2023 F2 Season Roundup: Round Seven – Austria

Roundup of a dramatic round eight of the 2023 F2 season in Spielberg, Austria. 

PREMA’s Frederik Vesti entered this round with a narrow title lead over Theo Pourchaire as F2 entered a run of four rounds in five weeks, with drivers looking for early momentum in a month which could prove crucial to the title outcome.

Austria however proved to be a dramatic weekend which saw track limits, weather and safety car timings play huge roles across the entire round, with two surprise winners emerging whilst the title fight began to open up.

Now, here is a roundup of all the action across Round Seven in Austria.

 

Practice

Van Amersfoort Racing’s (VAR) Richard Verschoor was first out on track ahead of Trident’s Roman Stanek, who was the first driver to set benchmark lap time of 1m 27.784 but was displaced by Jack Doohan with 1m 26.334, although Doohan’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Nissany soon afterwards lowered the benchmark time to 1m 16.539 in the 10th minute but Doohan and Victor Martins responded in the following minutes, as the fastest lap time was lowered to 1m 15.760 three minutes later.

Martins’ lap time however was eclipsed by Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi just seconds later as the Brazilian went 0.236 seconds quicker, although the Frenchman responded in the 16th minute to go 0.124s quicker as various drivers saw their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

Fittipaldi though responded in the 19th minute to set a session-topping 1m 15.216 in the 19th minute as he finished fastest, ahead of Martins and Vesti.

Pourchaire meanwhile caused a 33rd minute red flag after he spun and stalled at Turn 4 on Lap 4, before Amaury Cordeel spun at Turn 1 shortly after the restart which again brought out the red flag to finish the session early.

Post-session, Ralph Boschung was handed a three-place grid penalty for making a practice start on the grid despite Stanek being stationary in front of him, which breached the Race Director’s instructions.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Enzo Fittipaldi	Carlin	1m 15.216
2	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.184
3	Frederik Vesti	PREMA	+ 0.352
4	Isack Hadjar	Hitech GP	+ 0.423
5	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	+ 0.502
6	Kush Maini	Campos	+ 0.569
7	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	+ 0.575
8	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 0.586
9	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi	+ 0.640
10	Clement Novalak	Trident	+ 0.646
11	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 0.649
12	Richard Verschoor	VAR	+ 0.662
13	Amaury Cordeel	Virtuosi	+ 0.666
14	Zane Maloney	Carlin	+ 0.685
15	Ralph Boschung	Campos	+ 0.690
16	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	+ 0.711
17	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	+ 0.712
18	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 0.808
19	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	+ 0.818
20	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing	+ 0.901
21	Juan Manuel Correa	VAR	+ 1.008
22	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing	+ 1.275

 

Qualifying

Doohan was first out on track in Qualifying but it was Stanek who set the first representative lap of 1m 15.877 as a benchmark time in the seventh minute, but Novalak, Iwasa, Doohan and Vesti quickly displaced him before Martins posted 1m 14.926 to go fastest.

Once the opening run of flying laps were completed, Martins headed Fittipaldi and Vesti but Doohan found time on his second run to displace Vesti and go third himself.

Doohan and Fittipaldi however saw their lap times deleted due to exceeding track limits, which dropped them to fifth and seventh respectively, which promoted Cordeel to second ahead of Vesti and Pourchaire.

Bearman meanwhile endured a difficult first half of the session with multiple track limits breaches, which caused him to be shown the black-and-white flag in the 18th minute much to his annoyance.

Verschoor was first out for the final runs but up front, Martins stayed top with 1m 14.643 set in the 26th minute to take his second pole position in his rookie F2 season, with Vesti joining him on the front row ahead of Pourchaire and Maini.

Crawford took reverse-pole for the Sprint Race by virtue of qualifying tenth and will line up alongside Daruvala on the reverse front-row.

