was left trying to stop his car rolling backwards down a hill while simultaneously trying to get away as fast as he could from something that presumably looked like it might imminently go up in flames, while the rest filed back into the pit lane.
Dunne, Lindblad and Staněk took to the podium to celebrate, while the stewards took to their office to get to work on penalising Dunne for his not-officially-sanctioned use of offerings to the Spa Gods, or as it is referred to in the F2 technical regulations, “failing to engage the start-up procedure”. This promoted Lindblad to first place until the stewards decided to disqualify him because his tyre pressures were too low. By this time it was late and the stewards were tired so they closed up shop and left Staněk as the winner, with Miyata second and Browning third. There were no new celebrations as everyone had already gone home.
Championship Standings: Salvation (sort of)
After a genuinely rubbish weekend for Verschoor, he has now been replaced as championship leader by Fornaroli (125 points). Luckily for Verschoor, however, he was saved from complete disaster thanks to none of his other rivals having particularly great weekends either, so he remains in second (122 points). Maybe he did get that ritual to honour the Spa gods in after all. Crawford is now third (116 points), with Dunne fourth (114 points) and Browning fifth (113 points). It’s all to play for with Hungary up next.