 2022 Jeddah Race 1
| ||
|---|---|---|
 The Jeddah Corniche Circuit debuted in 2021. | ||
| Race Information | ||
| Date | 4 December 2021 | |
| No. | 111 (18 of 2021) | |
| Event | Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021
| |
| Location | Jeddah Corniche Circuit Jeddah, Mecca, Saudi Arabia | |
| Format | 120 km / 45 minute (Sprint Race) | |
| Lap length | 6.174 km (3.836 mi) | |
| Distance | 20 laps / 123.480 km (76.727 mi) | |
| Fastest Lap | ||
| Driver |  Robert Shwartzman
| |
| Team |  Prema Racing
| |
| Time | 1:44.179 on lap 20 | |
| Race Result | ||
| First | Second | Third |
 Marcus Armstrong
|
Liam Lawson
|
 Jüri Vips
|
| Winner Team |  DAMS
| |
| Time | 41:44.102 | |
| Race Guide | ||
| Previous | Next | |
| 2021 Sochi Feature Race
|
2021 Jeddah Sprint Race 2
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The 2021 Jeddah Formula 2 Race 1, otherwise known as the 2021 Jeddah Sprint Race 1, was the eighteenth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 4 December 2021.[1] Held in support of the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the race would see Marcus Armstrong secure his first win in the series after resisting pressure from compatriot Liam Lawson.[2]
Qualifying had seen Oscar Piastri secure pole position for the Feature Race, while the reverse-grid rule handed pole for the Sprint Race 1 to Lawson.[3] Armstrong would start alongside his compatriot to form an all New Zealander front row, while Jüri Vips and Ralph Boschung shared the second row.[3]
The start of the race saw Armstrong get a slightly better launch, drawing alongside of Lawson as the #7 Hitech moved across to try and block the #17 DAMS.[2] Yet, Armstrong would force the issue and survive a lock-up into the first corner to hold the inside line and emerge with the lead, Lawson having to cut across the inside of turn two and forfeit the lead on exit.[2]
A few moments later and Lawson tried to regain the lead into turn four, although Armstrong placed his car well to deny his compatriot a lunge.[2] Towards the back, meanwhile, there would be several drivers who got caught out on the brakes, with debutante Olli Caldwell getting out of shape and punting Guilherme Samaia into the barriers, which in turn sent the #15 Charouz barrelling into Marino Sato as the Japanese racer turned into turn four.[2]
Their damaged cars were left on the side of the circuit, triggering a Safety Car as Caldwell was slapped with a ten second time penalty for being the catalyst.[2] At the restart Armstrong managed to prevent Lawson from getting a run into the first corner to hold the lead, before Guanyu Zhou spun himself out of contention while trying to lunge past Christian Lundgaard.[2]
The race began to settle after that, with Armstrong controlling the race ahead of Lawson, who seemed to be biding his time behind the #17 DAMS.[2] Behind, Boschung had got ahead of Vips in the fight for third, although his pace soon wavered to allow the Estonian racer to move back ahead and reclaim the final podium spot.[2]
That was the beginning of the end for Boschung's hopes of a strong result, with the Swiss racer tumbling out of the top ten over the following laps.[2] Elsewhere, Shwartzman would earn himself a time penalty for a lunge on Théo Pourchaire that saw the Russian racer leave the track and gain an advantage, before the Frenchman put himself into the barriers at turn 22 with six laps to go.[2]
After three laps behind the SC the race resumed again, with Armstrong again controlling to restart to retain the lead ahead of Lawson.[2] Indeed, the top ten proved very static at the restart, until Jehan Daruvala pulled the move of the race with a double dive on Piastri and Lundgaard to grab sixth.[2]
With that the race was run, with Armstrong resisting some half-hearted looks from Lawson to secure victory for the first time in his two season long F2 career.[2] Vips completed the podium ahead of Felipe Drugovich, while Daruvala snatched fifth from Shwartzman in the final moments.[2] Lundgaard was next up in seventh, while Ticktum would also rob a Prema on the final tour to claim the final point ahead of Piastri.[2]
