Red flags and Safety Cars

F2 is back at Silverstone and it’s been so long since the last round that Théo Pourchaire’s hand, which he broke during the Feature Race in Azerbaijan, has pretty much healed and he was cleared to race. Jüri Vips said the long break had been boring, with just “sim and gym,” whereas Robert Shwartzman said he had been really busy with “sim and gym.” I guess Red Bull’s Milton Keynes sim and gym isn’t as inspiring as Ferrari and Maranello for some reason…

Practice: Red flags

Ten minutes into practice and Christian Lundgaard was running wide, while teammate Pourchaire had crashed. Happy times for ART and a red flag.

With 30 minutes to go, the green flag was back out for a whole ten minutes before Alessio Deledda spun and then stalled in the middle of the track. It was apparently slippery out there.

Once they were allowed back out, they all managed to avoid crashing for the remainder of the session and Dan Ticktum demonstrated his Silverstone love by being the fastest. Oscar Piastri was second and Vips third. Felipe Drugovich ended his session by stalling on his practice start. I’m sure he was pleased about that.

Qualifying: Red flag again

Ticktum continued to look strong in qualifying and was top of the time sheets by the time the usual mid-session lull was underway. Piastri, however, put an end to that by going faster as soon as they all went out for the second half.

Marino Sato wasn’t going fast at all, as his car had broken and he was trundling back to the pits. He wasn’t the only one with bad luck though, as with three minutes to go, Shwartzman spun himself into a gravel trap. The red flag was out and with so little time remaining, Race Control decided it wasn’t worth restarting, so Piastri was declared on pole, with Zhou second and Verschoor third. Ticktum ended up in fourth.

Sprint Race 1: Safety Cars

Lundgaard qualified tenth, meaning he started from pole for the reverse grid sprint race. Vips was starting second and Roy Nissany third. On the formation lap Nissany seemed more concerned about shouting down the team radio that there was something loose on Vips’s car than paying attention to his own car, as he nearly lost it while warming up his tyres. Neither Nissany’s scare nor Vips’s random bit of flappy car seemed to cause any problems though, as they both made it safely off the line, although Nissany didn’t make it much further. Cue much start confusion as Nissany spun and Zhou somehow also spun and there were cars all over the place trying to avoid each other. Nissany and Zhou were out and Zhou was left in the middle of the track facing the wrong way for an awkwardly long time, until the marshals could come to rescue him under the Safety Car.

With all the spinning chaos it was easy to miss Shwartzman’s excellent start, having gone from fourth to first, although I’m sure Lundgaard and Vips didn’t miss it. Lundgaard had also lost out to Vips and so the top three behind the Safety Car were Shwartzman, Vips and Lundgaard.

The Safety Car restart was drama free and the racing was back on for a minute, until Deledda had an incident with who I presume was Sato because he was coincidentally in the pits with a broken car. Regardless, there was another spin and another Safety Car.

Once the marshals sorted everything out, Shwartzman again managed a perfect restart, while back in what was probably about sixth place, although the F2 people didn’t want to show the timing on the TV so who really knows, Piastri dove past Liam Lawson. Lawson fought back, but couldn’t regain the place, while Ticktum and Armstrong followed close behind.

Up front, Vips looked like he might have been closing in on leader Shwartzman, until he went wide and lost all the time he had gained, leaving Shwartzman to carry on making winning look easy.

Fighting over the last points in tenth and eleventh were teammates Lirim Zendeli and Richard Verschoor. However, Verschoor was struggling to get past (actually let’s face it, so was everyone, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of overtaking), so took the opportunity to pit for new tyres as yet another Safety Car was called to deal with Samaia who was in the gravel. Jack Aitken also decided to try and mix things up a bit by pitting under the Safety Car, but his wheel got stuck as he tried to drive out of the box, making his whole pit stop a disaster and securing himself a place somewhere near the back.

By now, Shwartzman really was a pro at restarts and carried on untroubled by anyone. Ticktum tried to make a move on Lawson, but Lawson was having none of that after the Piastri overtake so Ticktum had to content himself with eighth. Ahead of Piastri, Lawson and Ticktum, fifth place Pourchaire was thinking about passing Drugovich, but surprisingly was unable to find an opportunity so just tried the old putting him under pressure and hoping he makes a mistake technique. It did not work.

Further back, Verschoor was now storming through the field on his new tyres and had made it back to 11th to fight Zendeli again over the last points and coveted reverse-grid pole spot. This time was different though and Verschoor had no trouble diving down the inside of Zendeli to take the place with just a few laps to go.

Shwartzman had no such closing laps drama, comfortably winning the race, with Vips and Lundgaard behind him second and third.

Sprint Race 2: Safety Cars again

After his inspired roll-the-dice pit stop in the previous race got him tenth place, Verschoor was on pole for the second Sprint Race. Armstrong was second and Ticktum third. Lundgaard was supposed to be eighth but he stalled on the formation lap and had to start from the pit lane instead.

