 2022 Spa-Francorchamps Formula 2 Race 2
| ||
|---|---|---|
 The Spa-Francorchamps circuit returned to the F2 calendar in 2022. | ||
| Race Information | ||
| Date | 28 August 2022 | |
| No. | 137 (22 of 2022) | |
| Event | Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2022
| |
| Location | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Stavelot, Liège, Belgium | |
| Format | 170 km / 60 min (Feature Race) | |
| Lap length | 7.004 km (4.353 mi) | |
| Distance | 25 laps / 174.976 km (108.802 mi) | |
| Qualifying Result | ||
| Pole Sitter |  Felipe Drugovich
| |
| Team |  MP Motorsport
| |
| Time | 1:58.232 | |
| Fastest Lap | ||
| Driver |  Jehan Daruvala
| |
| Team |  Prema Racing
| |
| Time | 2:00.677 on lap 22 | |
| Race Result | ||
| First | Second | Third |
 Jack Doohan
|
Felipe Drugovich
|
 Liam Lawson
|
| Winner Team |  Virtuosi Racing
| |
| Time | 52:16.133 | |
| Race Guide | ||
| Previous | Next | |
| 2022 Spa Sprint Race
|
2022 Zandvoort Sprint Race
| |
The 2022 Spa Feature Race, officially known as the 2022 Spa-Francorchamps Formula 2 Race 2, was the twenty-second race of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Liège, Belgium, on 28 August 2022 in support of the Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2022.[1] The race would see Jack Doohan secure a strong maiden Feature Race victory by undercutting then-race leader Felipe Drugovich during the pitstop phase, as the Brazilian racer saw his main title rival Théo Pourchaire hit trouble and fail to finish.[2]
Qualifying for the 2022 Spa Feature Race was staged on Friday afternoon, and had seen Drugovich storm to his third pole position of the season, beating closest challenger Enzo Fittipaldi by almost four tenths of a second as rain threatened the session throughout.[3] His title ambitions were further boosted by the fact that title rival Pourchaire could only manage eighth, in a session that saw Jüri Vips bring out an early red flag with a spin at La Source and numerous drivers make mistakes as conditions proved tricky despite the rain not falling during the 30 minute bout.[3]
In contrast there would be a low threat of rain when the field lined up on the grid for the Feature Race on Sunday morning, with Drugovich storming off the line to lead into La Source unopposed.[2] He hence left Fittipaldi to fight for second, although the Brazilian racer was also beaten off the grid by Doohan who swept past to claim second from fourth on the grid, followed by David Beckmann on the run to Les Combes a few moments later.[2]
An eventful opening couple of laps saw Logan Sargeant tumble back to seventh, while Pourchaire had also lost ground and dropped to the back of the top ten, only to be struck by an engine issue that meant he had to retire, a huge blow to his title hopes.[2] On track, meanwhile, Fittipaldi and Liam Lawson began a ferocious duel that would last through to the stops, with Fittipaldi initially getting shoved wide at Les Combes when they first fought early on lap two.[2]
Lawson tried again and again, before eventually barging past on lap five around the outside of the second part of Les Combes with the pair even banging wheels as Fittipaldi tried to push Lawson to the edge of the track.[2] Their squabble would, however, allow Doohan and Drugovich ahead to escape and hence resulted in Fittipaldi, seeking revenge and to catch the leaders, to stop as soon as the pit window opened on lap eight for medium tyres to try and undercut his rivals.[2]
Lawson stopped a lap later and fell right back into the sights of the #22 Charouz, while Doohan was told to do the opposite of Drugovich, and hence made his stop on lap ten as the Brazilian racer carried on.[2] The decision was ultimately an inspired one, for a lap later the #3 Virtuosi fired past Drugovich as the #11 MP Motorsport car scrambled out of the pits on cold tyres to claim the defacto lead, albeit with the duo now down in eighth and ninth.[2]
