Belgium GP: Doohan tyre strategy secures first feature race win
28th August 2022Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan secured his first Feature Race win after a successful tyre strategy promoted the British driver into the race lead.
How the race unfolded…
It was a fantastic start from MP Motorsport’s championship leader, Felipe Drugovich, who managed to curl around Spa-Francorchamps first corner, La Source, unchallenged from Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan. The Virtousi driver had a perfect start to move up from fourth on the grid to second-place as the pack raced down towards Eau Rogue.
As a result, Drugovich completed the first lap in the same position he started: first.
On lap three, ART’s Theo Pourchaire suffered a mechanical issue as his power unit lost power as he launched his car up the iconic hill of Radillion. Due to the mechanical problems, the French championship-contender crawled back to the pit lane to allow his mechanics to get a systems check under way.
Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi was the next driver to be seen on a slow drive, down towards La Source. Fittipaldi curled wide around La Source which allowed Carlin’s Liam Lawson to slide down the inside to regain his track position. However, the Charouz driver quickly got his car back up to speed behind Lawson.
As the two drivers raced along the Kemmel Straight, Fittipaldi fought wheel-to-wheel with Lawson as the two arrived at Les Combes (turns seven and eight). Fittipaldi was squeezed to the inside line of turn eight by Lawson but the Brazilian driver did not yield which resulted in a collision between their tyres.
By Melmady, a corner later, Lawson maintained track position ahead of Fittipaldi.
On lap eight, a handful of the soft tyre runners peeled into the pit lane to make their mandatory pit stop. Two laps later, the race leader, Drugovich peeled into the pit lane to complete his stop. However, Doohan pitted a lap before and allowed the Virtuosi driver to undercut Drugovich as the MP driver returned back to the circuit.
As it stood, on lap 12, Trident’s Richard Verschoor inherited the race lead while the net-race leader, Doohan sat in P8 – four seconds ahead of Drugovich in P9. Three laps later, Drugovich had cut the deficit back down – between himself and Doohan – to less than a second.
While Verschoor started the race on the alternate strategy, the Trident driver peeled into the pit lane at the end of lap 16. The Dutch driver sacrificed the race lead to Doohan who regained the race lead, as the Trident pitted to exchange his worn medium compound tyres for a fresh set of the red-ringed softs.
On his aggressive final stint, Verschoor returned to the circuit in P9. By lap 21, the Trident worked his way up to P4.
Campos’ Lirim Zendeli brought out the Virtual Safety Car, on the penultimate lap, as he parked his car on run-off area the corner with no name – turn nine.
This intervention allowed Doohan some breathing space as he remained in the lead with a healthy two-second gap between himself and Drugovich. By the end of the VSC period, and one final lap to go, Drugovich failed to make a dent into Doohan’s advantage out in front, and finished the race in second.
Podium:
- Jack Doohan, Virtuosi Racing
- Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport
- Liam Lawson, Carlin
That’s it for the article: Belgium GP: Doohan tyre strategy secures first feature race win! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula Two here:
- Belgian GP: Lawson secures F2 win after early move
- F2 Hungarian GP: Pourchaire wins after Armstrong’s pit lane woes
- F2 Hungarian GP: Doohan dominates sprint after early blunder
- F2 French GP: Iwasa commands France feature race
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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.
