Despite an FIA Formula 2 Sprint Race points finish for Ayumu Iwasa, DAMS team owner Charles Pic has said the team is aiming to “reset for Silverstone” and will “aim to be back fighting at the front” at a track where they’ve had good form recently.
Speaking about qualifying, Pic said that the session was “disappointing for the whole team” and that it “limited us to the seventh row”, despite noting that Ayumu Iwasa was “in the fight for pole“.
Describing Saturday’s Sprint Race as “solid”, Pic added that “both drivers kept out of trouble and had clean races,” and by the chequered flag, DAMS were “rewarded with a point and a double top-10 finish”, with Iwasa eighth and Roy Nissany tenth.
Pic continued to detail Sunday’s action, saying, “Roy made a great start in the Feature Race, and we pitted both cars according to our strategy without any issues.
“Unfortunately, Ayumu broke his front wing at the Safety Car restart and had to pit again, and Roy had an incident later on.
“We had a quick car this weekend as Ayumu proved in qualifying, but we weren’t able to take advantage of our pace.”
Iwasa’s first impression of Baku was that he “enjoyed the flow of the track”, and his pace in practice backed this claim up.
He also said that he had “mega speed in qualifying” before a mistake left him lying outside the top ten on the starting grid for both races.
Speaking about the Sprint Race, Iwasa said he “kept it clean and looked after the tyres to get into the points”. But in the Sunday’s Feature Race, he claimed that the race “didn’t quite go to plan” after picking up front wing damage – a move which he said “cost us a lot of time.”
Iwasa was still in high spirits after the races though, and said that he was “looking forward to Silverstone in a few weeks’ time”.
On the other side of the garage, Roy Nissany felt that he had a “very chaotic” Sprint Race, but that his tenth place was still “a decent result from P14 on the grid” – despite saying he “lost a bit of time going for a move”.
In the Feature Race, Nissany said he had “a great start”, making up three positions initially. But after this, he claimed that the race “didn’t quite go our way”, retiring after “an incident late in the race” with Cem Bölükbasi.
Nissany stated that the team would “take what we’ve learned to Silverstone”, adding that both he and DAMS will “hopefully have better luck there”.
DAMS’ single point takes them to a total of 43 points, falling a place to ninth in the Teams’ Championship. Iwasa currently lies in 14th in the Drivers’ Championship on 29 points, whilst Nissany’s 14 points place him 17th.
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