Bearman meanwhile found himself 19th on the Feature Race grid after he saw further lap times deleted for exceeding track limits, whilst Boschung’s grid penalty became non-important after he qualified last on the grid.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Victor Martins	ART GP	1m 14.643
2	Frederik Vesti	PREMA	+ 0.139
3	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	+ 0.170
4	Kush Maini	Campos	+ 0.215
5	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi	+ 0.217
6	Enzo Fittipaldi	Carlin	+ 0.310
7	Amaury Cordeel	Virtuosi	+ 0.344
8	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	+ 0.374
9	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	+ 0.442
10	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	+ 0.444
11	Richard Verschoor	VAR	+ 0.485
12	Juan Manuel Correa	VAR	+ 0.560
13	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 0.594
14	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing	+ 0.601
15	Zane Maloney	Carlin	+ 0.731
16	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	+ 0.826
17	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 0.859
18	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing	+ 1.007
19	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 1.047
20	Clement Novalak	Trident	+ 1.059
21	Isack Hadjar	Hitech GP	+ 1.165
22	Ralph Boschung	Campos	+ 1.185

 

Sprint Race

At lights out on a damp track in drizzly conditions which favoured wet tyres amidst two laps under a Safety Car start, Leclerc made a lightning start on wets from third to take the lead from Crawford into Turn 4, with Verschoor leaping from 11th to second by virtue of also opting for wet tyres.

Daruvala though spun out at Turn Seven which caused the Safety Car to be deployed, which led several drivers who started on wet tyres to make a pit stop as track conditions dried but Leclerc, Verschoor, Maloney, Iwasa and Boschung stayed out on their wet tyres.

The race resumed at the end of Lap 4 but was swiftly deployed just a few corners later as Verschoor clipped the sausage kerb on outside of Turn 1 and spun out.

Leclerc, Iwasa and Boschung responded by pitting for soft tyres, whilst Maloney gambled upon staying out in hope of further rain which didn’t materialise as he tumbled down the order upon the restart at end of Lap 7.

Bearman meanwhile had worked his way up to tenth on the initial start but upon the second restart, he charged through from 16th to eighth in six laps with a series of overtakes – including on his title rivals, Vesti and Pourchaire.

Up front, Martins benefitted from a scrap upon the restart to sneak through to third on the inside of Turn 3, from which he reeled in Manuel Correa and passed the American-Ecuadorian on Lap 14 into Turn 3 for second.

Crawford meanwhile managed his way through the race to take a comfortable win from Martins whilst Novalak completed the podium, after the Frenchman demoted Manuel Correa on Lap 18 with Hadjar eventually following through to finish fourth ahead of Manuel Correa.

Stanek, Hauger and Doohan rounded out the top eight ahead of Bearman and Vesti.

The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) however had to be deployed on Lap 18 for two laps after Fittipaldi collided with Maini through Turn 3, which led the Campos driver to spin Fittipaldi out of the race upon exiting the corner.

Stewards subsequently handed Fittipaldi a three-place grid penalty for causing the initial collision, dropping the Brazilian to ninth on the Feature Race grid.

Post-race, Novalak was disqualified after his rear tyre pressures were found to be below the minimium requirement, which promoted Hadjar to third with Manuel Correa, Stanek, Hauger and Doohan also promoted a position as Bearman moved up to eighth and took the final point on offer.

Maini meanwhile was handed a drive-through penalty which was converted into a 20s time penalty, which saw him slip from 12th to 16th in the classification, ahead of his Campos teammate – Boschung who received a 10s time penalty for pushing Cordeel off track at Turn 3.

Boschung however remained 17th in the classification after Novalak’s disqualification had been applied.

In the drivers’ standings, Vesti retained his 11-point lead over Pourchaire after the pair failed to score points with Ayumu Iwasa still third after he too failed to finish in the top eight, but Bearman reduced his title deficit slightly to 39 points.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	27	39m 36.231
2	Victor Martins	ART GP	27	+ 2.286
3	Isack Hadjar	Hitech GP	27	+ 4.366
4	Juan Manuel Correa	Hitech GP	27	+ 9.524
5	Roman Stanek	VAR	27	+ 10.175
6	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	27	+ 10.628
7	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi	27	+ 11.401
8	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	27	+ 12.458
9	Frederik Vesti	PREMA	27	+ 12.923
10	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing	27	+ 13.538
11	Ayumu Iwasa	Campos	27	+ 17.758
12	Brad Benavides	DAMS	27	+ 19.090
13	Arthur Leclerc	PHM Racing	27	+ 20.607
14	Theo Pourchaire	DAMS	27	+ 22.030
15	Amaury Cordeel	ART GP	27	+ 22.205
16	Kush Maini	Virtuosi	27	+ 36.487
17	Ralph Boschung	Campos	27	+ 36.896
18	Zane Maloney	Carlin	27	+ 61.478
DSQ	Clement Novalak	Trident	27	Tyre
RET	Enzo Fittipaldi	Carlin	17	Collision
RET	Richard Verschoor	VAR	28	Spin
RET	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	0	Spin

 

Feature Race

At lights out, Martins got a slow getaway as Vesti seized the lead ahead of Pourchaire as all but eight drivers started on the super-soft tyres, with Fittipaldi in ninth the highest-placed starter on soft tyres.

