F2 French GP: Iwasa commands France feature race
24th July 2022Dams’ Ayumu Iwasa commanded the race from start to finish, after he stole the lead away from Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan on the opening lap.
How the race unfolded…
Chaos ensued in the opening lap. Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan got a fantastic start and moved from P4 to P1 by the first corner. Carlin’s pole sitter, Logan Sargeant suffered bad wheelspin on the launch which put him in the clutches of Dams of second-placed Ayumu Iwasa.
By turn eight, the Nord Chicane, Virtuosi’s Marino Sato was spun around on the opening lap. The Japanese driver couldn’t get his car moving again and was forced to retire.
Shortly after, Hitech’s Marcus Armstrong was tagged in the final corners, by Charouz’s David Beckman, and spun out of the race at the end of the first lap.
As the New Zealander spun out, he collected the front wing of Prema’s Dennis Hauger who tried to avoid the carnage. The 2021 Formula 3 World Champion was quickly forced to return to the pit lane for a change of front wing.
The incident was soon put under investigation. However, the investigation was set to be conducted after the race.
Both cars were forced to retire from the race and the safety car was deployed.
At the end of lap five, once Sato and Armstrong’s cars had been cleared away, the safety car peeled back into the pit lane. This left Iwasa to manage the field’s pace. On the exit of turn 11, Iwasa bolted very early and left Doohan unaware.
By the first corner, Iwasa had immediately created a one-second gap away from Doohan.
MP Motorsport’s Clement Novalak was the first driver to peel off into the pit lane for his mandatory stop, on lap eight. However, the MP driver swapped his white-ring hard compound tyres for the red-ringed softs, 22 laps still remained.
Dams’ Roy Nissany, on lap 12, was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Logan Sargeant’s day went from bad to worse as the American driver had a poor start before his engine cut out, on lap 13. The American soon retired out of the race.
Of the front runners, Doohan peeled into the pit lane at the end of lap 13 to discard his soft tyres for the hard compound. The stop was good but the team had to hold the British driver for MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich which was on its way down the pit lane.
As the Virtuosi returned to the track, he found himself in a net-P2 battle with ART’s Theo Pourchaire but the Briton had to yield the position with colder tyres.
The race leader, Iwasa, came into the pit lane, a lap later than Doohan, as the Japanese driver capitalised on the Virtuosi’s misfortunes in the pit lane. As a result, the Dams driver returned to the French circuit with seconds in hand over Pourchaire.
Doohan tried to regain P2 away from Pourchaire as the two drivers arrived into the Nord Chicane, on lap 20, but the Virtousi driver lost rear-tyre grip and spun out at corner entry. Pourchaire tried to avoid the spinning car but Doohan’s car made slight contact.
Fortunately, both drivers were able to continue on their way but Doohan had flat-spotted his tyres. However, ART’s Frederik Vesti was able to profit on Doohan’s mistake, to move up to P3.
Trident’s Richard Verschoor failed to see the chequered flag after he pulled to the side of the pit straight. The Dutch driver reported something was on fire inside the cockpit of his car.
Podium
- Ayumu Iwasa, Dams
- Theo Pourchaire, ART
- Frederik Vesti, ART
That’s it for the article: F2 French GP: Iwasa commands France feature race! What did you think of the feature race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 French Sprint: Liam Lawson redeems poor start with race win
- F2 Austria: Richard Verschoor wins with gamble in feature race
- F2 Austrian GP: Marcus Armstrong leads sprint from start to finish
- F2 Austrian GP: Frederik Vesti claims pole in eventful qualifying
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