Background[]
After a huge ten week gap, which had caused a rethink on both the Championship and driver front, the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship regathered for the seventh round of the season, arriving at a new venue to the series.[1] Supporting the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the F2 field found itself at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for three races on the latest street circuit to join the F1/F2 fray.[1] The circuit itself would be the longest on the 2021 calendar, as well as the fourth of five "street circuits" to stage a race during the fifth F2 campaign.[1]
Money Shuffles[]
Amid the ten weeks between the Sochi and Jeddah rounds there had been some shuffles in the entry list, with a couple of drivers losing their seats due to funding issues.[4] Indeed, MP Motorsport would lose both Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendeli ahead of the Jeddah weekend as the duo ran out of budget to complete the season, their backers unhappy with the huge gaps in the calendar, prompting MP to hire two drivers from the recently completed FIA Formula 3 Championship.[5] Indeed, the Dutch squad would sign F3 runner-up Jack Doohan and third placed finisher Clément Novalak to complete the F2 campaign, with the team evaluating both for seats in 2022.[4][5]
Elsewhere, David Beckmann had left his second team of the season due to his budget restraints, leaving Campos Racing to fill their #20 race seat for a third time in 2021 ahead of the trip to Jeddah.[6] They hired Alpine Academy racer Olli Caldwell for the season run-in, while also confirming that Ralph Boschung would compete for them in 2022.[6] There would also be a further change at HWA Racelab, with Logan Sargeant getting to make his F2 debut in place of Jake Hughes as the German squad also evaluated drivers for 2022.[7]
Old Ideas: New Season[]
Ahead of the final two rounds of the campaign the FIA and Formula 2 announced that the series would revert to its original weekend format of a single Sprint Race and Feature Race, bringing its calendar experiment to an end.[8] It was decided that the three race format but reduced round schedule, while helping to reduce day-to-day costs, had been detrimental to the Series' image, narrative and attraction to sponsors, and hence resulted in F2 returning to the format that had served it since the inaugural GP2 Series season in 2005.[8] As a result a bumper fourteen round calendar was announced for the 2022 season, featuring the return of races in Spain, Austria, Hungary and Belgium, as well as debuts for F2 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari and Circuit Zandvoort.[9]
Sochi Supremacy[]
Come the end of the weekend in Sochi Oscar Piastri had been left in control of the Championship ahead of the ten week break to the final two rounds of the season, the Australian racer having moved onto 178 points. Guanyu Zhou had retained second but had slipped 36 points behind ahead of the enforced autumn break, while Robert Shwartzman held third a further seven behind. Dan Ticktum and Théo Pourchaire then completed the top five, 22 behind Zhou, with twenty drivers having scored.
In the Teams' Championship there was little chance of Prema Racing being overhauled even with two sets of three races to go, the Italian squad having secured 313 points to date. Carlin were their closest challengers, some 88 points behind, while UNI-Virtuosi occupied third on 201. Hitech Grand Prix were next up ahead of ART Grand Prix to complete the top five ahead of the final two rounds, while HWA Racelab had remained rooted to the top of the table.
Entry List[]
The full entry list for the 2021 Jeddah Sprint Race 1 is displayed below:
- * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.