Martins was further demoted on Lap 2 as Doohan and Maini fought their way past him as the order began to settle, until Cordeel pitted at the end of Lap 6 which triggered a flurry of pit stops amongst the super-soft runners with Vesti the last to make his stop on Lap 11.

Fittipaldi subsequently inherited the lead from Verschoor as the soft runners moved up the order but Vesti had rejoined in 11th position, and soon began to carve his way through those on the alternate strategy and found himself fifth come the end of Lap 26 as Leclerc and Bearman pitted.

Leclerc’s rear-right tyre however disattached and flew over his DAMS cockpit on his outlap which brought out the Safety Car, as Verschoor and Iwasa timed their pit stops to perfection at the end of Lap 27.

Fittipaldi though stayed out for two further laps and consequently dropped to ninth whilst others pitted for used supersoft tyres, as the frontrunners stayed out on their fading soft tyres.

The race resumed on Lap 33 with Verschoor quickly clearing Martins into Turn 1 whilst Bearman passed Benavides and Nissany to take ninth, which led to chaos as the tyre strategies all collided in a dramatic closing seven laps.

Up front, Verschoor and Iwasa demoted Pourchaire to fifth whilst Bearman forced his way past Fittipaldi to take seventh just as the VSC was deployed on Lap 34, due to Maini pulling over with a puncture after previously braking too late into Turn 1 on the restart.

Racing resumed on Lap 36 with Vesti retaining his lead as Bearman cleared Martins and Pourchaire a lap later to take fifth, whilst Verschoor waited until Lap 38 to take second from Doohan then the win from Vesti a lap later with both overtakes made at Turn 4.

Iwasa meanwhile followed Verschoor through with a double overtake on Doohan and Vesti but fell 0.415s short of victory to the Dutchman, as Vesti settled for third ahead of Doohan, Bearman, Fittipaldi, Pourchaire, Crawford, Martins and Daruvala.

Verschoor’s victory also marked VAR’s first-ever win in F2 in just their second season in the category, having replaced HWA Racelab at the end of 2021.

In the drivers’ standings, Vesti extended his title lead over Pourchaire to 20 points with Iwasa now 24 points off the lead, with Bearman a further 20 points behind the Japanese driver in fourth as Verschoor moved up to fifth in the order.

Post-race, Maini was handed a five-place grid penalty for the British Sprint Race after he failed to serve a time penalty correctly during his second stop, having been found to had exceeded track limits mid-race.

F2 now heads to Silverstone for Round Eight, where Bearman will be looking to deliver on home soil and further ignite his title challenge.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Richard Verschoor	VAR	40	56m 31.050
2	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	40	+ 0.415
3	Frederik Vesti	PREMA	40	+ 1.921
4	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi	40	+ 2.222
5	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	40	+ 2.860
6	Enzo Fittipaldi	Carlin	40	+ 3.147
7	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	40	+ 6.714
8	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	40	+ 7.348
9	Victor Martins	ART GP	40	+ 7.971
10	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	40	+ 9.343
11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	40	+ 9.582
12	Isack Hadjar	Hitech GP	40	+ 9.915
13	Clement Novalak	Trident	40	+ 11.594
14	Ralph Boschung	Campos	40	+ 13.020
15	Zane Maloney	Carlin	40	+ 14.622
16	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing	40	+ 15.054
17	Amaury Cordeel	Virtuosi	40	+ 17.355
18	Juan Manuel Correa	VAR	40	+ 17.740
19	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing	40	+ 20.467
RET	Kush Maini	Campos	33	Puncture
RET	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	26	Wheel
RET	Roman Stanek	Trident	25	Mechanical