Anticlimactic

The F2 drivers had all been very busy since the last race a few weeks ago. Jehan Daruvala and Olli Caldwell made their dreams come true, testing for McLaren and Alpine Formula 1 teams, while Jüri Vips made sure he wouldn’t be getting any F1 testing by outing himself as being racist and subsequently getting fired from his Red Bull reserve driver role. Rather than also firing him, Vips’s F2 team Hitech decided he could stay, but probably only because super-sub David Beckmann was already busy, replacing Amaury Cordeel who is serving a one-weekend ban, having racked up all the penalty points by being a bit too rubbish at driving.

Practice: Red flag anticlimax

The start of practice was busy, with everyone trying to master the fast track, something Dennis Hauger seemingly wasn’t able to do, as he spun a few times and took a trip through the gravel trap, less than 15 minutes into the session. The rest were flying and it was too hard to keep up with all the fast times.

Around halfway through the session, Logan Sargeant was at the top of the timing board and it was starting to rain. After much commentator chat about “psychological rain”, I learnt that it is apparently a real thing and not just something that Alex Brundle has made up. Although, given that there was no visual proof of any rain, it may be something that only exists in racing drivers’ minds.

Real or not, the rain claimed its first victim in the form of Calan Williams, who spun and crashed into the wall. The red flags were waved and we were treated to watching a marshal tugging at a bit of broken F2 car wedged underneath a barrier and Lance Stroll arriving at the track by helicopter. The session resumed with seven minutes left on the clock and everyone crammed back out on track to get a few last laps. They didn’t get long however, as soon Marino Sato was off too, parked in the grass. The red flags were waved once more and the session was finished early, leaving Sargeant with the fastest time, Jack Doohan in second and Théo Pourchaire third.

Qualifying: Dead tyres anticlimax

The first part of Qualifying was a warm up lap followed by everyone having a go at being fastest. After this flurry of speedy times, there was a series of cool down laps before they all had another go. Felipe Drugovich was looking really fast, until he slid and Vips went faster, but then Sargeant went really fast and then their tyres were done, so they went to the pits for new ones.

With just over ten minutes left, there was another flurry of very fast times. Sargeant managed to go really fast again, while it was manic position swapping below him for everyone expect Beckmann, who was parked on the grass. In the closing minutes, Sargeant went even even faster, while no one else could really compete. Sargeant was apparently unaware of this as he ranted at his team about his rubbish lap and was told to be cool. The excitement of such a frenetic qualifying session reached an anticlimax as no one made any improvements on their final laps and the top three remained the same as it had been a few minutes earlier, Sargeant on pole, Vesti second and Drugovich third.

Sprint Race: Not enough laps anticlimax

The weather at the start of the Sprint Race was typical British miserable: grey rain. Presumably Ralph Boschung took one look and thought, “I don’t fancy that” before withdrawing from the entire weekend (or maybe it was actually his ongoing neck issues).

As is tradition, before the start the F2 people interviewed the top three (derived from reversing the top ten from Qualifying). Pole-sitter Daruvala said he was going to try to win, second-place Enzo Fittipaldi said a win would be nice and no one wanted to talk to third-placed Vips so they didn’t.

Boringly (or safely, depending on whether you think it’s important for drivers to be able to see), the race started behind the Safety Car, but there was too much spray coming up from the wet track to see if there was any overtaking. The top three remained the same at least, with Daruvala off to a confident start. Just a few laps in, however, it was hard to tell if the leaders were going backwards or the mid-field were going super fast forwards. As Doohan passed Vips for third place, it seemed to trigger a mass overtaking event, all at once. It was too much. Fittipaldi overtook race leader Daruvala, then Doohan also overtook Daruvala, and behind them Ayumu Iwasa was starting his march through the field, passing Lawson, Vips and, once more, Daruvala (Daruvala’s win was not looking promising). Doohan then sneaked past Fittipaldi (while everyone was watching all the other overtaking), earning the lead of the race. By the end of the overtaking spree, the top five were Doohan, Fittipaldi, Iwasa, Daruvala and Vips. For Liam Lawson, however, all the drama came with front wing damage and he was off to the pits to get it fixed.

