Defying expectations
F2 arrived in Great Britain, to a track that you know will deliver great racing yet somehow still always manages to produce something unexpected. Also finally a track that John Bennett has actually driven before and I’ve just discovered that someone writes full race reviews for him on his website; I haven’t been so happy since 2019 and Ralph Boschung’s dual-language race blog. In other news, Arvid Lindblad was getting his first FP1 outing in the Red Bull on Friday, which he was apparently excited about, although maybe not as excited as me when I discover an F2 driver actually updates their website regularly.
Practice: Defying the laws of British summer weather
Silverstone was looking surprisingly dry and lovely for the practice session, but that didn’t stop them all sliding about, locking up and going wide. It also didn’t stop Rafael Villagómez from doing a 360 degree spin, ending up in the gravel trap and causing a red flag. There were just over 15 minutes remaining when they were able to head back on track, to continue the sliding, with Alex Dunne really excelling as he locked up and went so far off track he ended up on some random other road.
In the last five minutes they all did a bit better at staying on track, but Victor Martins did the best of all, finishing the session with the fastest lap, followed by Luke Browning in second and Jak Crawford third.
Qualifying: Defying track limits
Qualifying was mostly a continuation of Practice, particularly for Dunne who was soon flying wide and bouncing over the kerbs, he did however manage to stay somewhat on the proper track. Meanwhile Ritomo Miyata probably would have been grateful for the chance to run wide, as he was stuck in the pits having his car engineered by laptops.
It wasn’t only Dunne and Miyata having issues with their laps however, as with just over half the session to go there were still quite a few who had managed to drive so haphazardly that their times had all been deleted for exceeding track limits. Anyone who was having a go at finally getting a time in was also interrupted by Amaury Cordeel spinning and bringing out the red flag.
After a short pause, they all headed back out on track again before starting their fast laps, apart from Miyata who headed out and then immediately returned to the pits for more laptopping. Despite being the longest (probably) track of the season, they somehow all managed to bunch up and make it look quite stressful as they vied for pole position. Martins, Crawford and Dunne were all looking speedy, along with Sebastián Montoya, Joshua Dürksen and Richard Verschoor.
In the final moments, as Miyata watched on from the pit wall, Martins took pole, with nemesis Dunne 0.07 seconds behind, while Crawford was miles away in third, a whole 0.2 seconds behind them. Leonardo Fornaroli also used the time to knock Lindblad out of tenth-place, securing reverse grid pole for Fornaroli and a weekend of misery and hard overtaking work for Lindblad.
Sprint Race: Defying space and time
Starting behind pole-sitter Fornaroli was second-place Kush Maini and third-place Dino Beganovic. Fornaroli was, as usual, well practiced at being non-committal to the win, saying he would try to give his best to win. Maini, however, was confident, the car was good, he was good, the weekend had been good, everything was good. Meanwhile Beganovic was starting from the pit lane after stalling on the formation lap.
The start proved Maini right as he launched himself into the lead of the race, flying by Fornaroli, who wasn’t going to take it lying down. They battled furiously and who knows what was happening behind them. Fornaroli eventually retook the lead and put his foot down, “Beautiful!” Fornaroli’s hype guy/engineer told him over the radio. Maini instead had to make do with a less-good second place, ahead of Montoya in third who apparently came from nowhere but was unhappy about being stuck behind Maini’s robust defence, “Is he even allowed to [insert complaint about driving]?” we all wondered. While Montoya’s Prema engineer told him to relax and take his time, Hitech Yoda was also dishing out the advice to Browning, “let’s stay smart Luke,” he wisely warned as Browning tried and failed to battle his way past Lindblad.
If only the other side of the Prema garage had some calm wise words to offer Gabriele Minì as he encountered Dunne making a mistake and decided to use the opportunity for an overtake. Dunne, not exactly known for his laid-back racing approach, defended, until Minì tried to go around the outside into a space that did not exist. Mini clipped Dunne’s tyre, resulting in a puncture for Dunne and a ten-second time penalty for Minì. Also incurring the wrath of the stewards was Miyata, who got his own ten-second time penalty for apparently overtaking Dunne’s teammate Cordeel by leaving the track, not that either of them were probably that bothered, fighting over 19th place.
At the front of the race, things were going from not-good to worse for Maini as he was overtaken by Montoya and had Staněk and Dürksen attacking him from all angles. The feeling of “Oh dear, poor Maini” quickly changed to “Wow how is he actually doing that?” as he struggled round while defending against an ever increasing list of drivers who had caught up behind him. With just a couple of laps to go, Maini was holding onto third with Staněk, Dürksen, Crawford, Martins, Browning, Verschoor, Lindblad and Minì all somehow nose-to-tail, three-wide, battling it out and not crashing into each other. It was a miracle of physics, until the last lap when Browning ploughed into Martins and won himself a ten-second penalty.
It was last-lap frustration/panic all round as Staněk also apparently got fed up with just complaining on the radio about how hard it was to pass and went for it. The overtake looked so dodgy that his team warned him that he might need to give the place back, but there was no chance of that happening. Staněk reassured them it was fine and that he didn’t overtake off track, it was actually Maini who had pushed him off, which is what racing drivers always say. However, to everyone’s surprise, this time it was actually true and Staněk took the final podium spot behind second-place Montoya and WINNER Fornaroli! Not sure if he was more grateful to break his losing streak or just that commentators won’t roll out the “hasn’t won in four years” stat every time he leads a race, but either way I’m sure he enjoyed the champagne.
Maini held onto fourth place and who knows what order the rest of them finished in because they were all so close that even the timing graphics were no help, but luckily I painted this beautiful picture so you can easily see that Dürksen beat Crawford to fifth by a number so small that no one in the F2 graphics department knew what to do.
