Jack Doohan “had no confidence” in his Virtuosi Racing car during Qualifying for the third round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship but managed to recover to qualify P3 in a tricky session.
On a rainy day in Imola, and following a series of red flags throughout F1, F2 Practice and F3, Qualifying was delayed until the evening. Conditions were increasingly treacherous, with a wet track and the light rapidly fading during the session.
Speaking in the post-Qualifying press conference, the Australian rookie observed that it “wasn’t the ideal day to get up to speed. [This is] my first time in Imola and my first time in this car in wet conditions.”
Despite eventually coming out in third place, the Alpine Junior driver struggled for large parts of the session and was all the way down in 21st position before putting the all-important lap together.
“We didn’t get it right in the first two runs, and I just had no confidence to push the car any further. We had an issue and luckily the boys solved it, but starting the last lap I had no confidence in the car to extract the potential, so I’m quite pleased to be P3 today.”
Last year’s Formula 3 runner-up will hope that this performance can get his season back on track after a difficult start to the year. Doohan finds himself 14th in the Drivers’ Championship despite showing strong pace ever since jumping into an F2 car in the latter stages of 2021.
He will line up on the second row of the grid for Sunday’s Feature Race, which may also be affected by rain. He will hope that today’s experience can help him should conditions become equally difficult later in the weekend.
With the top 10 positions reversed for tomorrow’s Sprint Race, Jack will start in eighth place, with potential opportunities to move up the order and maximise his points haul for the weekend.
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