Richard Verschoor was left in the lead of the race on the alternate strategy, and opted to try and stretch his medium tyre life as far as it would go in a bid to push as hard as he could on the softs later on.[2] He would eventually make his stop on lap seventeen and fall seventeen seconds off the lead in ninth, the last driver in the top ten to make his compulsory stop along with Clément Novalak.[2]
Thus began Verschoor's charge back up the order, starting with a simple draft past Marcus Armstrong into Les Combes on lap eighteen, before ending that lap by powering past Dennis Hauger out of the Bus Stop chicane to claim seventh.[2] A lap later and Beckmann had fallen to the #20 Trident, while Sargeant and Fittipaldi could provide little resistance when the Dutchman caught them on the subsequent two laps, easing past down the Kemmel Straight with DRS.[2]
Yet, that would be as good as it got for Verschoor, his soft tyres beginning to struggle with two laps to go as he faced a five second gap to Lawson and the spot on the podium that the #5 Carlin occupied.[2] He duly fell 3.765 seconds shy of Lawson when the chequered flag was thrown, as Doohan controlled the race ahead of Drugovich to secure an impressive third win in his rookie season.[2] Second with Pourchaire retiring left Drugovich with a satisfying 43 point lead in the Championship with six races to go, while Fittipaldi was slapped with a five second time penalty that took him from fifth to tenth behind Beckmann, Ayumu Iwasa, Vips and Novalak.[2]
Background[]
There were no changes to either the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps nor the entry list for the second and final FIA Formula 2 Championship race of the weekend, with conditions expected to remain dry as they had throughout Saturday's running and the Sprint Race.[1]
Lawson's Law[]
Felipe Drugovich had extended his Championship lead by two points after the opening race in Spa, although it was the manner of how he had increased his lead, rather than the added points, that had really enhanced the Brazilian racer's bid for the title. Indeed, the Spa Sprint had seen Drugovich pass his title rival Théo Pourchaire having started seven places behind him on the grid, and after spending most of the race stalking the Frenchman without seriously pushing to make a pass. As a result Pourchaire had slipped 23 points behind in what was becoming a duel for the title between himself and Drugovich, and with the added issue of starting in eighth in the Feature Race while Drugovich was to start from pole position.
There had been no changes in the Teams' Championship after the first battle in Spa, with ART Grand Prix still heading the field as they sought their first F2 Teams' title with 253 points. Their lead had, however, been weakened during the Spa Sprint, as Carlin had chopped eight points off their defecit to move 35 points off the leaders. The British squad had also inched seven points clear of MP Motorsport in third, while Hitech Grand Prix and Prema Racing had continued to fall away from the leaders in fourth and fifth.
Entry List[]
The full entry list for the 2022 Spa Feature Race is displayed below:
- * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.
Practice[]
Qualifying[]
Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday.[3] All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time.[3] There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.[3]
Report[]
It was very overcast as the pitlane opened for qualifying, resulting in an immediate swarm to get out onto the circuit as drivers hoped to avoid any potential rain that might grace the circuit during the session.[3] Jack Doohan was the first to scramble out of the pits and would lead the field around, all on the soft Pirelli tyres, and with the circuit colder than it had been during practice everyone would opt to complete two warm-up laps.[3] That would not go well for Doohan as the Australian pilot spun at La Source at the start of his second prep-lap, before Jüri Vips did exactly the same thing towards the back of the pack and stalled, and hence ended up stranded at the hairpin.[3]