After a short pause, Iwasa was back on his overtaking mission, passing Fittipaldi for second place, while Pourchaire was doing something similar having passed Vips and Drugovich to get up to fourth. Vips, meanwhile, was having the opposite experience, being overtaken by everyone before being handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits. No one felt sorry for him this time. Marino Sato’s car had also exceeded its limits but he pulled safely out of the way, avoiding the need for a Safety Car, thankfully for Doohan who had pulled out a lead of over three seconds.

As they entered the closing laps and gave up on the idea of saving tyres, the last few scraps for points unfolded. Drugovich managed to pass Vesti and Daruvala to take fifth place, while Pourchaire was hounding Fittipaldi for the final podium spot. Iwasa had also put his foot down and was rapidly catching leader Doohan. It would have been very dramatic except he had left it a lap too late, and Doohan crossed the finish line safely ahead to win his first F2 race. Iwasa was second and Fittipaldi was third. I’m sure everyone was really happy on the radio, but the sound on F1TV cut out so I just watched Doohan’s Virtuosi mechanic doing a shoey instead. Lovely.

Feature Race: Just general anticlimax

The sun was out for the Feature Race, which I’m sure pole-man Sargeant was happy about because he’s from Florida (according to Wikipedia). He said he was expecting a tough race, while second-place Vesti said he thought he could challenge for the win and third-place Drugovich said “points… points… points”. Not that he really needs them.

Starting in last place, Beckmann probably thought his race couldn’t get worse, but he soon found that it could, courtesy of his car stopping on the grid right before the start of the formation lap. The team had two options: drag him back to the pits to restart there, or just restart the car where it was. They chose the latter. Had they chosen the first option, Beckmann would have started last from the pit lane. However they chose the second option, meaning he started last from the grid, received a ten second stop/go penalty and was issued two penalty points on his license. Because sitting in a car that literally won’t move is reason for penalty points if ever I saw one. [Insert meme about the #25 car and penalty points going together like two things that go together really well].

Sargeant, however, had a great start, getting cleanly away from the rest while they all headed ten-wide around the next few corners. As they emerged in a more normal race-like formation, Sargeant was still in the lead, with Pourchaire up to second and Lawson in third. Vesti had a terrible start and was down to sixth, while Drugovich was down to fifth. Iwasa jumped up to fourth.

Chaos continued further down the field, as Roy Nissany went wide and then found himself fighting with Hauger as he rejoined the track. Nissany then pushed Hauger off the track, leaving an out-of-control Hauger to plough across the grass and into a sausage kerb, which launched Hauger into the air and on top of Nissany’s car. Luckily the halo saved Nissany from injury and both drivers walked away. Their races were over, however, and Nissany got a five-place grid drop for his next race as punishment. The Safety Car was called and everyone dutifully lined up behind it.

After the Safety Car period, while the midfield were all switching places with each other, Sargeant was building a modest lead from Pourchaire. Then the pit stops began. Fourth-placed Iwasa had a terrible stop, his tyre falling off and having to be jammed backed on, leaving him with no chance of the podium he might have thought he had a chance at just a few seconds earlier. Everyone else’s stops went relatively smoothly and it was just those who were running on the alternative strategy that were yet to take their mandatory pit stops. Alternative-strategy-runners Vips, Daruvala and Doohan were now the top three, with Daruvala screaming at his engineer, ” You don’t need to tell me to push every fucking lap”.

The next ten laps were boring as we waited for the final pit stops. Once everyone had pitted and they were all back in the proper order, Pourchaire spent the last few laps desperately chasing down Sargeant for the lead, while Vesti did the same to Lawson for third place. However, all the anticipation of a final lap battle quickly faded. Vesti also faded, as Drugovich came up behind him and stole fourth place. Sargeant took his first F2 win, Pourchaire was second and Lawson third.

God damn you Silverstone, you promised so much but delivered so little (unless you’re Doohan or Sargeant, then you probably quite enjoyed it).

Championship standings: Not anticlimactic (because no one expected it to be exciting)

Surprisingly, Drugovich is still the top of the championship standings (148 points), but Pourchaire has closed the gap to only 42 points now! Sargeant’s win takes him up to third place (88 points) and Daruvala’s Sprint Race failure drops him down to fourth (80 points). Lawson, Armstrong and Vips are all on 59 points.

The next round is Austria in just a few days time, which is great because I’m always so timely with publishing these race reviews and definitely won’t struggle with back-to-back races at all.