Feature Race: Defying everything
The Feature Race arrived and so did the typical British summer weather. Having washed out the earlier F3 race, the F2 drivers took their places, slightly delayed, on a wet but drying track, with Lindblad reporting “it’s not that wet”, although how much we can trust a British driver I don’t know, maybe check in with one of the Italians or something instead.
Martins was on pole and, in keeping with this weekend’s pole sitters, said he felt great and everything was great, even though he had Dunne right beside him in second place. What could go wrong? The answer is Martins’ start, which was not great. It could even be described as terrible, as Crawford catapulted himself from third place, through the middle of Martins and Dunne and took the lead. Even fourth-placed Staněk managed to get past Martins before Martins wrestled the place back off him. The top-four settled into place, Crawford, Dunne, Martins and Staněk, while behind them some scary wet-weather overtaking went on, including Browning (who started twelfth and by lap two was ninth) trying to make a move on his old buddy Lindblad and almost sliding into him. The worst start of all award, however, went to Cian Shields, who got a ten-second stop/go penalty for a starting procedure infringement.
As they all came to terms with not having any grip or being able to see yet still racing at hundreds of kilometres per hour, Browning continued his attack on Lindblad, which was honestly terrifying as they went side-by-side for half a lap until Browning finally pulled off the overtake and moved onto Verschoor, with Hitech teammate Beganovic following behind. By now, Browning had got into his stride and proceeded with a wet-weather masterclass, overtaking Verschoor and Montoya like they didn’t even exist, with Beganovic scampering behind like a fast, pro-racing driver, puppy.
The Hitech rain train soon caught up to Staněk and Dürksen who were battling over fourth place. Three-wide and a few corners later and Dürksen, Browning and Beganovic were all through and Staněk had dropped from fourth to seventh, before Browning set to work on Dürksen. Browning’s engineer used this chill time to check with Browning on whether, if there was a Safety Car now, would he want to change his wet tyres for slicks, “no, no, no, no,” was his hesitant reply before he flew by Dürksen into fourth place, because a slippy slidey track isn’t an issue in Browning’s world.
Over half way though the race and everyone was avoiding the mandatory pit stop because the track was wet and terrifying but becoming drier, while at the same time there was a threat of more rain, or maybe not, depending on which team forecast you believed, and it was wholly unclear what tyres would be needed to complete the race. Up front, Crawford had pulled out a two-second lead from Dunne, while third-place Martins’ position was under threat from Browning. Although Martins gave Browning more of a challenge than he’d previously experienced, Martins was still no match for Browning, who at this point one can only assume was raised by fast ducks. *Googles “world’s fastest duck”*.
With only ten laps to go, still no one had pitted and everyone was struggling on their extremely worn wet tyres, waiting for some weather clarity. Dunne’s attempt to convince his team to let him pit was met with a firm no, while Sami Meguetounif’s struggles were met with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
A few laps later and a daring (or desperate) few ventured into the pits and changed to slick tyres. This idea was soon dismissed by anyone else crazy enough to think it, as Minì exited the pits and slid straight into the side of Oliver Goethe. Minì’s race was over and a ten-second penalty was awarded, something for him to look forward to next race in the form of a five-place grid drop.
Minì’s downfall confirmed that wet tyres were the correct choice and Browning jumped into the pits to take his mandatory stop. Race-leader Crawford headed to the pits a lap later, just as Staněk (on slicks) was suddenly stopped on track and profusely apologising to his team. Staněk’s mishap led to the Virtual Safety Car being deployed at the same time as Crawford hitting the no-man’s land between entering the pit lane, with no possibility to go back, and crossing the official pit-lane entry line. Cue much discussion from commentators, drivers, teams and fans via text with their other F2 friends (just me?) about whether he entered the pits before or after the VSC was deployed, as pit stops aren’t allowed under the VSC in F2.
As it became clear that Crawford’s pit stop was allowed and that he had actually timed it perfectly to take a fast pitstop (which is apparently Crawford’s thing), frustration set in amongst the other drivers, with Dunne eloquently requesting that his teammate Cordeel pick up the pace a little, as he somehow was driving even slower than the mandated VSC speed: “I’m getting absolutely fucked man”, said Dunne. “Yeah, we’re shouting at him, we’re shouting at him,” the team confirmed. Rodin HR will be pleased.
Further annoyance ensued, this time for Browning, as the full Safety Car was deployed and everyone piled into the pits, “That’s so unlucky mate!” he complained as Dunne exited the pits just ahead of him, maintaining the top-three status quo of Crawford, Dunne, Browning.
With the Safety Car coming back into the pits and the restart imminent, rain ponchos started to appear in the grandstands. Rain was also apparently appearing on the track as Meguetounif (braving the slick tyres) had a little spin, but valiantly kept going. By the time battle resumed it was fully raining, which apparently didn’t phase Crawford who put his foot down and launched away from Dunne, who had a little slide but maintained second ahead of Browning in third. In all the drama, chaos and rain, Dürksen couldn’t hold it together. He spun, his race was over and he was left philosophising, “I cannot believe this, I really cannot believe this”. The Safety Car was deployed once more and all the drivers finished their race in formation behind, apart from Martins who had mystery random front-wing damage even before the chaos of the restart and couldn’t bring himself to trundle round behind the Safety Car for a lap, choosing instead to end his race in the pits.
Defying the myth that you need to have a good weekend if you want to lead the championship standings
Despite a somewhat lacklustre Silverstone weekend, Verschoor leads the drivers’ championship with 122 points, ahead of Crawford (116 points) and Dunne (108). Fornaroli is also still hanging on in there (104 points) in fourth and Browning fifth (98 points). Next up is Spa, which is never rainy or chaotic.