Vips' stranded Hitech required a red flag to be the thrown so it could be safely retrieved, with the session resuming with 23 minutes to go, and with the field again storming onto the circuit as the rain continued to threaten without actually falling.[3] After another prep lap the flying laps seriously began, with the first round going to the other #7 Hitech of Marcus Armstrong, a 2:00.353 enough to beat Dennis Hauger and Logan Sargeant before the majority of the field dived into the pits for fresh softs.[3] Felipe Drugovich was a notable exception to this rule and went for a second flying lap, resultin in the #11 MP Motorsport hitting the top of the timesheet with a 1:59.990 before racing around to the pits in order to get his own set of fresh softs.[3]
After a brief pause the entire field began to take to the circuit for their second runs, with David Beckmann going first and delivering a strong second sector, only to catch the back of the train of prepping drivers entering Blachimont, having to take to the run-off area to avoid them.[3] That decision saw the #24 VAR car lose its time almost immediately after crossing the line to jump into the top five, with Ralph Boschung taking top spot instead.[3] Jehan Daruvala then hit the front before being knocked off top spot by Doohan, only for Drugovich to storm across the line with three minutes to go to record a stunning 1:58.232, some seven tenths quicker than Doohan.[3]
Another slow tour and then the drivers would start their last bids for pole position, although as the first sector times came in it was clear that no-one was going to challenge Drugovich's effort, the Brazilian himself backing off to preserve a potential set of race tyres.[3] Indeed, while Doohan improved on his effort he would fail to get within half a second of Drugovich's chart topping time, with his time going unbeaten until Enzo Fittipaldi reached the chequered flag and claimed second with a 1:58.615.[3] Sargeant would also sneak ahead of the Australian pilot in the dying moments of the session, by just 0.002s, while Drugovich's main title challenger Théo Pourchaire had a quiet run to eighth ahead of Daruvala.[3]
Results[]
The final qualifying result for the 2022 Spa Feature Race are outlined below:
| 2022 Spa Feature Race Qualifying Result | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Ave. Speed | Grid |
| 1st | 11 | Felipe Drugovich
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:58.232 | — | 213.262 km/h | 1 |
| 2nd | 22 | Enzo Fittipaldi
|
 Charouz Racing System
|
1:58.615 | +0.383s | 212.573 km/h | 2 |
| 3rd | 6 |  Logan Sargeant
|
Carlin
|
1:58.781 | +0.549s | 212.276 km/h | 3 |
| 4th | 3 | Jack Doohan
|
Virtuosi Racing
|
1:58.783 | +0.551s | 212.272 km/h | 4 |
| 5th | 24 |  David Beckmann
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
1:58.797 | +0.565s | 212.247 km/h | 5 |
| 6th | 5 | Liam Lawson
|
Carlin
|
1:58.976 | +0.744s | 211.928 km/h | 6 |
| 7th | 20 | Richard Verschoor
|
Trident
|
1:59.018 | +0.786s | 211.853 km/h | 7 |
| 8th | 10 |  Théo Pourchaire
|
ART Grand Prix
|
1:59.061 | +0.829s | 211.777 km/h | 8 |
| 9th | 2 | Jehan Daruvala
|
Prema Racing
|
1:59.114 | +0.882s | 211.682 km/h | 9 |
| 10th | 15 |  Ralph Boschung
|
 Campos Racing
|
1:59.126 | +0.894s | 211.661 km/h | 10 |
| 11th | 1 |  Dennis Hauger
|
Prema Racing
|
1:59.161 | +0.929s | 211.599 km/h | 11 |
| 12th | 7 | Marcus Armstrong
|
Hitech Grand Prix
|
1:59.177 | +0.945s | 211.571 km/h | 12 |
| 13th | 17 |  Ayumu Iwasa
|
DAMS
|
1:59.179 | +0.947s | 211.567 km/h | 13 |
| 14th | 9 |  Frederik Vesti
|
ART Grand Prix
|
1:59.284 | +1.052s | 211.381 km/h | 14 |
| 15th | 16 |  Roy Nissany
|
DAMS
|
1:59.302 | +1.070s | 211.349 km/h | 15 |
| 16th | 12 | Clément Novalak
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:59.380 | +1.148s | 211.211 km/h | 16 |
| 17th | 4 | Marino Sato
|
Virtuosi Racing
|
1:59.523 | +1.291s | 210.958 km/h | 17 |
| 18th | 21 | Calan Williams
|
Trident
|
1:59.526 | +1.294s | 210.953 km/h | 18 |
| 19th | 14 | Lirim Zendeli
