DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa finished fifth in Formula 2’s Feature Race at Silverstone on Sunday, in which he says “we were struggling a lot.”

Iwasa’s opened the weekend by topping the lone free practice session on Friday ahead of ART’s Victor Martins and Invicta Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan. Martins eventually claimed pole position while Iwasa secured third in qualifying, but the Japanese driver was not content with his starting position for Sunday’s Feature Race.

“I had a big frustration in Quali, we had the potential to take pole position but I made a big, big mistake and we missed the pole position,” said the DAMS driver, adding, “It was just my mistake, the car had potential, but I didn’t show my potential on track. It was a really big frustration.”

Frustrations continued into Saturday as Iwasa suffered brake issues entering Turn 2 following the rolling start. The Red Bull junior fell a lap behind the rest of the field after being forced to pit and was classified 21st in the end. Nevertheless, he found a silver lining in setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 18.

“We had a technical issue in the car, a brake problem, I lost the brakes completely at the rolling start. Then at the end of the race, in the wet, I was able to do the fastest lap so I think we had quite a good car for the wet conditions so that is quite positive for the future.”

Iwasa briefly took the lead from Martins on lap 1 of the Feature Race but remained in second for much of the opening stages. The DAMS driver ended up in eighth place after three safety cars and several rounds of pit stops from the field. Struggling for pace throughout the race, especially on the hard tire, Iwasa eventually climbed up to fifth at the chequered flag.

“The Feature race pace was not so good, we were struggling a lot. We are not clear at the moment why we were missing the pace. So we need to go deeper analysing the details to see how we can improve.

“So we need to work hard as a team and I will try and improve my performance for the next round.”

Despite Silverstone being one of Iwasa’s lowest scoring weekends so far, it has been one of his best in terms of qualifying, as the Japanese driver holds an average qualifying position of 8th.

Majority of Iwasa’s points to open the season have come from Sprint Races, with two Sprint victories and a Feature Race win to show for his race pace. Now, the Japanese driver is still the highest placed Red Bull junior in the drivers’ standings, only behind PREMA Racing’s Vesti and ART’s Pourchaire.

Image: Formula Motorsport Limited