The United Kingdom hosted the seventh round of the Formula 2 season, which means we are now halfway through the championship. We look at each driver’s performance and give ratings out of 5 stars.
We try to be fair to the drivers and rate a 5 as the perfect weekend, 1 and 2 as room for improvement. 3 would be considered a weekend with some positives and a 4 as a good performance. As we know, in F2, a huge amount can change between races and rounds.
Dennis Hauger *****
A bad qualifying left him with lots of work to do during the races: he was unable to recover positions during the Sprint Race and was put out of contention by Nissany’s reckless move in the Feature Race. Overall, he was not in contention for points this weekend based on his pace.
Jehan Daruvala *****
Like his team mate, qualifying was not an easy affair for the Prema driver. Still, thanks to the reverse grid, he could have scored an excellent result in the Sprint Race. However, he had no pace in the wet and actually finished higher in the Feature Race, run in the dry. He only scored seven points in total on British soil, not enough to consider it a positive weekend.
Jack Doohan *****
Qualifying seventh put the Australian at risk of finding himself in the heat of the midfield battles in both races, but excellent pace in the damp Sprint Race propelled him to his first F2 win. The dry Feature Race was another matter, as he dropped down two positions. Still, given the tough first half of the season, he has endured, he can be pleased with having made it to the top step of the podium.
Marino Sato *****
Sato was racing at the back of the field in both races, after one of his worst qualifying sessions of the year. He has certainly had better weekends this season.
Liam Lawson *****
A second podium in as many weekends is a positive sign, but consistency is still a little far away for the Kiwi. If he wants to climb the championship order he needs to do more to avoid collisions and incidents which cost him half of his weekend’s work.
Logan Sargeant *****
Sargeant was confident coming to Silverstone and it turned out to be his best F2 weekend yet. Pole by a tenth also meant his first front-row start in the series, and he handled the pressure of starting first well both on the grid and after a Safety Car restart. He duly won the Feature Race also thanks to excellent tyre management. He recovered three positions in the Sprint Race, one of few drivers to perform well in both races.
Marcus Armstrong *****
Armstrong showed a battling attitude this weekend, which was very much needed after only qualifying twelfth. Despite all the good racing he finished ninth and eighth in the Sprint and Feature races, respectively, and only added four points to his tally.
Juri Vips *****
In contrast to his team mate, Vips qualified better than him but was on the receiving end of more overtakes than he completed himself. Nonetheless, he scored twice as many points as Armstrong thanks to a P6 on Sunday.
Frederik Vesti *****
After out-qualifying Pourchaire for the second weekend in a row, Vesti had to start the Sprint Race from ninth. In the wet, he climbed up to sixth. In the Feature Race, he dropped from second to fifth amid fierce battles against his team mate, Daruvala, and Drugovich. Both were positive performances and he was the driver with the fourth-most points scored across the weekend.
Theo Pourchaire *****
Pourchaire closed the gap to Drugovich by beating his rival in both races, having qualified right behind him. He also came very close to winning the Feature Race, before having to settle for second behind the superior Sargeant.
Felipe Drugovich *****
It’s been more than two months since we last saw a race weekend without Drugovich on either podium, and him being unsatisfied with P5 and P4 proves the amazing consistency he’s had this year. He has a lead in the championship larger than a full race weekend’s maximum haul of points.
Clément Novalak *****
Novalak continued his non-scoring streak as he still struggles to get to grips with his car. The thing that is baffling is how he has had high highs and low lows, but nothing in between.
Olli Caldwell *****
Two more races, two more finishes outside of the points, and very far from the top ten. In qualifying, he scored his best result of the season because of small gaps between drivers, but he can’t afford a second half of the season of the same quality of the first one, as a member of an F1 team’s junior team.
Ralph Boschung
Having returned to action in Baku, Boschung again decided to withdraw from the races after qualifying due to neck pain. While this type of relapse is strange in itself, the Swiss driver should assess his situation beforehand and let the team hire a replacement as it can’t afford to race with one car only, given they are second-to-last in the teams’ standings.
Roy Nissany *****
Having qualified five tenths behind his rookie team mate, Nissany dropped down the order in the Sprint Race, and put himself out of the Feature Race with a dangerous maneuver which also put Hauger’s race to an end and earned himself a penalty for the next round.
Ayumu Iwasa *****
Iwasa scored his second podium, another runner-up trophy, of the year with a great drive on Saturday which brought him within a second of the race win. Unfortunately, he did not have similar pace on Sunday and lost a whopping six positions to finish twelfth.
Richard Verschoor *****
The Dutch driver had a decisively better weekend than his team mate, but could not score points despite a P10 because it came in the Sprint Race.
Calan Williams *****
Williams has become used to running on the alternative strategy during Feature Races but that has not helped him reap any reward, as he finished both races ahead of Caldwell and Bölükbasi.
Enzo Fittipaldi *****
Qualifying in the top ten is a great way for the underdogs to have a chance at glory, and Fittipaldi once again earned a podium by starting second in the Sprint Race. He finished outside of the top ten in the Feature Race, the first time he has done so since Imola, but is being very consistent.
Cem Bölükbasi *****
Compared to previous weekends, this one was far more underwhelming for the rookie as he finished as the penultimate running driver in both races.
Jake Hughes *****
Another weekend battling on the edge of the points-paying positions, and another point grasped in the Feature Race.
David Beckmann ******
Replacing the banned Cordeel to mark his second appearance of the season (he had replaced Bölükbasi in Imola), Beckmann performed on par with the Belgian, albeit without the same time in the car week in, week out, and without incurring in penalties.
Image: Formula Motorsport Limited