Grid[]
The grid for the first Sprint Race of the weekend was set by reversing the top ten results from qualifying for the Feature Race, as per-FIA Formula 2 Championship rules.[3]
| Pos. | Pos. | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Driver | |
| ______________ | ||
| Row 1 | ______________ | 1 |
| 2 | Liam Lawson | |
| Marcus Armstrong | ______________ | |
| Row 2 | ______________ | 3 |
| 4 | Jüri Vips | |
| Ralph Boschung | ______________ | |
| Row 3 | ______________ | 5 |
| 6 | Guanyu Zhou | |
| Felipe Drugovich | ______________ | |
| Row 4 | ______________ | 7 |
| 8 | Christian Lundgaard | |
| Théo Pourchaire | ______________ | |
| Row 5 | ______________ | 9 |
| 10 | Robert Shwartzman | |
| Oscar Piastri | ______________ | |
| Row 6 | ______________ | 11 |
| 12 | Jehan Daruvala | |
| Clément Novalak | ______________ | |
| Row 7 | ______________ | 13 |
| 14 | Dan Ticktum | |
| Bent Viscaal | ______________ | |
| Row 8 | ______________ | 15 |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | |
| Jack Doohan | ______________ | |
| Row 9 | ______________ | 17 |
| 18 | Marino Sato | |
| Enzo Fittipaldi | ______________ | |
| Row 10 | ______________ | 19 |
| 20 | Olli Caldwell | |
| Guilherme Samaia | ______________ | |
| Row 11 | ______________ | 21 |
| 22 | Logan Sargeant | |
| Alessio Deledda | ______________ |
Race[]
Report[]
Results[]
The final classification of the 2021 Jeddah Sprint Race 1 is displayed below:
| 2021 Jeddah Sprint Race 1 Race Result | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Race Time | Strat. | Fastest lap | Pts. |
| 1st | 17 | Marcus Armstrong
|
DAMS
|
20 | 41:44.102 | 
|
1:44.710 | 15 |
| 2nd | 7 | Liam Lawson
|
 Hitech Grand Prix
|
20 | +0.563s |
|
1:44.253 | 12 |
| 3rd | 8 | Jüri Vips
|
Hitech Grand Prix
|
20 | +2.044s |
|
1:44.638 | 10 |
| 4th | 4 |  Felipe Drugovich
|
UNI-Virtuosi
|
20 | +2.826s |
|
1:44.773 | 8 |
| 5th* | 1 | Robert Shwartzman
|
Prema Racing
|
20 | +8.278s |
|
1:44.179 | 8 |
| 6th | 9 |  Christian Lundgaard
|
ART Grand Prix
|
20 | +8.377s |
|
1:45.022 | 4 |
| 7th | 5 | Dan Ticktum
|
Carlin
|
20 | +8.452s |
|
1:44.656 | 2 |
| 8th | 2 |  Oscar Piastri
|
Prema Racing
|
20 | +8.613s |
|
1:44.907 | 1 |
| 9th | 24 |  Bent Viscaal
|
Trident
|
20 | +10.468s |
|
1:45.311 | |
| 10th | 6 |  Jehan Daruvala
|
Carlin
|
20 | +10.484s |
|
1:44.249 | |
| 11th | 11 | Jack Doohan
|
MP Motorsport
|
20 | +10.566s |
|
1:45.589 | |
| 12th | 14 | Enzo Fittipaldi
|
 Charouz Racing System
|
20 | +10.965s |
|
1:44.912 | |
| 13th | 16 |  Roy Nissany
|
DAMS
|
20 | +12.977s |
|
1:45.589 | |
| 14th | 12 | Clément Novalak
|
MP Motorsport
|
20 | +13.104s |
|
1:45.729 | |
| 15th | 21 |  Ralph Boschung
|
 Campos Racing
|
20 | +14.332s |
|
1:45.307 | |
| 16th | 22 |  Logan Sargeant
|
 HWA Racelab
|
20 | +15.308s |
|
1:45.814 | |
| 17th | 3 |  Guanyu Zhou
|
UNI-Virtuosi
|
20 | +17.343s |
|
1:46.699 | |
| 18th | 20 | Olli Caldwell
|
Campos Racing
|
20 | +24.652s |
|
1:45.785 | |
| Ret | 10 | Théo Pourchaire
|
ART Grand Prix
|
13 | Accident |
|
1:45.092 | |
| Ret | 23 | Alessio Deledda
|
HWA Racelab
|
13 | Engine |
|
1:51.899 | |
| Ret | 25 |  Marino Sato
|
Trident
|
0 | Collision |
|
— | |
| Ret | 15 | Guilherme Samaia
|
Charouz Racing System
|
0 | Collision |
|
— | |
| Source:[11] | ||||||||
- Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
- * Shwartzman served a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.[12]
- † Daruvala served a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.[12]
- ‡ Caldwell served a ten second time penalty for causing a collision with Samaia.[12]
Milestones[]
- First FIA Formula 2 Championship race to be held in Saudi Arabia.
- Also the first F2 race to be staged at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
- Debut race for Olli Caldwell, Jack Doohan, Clément Novalak and Logan Sargeant.