|
Campos Racing
|
1:59.704 | +1.472s | 210.639 km/h | 19 |
| 20th | 25 | Amaury Cordeel
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
1:59.820 | +1.588s | 210.435 km/h | 20 |
| 21st | 23 |  Tatiana Caldéron
|
Charouz Racing System
|
2:00.531 | +2.299s | 209.194 km/h | 21 |
| 107% Time: 2:06.508[5] | |||||||
| NC | 8 |  Jüri Vips
|
Hitech Grand Prix
|
2:36.671 | +38.439s | 160.938 km/h | 22 |
| Source:[6] | |||||||
Grid[]
| Pos. | Pos. | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Driver | |
| ______________ | ||
| Row 1 | ______________ | 1 |
| 2 | Felipe Drugovich | |
| Enzo Fittipaldi | ______________ | |
| Row 2 | ______________ | 3 |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | |
| Jack Doohan | ______________ | |
| Row 3 | ______________ | 5 |
| 6 | David Beckmann | |
| Liam Lawson | ______________ | |
| Row 4 | ______________ | 7 |
| 8 | Richard Verschoor | |
| Théo Pourchaire | ______________ | |
| Row 5 | ______________ | 9 |
| 10 | Jehan Daruvala | |
| Ralph Boschung | ______________ | |
| Row 6 | ______________ | 11 |
| 12 | Dennis Hauger | |
| Marcus Armstrong | ______________ | |
| Row 7 | ______________ | 13 |
| 14 | Ayumu Iwasa | |
| Frederik Vesti | ______________ | |
| Row 8 | ______________ | 15 |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | |
| Clément Novalak | ______________ | |
| Row 9 | ______________ | 17 |
| 18 | Marino Sato | |
| Calan Williams | ______________ | |
| Row 10 | ______________ | 19 |
| 20 | Lirim Zendeli | |
| Amaury Cordeel | ______________ | |
| Row 11 | ______________ | 21 |
| 22 | Tatiana Caldéron | |
| Jüri Vips* | ______________ |
- * Vips was given permission to start the race from the back of the grid after failing to set a representative time during qualifying.[7]
Race[]
Report[]
Results[]
The final classification of the 2022 Spa Feature Race is displayed below:
| 2022 Spa Feature Race Race Result | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Race Time | Strat. | Fastest lap | Pts. |
| 1st | 3 | Jack Doohan
|
Virtuosi Racing
|
25 | 52:16.133 |  -
|
2:00.772 | 25 |
| 2nd | 11 | Felipe Drugovich
|
MP Motorsport
|
25 | +1.942s | -
|
2:01.684 | 20 |
| 3rd | 5 | Liam Lawson
|
Carlin
|
25 | +8.714s | -
|
2:01.354 | 15 |
| 4th | 20 | Richard Verschoor
|
Trident
|
25 | +12.479s | -
|
2:01.132 | 12 |
| 5th | 6 | Logan Sargeant
|
Carlin
|
25 | +21.266s | -
|
2:02.126 | 10 |
| 6th | 24 | David Beckmann
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
25 | +22.365s | -
|
2:02.143 | 8 |
| 7th | 17 | Ayumu Iwasa
|
DAMS
|
25 | +22.498s | -
|
2:02.149 | 6 |
| 8th | 8 | Jüri Vips
|
Hitech Grand Prix
|
25 | +23.899s | -
|
2:01.032 | 4 |
| 9th | 12 | Clément Novalak
|
MP Motorsport
|
25 | +24.746s | -
|
2:01.250 | 2 |
| 10th* | 22 | Enzo Fittipaldi
|
Charouz Racing System
|
25 | +25.481s | -
|
2:01.948 | 1 |
| 11th | 9 | Frederik Vesti
|
ART Grand Prix
|
25 | +31.001s | -
|
2:01.526 | |
| 12th† | 1 | Dennis Hauger
|
Prema Racing
|
25 | +37.471s | -
|
2:02.208 | |
| 13th‡ | 7 | Marcus Armstrong
|
Hitech Grand Prix
|
25 | +39.756s | -
|
2:02.528 | |
| 14th | 15 | Ralph Boschung
|
Campos Racing
|
25 | +40.683s | -
|
2:01.477 | |
| 15th | 4 | Marino Sato
|
Virtuosi Racing
|
25 | +43.718s | -
|
2:02.669 | |
| 16th | 21 | Calan Williams
|
Trident
|
25 | +45.683s | -
|
2:03.302 | |
| 17th | 25 | Amaury Cordeel
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
25 | +52.243s | -
|
2:02.170 | |
| 18th | 23 | Tatiana Caldéron
|
Charouz Racing System
|
25 | +57.384s | -
|
2:03.306 | |
| 19th | 16 | Roy Nissany
|
DAMS
|
25 | +1:02.827 | -
|
2:03.475 | |
| 20thƒ | 2 | Jehan Daruvala
|
Prema Racing
|
25 | +1:46.358 | --
|
2:00.677 | |
| 21st§ | 14 | Lirim Zendeli
|
Campos Racing
|
22 | Retired | -
|
2:03.759 | |
| Ret | 10 | Théo Pourchaire
|
ART Grand Prix
|
3 | Engine |
|
2:05.061 | |
| Source:[5] | ||||||||
- Bold indicates a driver started from pole; Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
- * Fittipaldi served a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage.[8]