Verschoor, however, made a good start and kept his lead. Armstrong and Ticktum did the same, leaving the top three as they were when they started the race. Piastri, in fifth, once more found himself trying to get past Lawson, which he couldn’t, but it didn’t stop them barging each other a bit.

There was even more barging when Ralph Boschung spun while trying to avoid hitting someone, but instead collided with Deledda. Both cars were smashed up and the Safety Car was out.

Once the Safety Car went back in, Verschoor managed a successful restart, maintaining his lead. Third placed Ticktum tried to have a go at passing Armstrong, but couldn’t, while fifth placed Piastri did manage his move, overtaking Lawson, until Lawson wrestled the place back from Piastri and they all carried on as they were.

Down in 14th place, Viscaal was trying to get past Daruvala, but in the process Daruvala lost control and hit Viscaal. Viscaal was in the gravel trap and Daruvala was in the pits to get a new front wing. Race Control, meanwhile, decided to order a Safety Car and a ten-second penalty for Daruvala.

At the front, Verschoor was doing his best F1 training by complaining that the Safety Car was going too slowly. Armstrong was obviously having less issues as he looked like he might be close enough to make a move on Verschoor at the restart. It was tense for about ten seconds, before Verschoor pulled clean ahead with everyone falling in line behind, apart from Matteo Nannini, who got overtaken by four people and then nearly got taken out by a spinning Aitken, who dropped down to 19th.

While Verschoor was happily driving around in the lead, Ticktum was trying to pressure Armstrong for second and Piastri was still doing the same to Lawson in fourth. This all continued into the closing laps, with everyone trying and failing to overtake everyone else, until Shwartzman decided to give us some action by just losing it all on his own and spinning, dropping out of the points, all the way down to 14th.

Verschoor did no such silly things, however, and won the race with apparent ease, with Armstrong second and Ticktum third.

Feature Race: Safety Cars and unsafe releases

Pole-man Piastri was now leading the championship, while Zhou, starting second, was no doubt desperate to regain his place at the top of the standings; both of them desperately fighting to keep their Alpine F1 hopes and dreams alive. No pressure then.

It was Zhou who got the better start, taking the lead from Piastri, while behind them Ticktum overtook Verschoor for third. Verschoor tried to fight back, but Ticktum just kept his foot to the floor, round the outside, making it clear he would be keeping the place. Behind them, fifth place Shwartzman was making it clear that he would like to change his tyres at the earliest possibility.

Apparently Shwartzman wasn’t the only one hating his tyres, as once the minimum number of required laps were done, it was full chaos in the pit lane. Most chaotic was Lundgaard, whose wheel came flying off after his stop, bounced off a random tyre lying nearby, ricocheted back off his car, then off the pitwall, then back towards his mechanic who ran to collect it. Luckily no one was hurt, but Lundgaard’s chances of a good race result were as he was given a ten-second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release. ART, however, weren’t the only ones who were struggling in the pits, as Charouz also managed an unsafe release with David Beckmann, although he only got a five-second penalty as his wheel didn’t go bouncing around the pitlane.

Half way through the race and it was just Vips, Zendeli and Daruvala at the front who hadn’t pitted, making them the top three, with Zhou in fourth place waiting to retake his lead once everyone had taken their mandatory pit stops. At the back was Lundgaard, whose engineer was trying to be encouraging over the radio, but who received a less than enthusiastic response back, “just let me drive man!”

Despite managing their tyres expertly, the only thing those on the alternative tyre strategy seemed to do was get in the way of everyone else, with Nannini acting as a roadblock long enough to stop Piastri from being able to challenge Ticktum for a potential second place. In fact, Piastri was struggling and soon had Verschoor right up behind him, piling on the pressure. Verschoor now looking like a Silverstone pro.

Also looking like a pro was Nissany, who managed to get on the grass, lose it, spin twice, end up facing the right way round and then carry on as though nothing had happened.

In the closing laps, finally everyone had done their pit stops and Zhou was back in the lead, with Ticktum second, Piastri a long way back in third and Verschoor extremely close in fourth. Verschoor’s engineer was also offering words of encouragement, telling him “don’t give up!” He wasn’t. Verschoor went for the move, Piastri defended. They both pushed each other off track a bit, but Piastri managed to keep ahead and hold off Verschoor for the rest of the race.

Zhou crossed the line a very happy winner, Ticktum was enjoying the thousands of fans, and Piastri said, “it was a struggle, the whole race.”

Safety Car championship standings

Piastri can’t have been too disappointed with his Feature Race, as his weekend of consistency means he’s now top of the championship standings with 108 points. Zhou’s win helped him salvage some good points and he’s only a little way behind in second (103 points). Shwartzman maintained third (91 points), while Ticktum (89 points) and Vips (85 points) are also close behind in fourth and fifth.

After it’s numerous outings this weekend, the Aston Martin Safety Car is now ahead of the Mercedes in the Safety Car championship (probably)…