F2 Belgian GP: Doohan secures feature race win from 11th on the grid
30th July 2023Invicta Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan secured the race win, with the alternative tyre strategy, after the Australian started the Belgian Grand Prix feature race from 11th on the grid.
Ahead of the Feature Race, the Prema championship leader, Frederik Vesti had an accident on his way to the grid. As the Prema broke into the braking zone of turn five, he found himself in the barrier and out of the race before it even started.
How the race unfolded…
Without Vesti in second place, on the grid, it allowed Bearman to enter the opening corner unchallenged as ART’s Theo Pourchaire filtered into second place with Rodin Carlin’s Zane Maloney in third.
As the pack filtered through La Source, Eau Rogue and Radillion in a behaved manner, the safety car was soon deployed as MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger stopped in the middle of the track at Malmedy (turn seven). Although the Norweigan stopped, he was given a jump-start to continue on with the race.
However, as the MP driver was given external help to get back into the race, the incident was noted by race control.
Hauger was brought to a stop as he made contact with fellow Red Bull junior, Ayumu Iwasa, as the Japanese driver had a snap of oversteer through the Les Combes chicane (turns five and six). As Iwasa caught the snap, he could not avoid contact with Hauger.
The MP driver stopped out on track before he got going again while Iwasa was forced to return to the pit lane, to retire from the race, with terminal suspension damage.
The safety car bolted away from the pack, at the end of lap three, to return to the pit lane. This left Bearman to control the pace. As Bearman led the pack around turn 17, Blanchimont, the Briton bolted away but Pourchaire was alert and followed suit.
On the restart, Dams’ Arthur Leclerc suffered a rear-right puncture as he blasted through Eau Rogue/Radillion which saw the Monegasque go into a spin – at a dangerous section of the circuit. However, the Dam’s driver was able to keep the car out of the barriers and return to the pit lane for a tyre change.
As Leclerc’s stop was outside the mandatory pit stop window, set as a minimum of lap six, it meant the Monegasque would have to pit again.
In conclusion, to race control’s investigation of Hauger’s restart, the Norweigan was given the black flag and was disqualified from the race on lap six.
On lap 11, Trident’s Clement Novalak pitted to discard his medium tyres for the soft compounds. But, when the Trident driver returned to the circuit he was found to be all four-wheels over the white line on the pit exit. This was soon put under investigation by race control and they deemed a five-second time penalty was necessary for the incident.
However, a lap later, Hitech’s Isak Hadjar clobbered the pitlane exit wall as he pitted. The French driver lost his front wing as he bounced off the pit wall exit barrier, and pulled over to the side of the pit exit line. Hadjar was able to continue on but he quickly pitted once more to retire.
On lap 15, the race leaders, Bearman and Pourchaire pitted for their mandatory stop and swapped over their used softs for the mediums. While on the entry of the pit lane, the order was Bearman-Pourchaire but when the drivers returned to the circuit it was Pourchaire-Bearman.
This came as the ART team edged out the Prema driver by the narrowest of margins with their pit stop.
After a collision with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa, Hitech’s Jak Crawford found himself stranded on the run-off area of turn five. As a result, the safety car was deployed.
The intervention of the safety car allowed Invicta Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan, who inherited the race lead on the alternative strategy, to benefit from the appearance of the Aston Martin Vantage safety car on lap 17. As the Australian pitted to swap over his mediums for the soft tyres, the Virtuosi filtered back onto the circuit in second, between Pourchaire and Bearman who were first and – now – third.
Under the safety car, PHM Racing by Charouz’s Joshua Mason rotated around as he took evasive action to avoid a collision with his teammate, Roy Nissany, on their way towards Pouhon (turns 10 and 11). The safety car was expected to come into the pit lane prior to the incident but Bernd Maylander took the Aston Martin around for another lap of the circuit.
At the end of lap 20, the race finally got back up to racing speed. Pourchaire tried to catch Doohan off guard as he bolted away, on the run towards the Bus Stop Chicane (turns 18 and 19), but the Australian remained on the gearbox of the Frenchman.
Three laps later, the lead changed hands as Doohan overtook Pourchaire down the Kemmel Straight. On the run down to Eau Rogue, the Alpine liveried was nose-to-tail with Pourchaire through Radillion. With the faster tyre, and help from the open DRS flap, Doohan made light work of Pourchaire to take the race lead from 11th on the grid.
Doohan went on to take the chequered flag as Pourchaire finished second ahead of Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi, in third.
Podium:
- Jack Doohan, Invicta Virtuosi Racing
- Theo Pourchaire, ART
- Enzo Fittipaldi, Rodin Carlin
That’s it for the article: F2 Belgian GP: Doohan secures feature race win from 11th on the grid !
Read more Formula Two here:
- F2 Hungary GP: Doohan dominates feature race with lights-to-flag performance
- British GP: Martins overcomes penalty to secure F2 Feature Race win
- Spanish GP: Bearman cruises to feature race victory as Martins charged to third
- Monaco GP: Vesti secures F2 feature race win as Doohan brings out red flag
- Monaco GP: Iwasa secures sprint win after Hadjar suffers problems
- Azerbaijan GP: Bearman walks to F2 win after chaotic final restart
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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.