- † Hauger was awarded a five second time penalty for repeated track limit offences.[9] Hauger received an additional five second time penalty for forcing another driver off track.[10]
- ‡ Armstrong was handed a five second time penalty for forcing another driver off track.[11]
- ƒ Daruvala set the fastest lap of the race (2:00.677) but was unable to claim the bonus point as he finished outside of the top ten.[5]
- § Zendeli was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.[5]
Milestones[]
- Jack Doohan claimed his third victory.
- Virtuosi Racing earned their fifteenth win as an entrant.
Standings[]
Second place in the Spa Feature Race, combined with his closest challenger failing to score, had left Felipe Drugovich in command of the Championship with six races to go, the Brazilian pilot's advantage having grown to 43 points during the weekend at Spa. Théo Pourchaire, Drugovich's aforementioned rival, would need a strong weekend in Zandvoort in order to keep his title hopes alive, as would Logan Sargeant who was all but out of the fight already. Indeed, the American pilot had slipped 76 points behind Drugovich after the eleventh round of the season, and was only eight ahead of Jack Doohan after the Australian racer had claimed his first Feature Race triumph in Belgium.
In contrast the spread of points at the summit of the Teams' Championship had severely narrowed after the twenty-second race of the season, with just twenty points separating the top three teams with six races to go. Head of the hunt were ART Grand Prix, although after their non-score in the Spa Feature the French squad's lead had collapsed to just ten points over Carlin in second. MP Motorsport were then a further ten behind in third in what was effectively a three horse race in the final three rounds, with fourth placed Hitech Grand Prix 83 points off the lead in third and realistically too far back to challenge.
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See Also[]
|
See the related event on the Formula One Wiki |
| 2022 Belgian Grand Prix |
|---|
|
|
References[]
Images and Videos:
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 '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)
- ↑ 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 'FEATURE RACE: Doohan takes his third victory of the season at Spa', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 28/08/2022), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/6UVb7U8HfzVuJEFj9527cP/feature-race-doohan-takes-his-third-victory-of-the-season-at-spa, (Accessed 19/09/2022)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 'QUALIFYING: Drugovich comfortably quickest at Spa for MP Motorsport', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 26/08/2022), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/1eV5FJTFlP7IfUdZzGTBKd/qualifying-drugovich-comfortably-quickest-at-spa-for-mp-motorsport, (Accessed 19/09/2022)
- ↑ 'Entry List - F2 Spa 2022', fia.com, (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, 25/08/2022), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2022%20Spa%20Francorchamps%20Event%20-%20Entry%20List%20-%20F2%20Spa%202022.pdf, (Accessed 19/09/2022)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedResults - ↑ '2022 SPA FRANCORCHAMPS EVENT 25 to 28 August 2022 - F2 Qualifying Session - Final Classification', fia.com, (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, 26/08/2022), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2022%20Spa%20Francorchamps%20Event%20-%20F2%20Qualifying%20Session%20-%20final%20classification.pdf, (Accessed 19/09/2022)
- ↑ '2022 SPA FRANCORCHAMPS EVENT 25 to 28 August 2022 - Document 18', fia.com, (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, 26/08/2022), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2022%20Spa%20Francorchamps%20Event%20-%20DECISION%20-%20Car%208%20-%20start%20permission%20Race%201%20&%20Race%202.pdf, (Accessed 19/09/2022)
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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