- Maiden victory for Marcus Armstrong.
- DAMS secured their sixteenth win in F2.
- 41st win for DAMS at GP2/F2 level.
Standings[]
Oscar Piastri had retained a comfortable lead at the head of the Championship table, having added a solitary point to his 179 point tally. Robert Shwartzman, meanwhile, had moved to second, a point ahead of Guanyu Zhou, while Dan Ticktum had inched closer to the Chinese racer in fourth. Théo Pourchaire was next up ahead of Jüri Vips, while victory had moved Marcus Armstrong up to twelfth in the Championship.
In the Teams' Championship Prema Racing had likewise maintained their supreme lead at the head of the table, the Italian squad having moved onto 322 points for the season. Their advantage was hence sat at 95 points ahead of Carlin in second, while Hitech Grand Prix were a further thirteen behind in third. UNI-Virtuosi were next up ahead of ART Grand Prix, while DAMS had moved back ahead of Campos Racing in the fight for seventh.
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Only point scoring drivers are shown.
References[]
Images and Videos:
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 'FIA Formula 2 Championship 2021 season provisional calendar announced', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 10/11/2020), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/1lFF2lrhzJbOeFTnd2hPE4/fia-formula-2-championship-2021-season-provisional-calendar-announced, (Accessed 11/11/2020)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 'SPRINT RACE 1: Armstrong wrestles to maiden victory over fellow Kiwi Lawson in first race at Jeddah', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 04/12/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/2Fz0Tyh0jyh2Fid7J6HBMp/sprint-race-1-armstrong-wrestles-to-maiden-victory-over-fellow-kiwi-lawson, (Accessed 03/04/2022)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 'QUALIFYING: Piastri takes historic fourth successive pole in Jeddah', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 03/12/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/7Kb51TsANM3KmBnNwZLVaI/qualifying-piastri-takes-historic-fourth-successive-pole-in-jeddah, (Accessed 03/04/2022)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Peter Allen, 'Novalak joins MP Motorsport for F2 move ahead of 2022', formulascout.com, (Formula Scout, 03/11/2021), https://formulascout.com/novalak-joins-mp-motorsport-for-f2-move-ahead-of-2022/86200, (Accessed 02/04/2022)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 'Doohan to step up to F2 with MP Motorsport for the final two rounds', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 29/11/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/6zrAUYfL584Bkmu6GWzBRa/doohan-to-step-up-to-f2-with-mp-motorsport-for-the-final-two-rounds, (Accessed 23/03/2022)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 'Caldwell to race for Campos in the final two rounds of 2021 at Jeddah and Yas Marina', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 24/11/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/2SBw3PfA5KvfNDNSqy2k1R/caldwell-to-race-for-campos-in-the-final-two-rounds-of-2021-at-jeddah-and, (Accessed 24/03/2022)
- ↑ Ida Wood, 'Williams junior Logan Sargeant to make F2 debut in Jeddah', formulascout.com, (Formula Scout, 29/11/2021), https://formulascout.com/williams-junior-logan-sargeant-to-make-f2-debut-in-jeddah/87032, (Accessed 02/04/2021)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 'FIA Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 to change race weekend format in 2022', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 24/09/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/6jWWrT7cRdMNs6QBiV2xwJ/fia-formula-2-and-fia-formula-3-to-change-race-weekend-format-in-2022, (Accessed 19/03/2022)
- ↑ 'FIA Formula 2 Championship 2022 season calendar announced', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 15/10/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/17xLlSIJ5U2K8Fje0YvUbM/fia-formula-2-championship-2022-season-calendar-announced, (Accessed 19/03/2022)
- ↑ Archived, 'Teams and Drivers', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 2021), https://web.archive.org/web/20210816222954/https://www.fiaformula2.com/Teams-and-Drivers, (Accessed 27/03/2022) - Original
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedResults - ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 'Daruvala handed post-Sprint Race 1 time penalty', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 04/12/2021), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/3Z0h4O8OyAV40NSbQ41g8B/daruvala-handed-post-sprint-race-1-time-penalty, (Accessed 03/04/2022)