 2023 Spielberg Formula 2 Race 2
| ||
|---|---|---|
 The Red Bull Ring returned for 2022. | ||
| Race Information | ||
| Date | 2 July 2023 | |
| No. | 156 (14 of 2023) | |
| Event | Formula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich 2023[1]
| |
| Location | Red Bull Ring Spielberg, Styria, Austria | |
| Format | 170 km / 60 min (Feature Race) | |
| Lap length | 4.318 km (2.683 mi) | |
| Distance | 40 laps / 172.720 km (107.323 mi) | |
| Qualifying Result | ||
| Pole Sitter |  Victor Martins
| |
| Team | ART Grand Prix
| |
| Time | 1:14.643 (208.255 km/h) | |
| Fastest Lap | ||
| Driver |  Ayumu Iwasa
| |
| Team | DAMS
| |
| Time | 1:17.575 (200.384 km/h) on lap 37 | |
| Race Result | ||
| First | Second | Third |
 Richard Verschoor
|
Ayumu Iwasa
|
 Frederik Vesti
|
| Winner Team | Van Amersfoort Racing
| |
| Time | 56:31.050 (183.228 km/h) | |
| Race Guide | ||
| Previous | Next | |
| 2023 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race
|
 2023 Silverstone Sprint Race
| |
The 2023 Red Bull Ring Feature Race, officially the 2023 Spielberg Formula 2 Race 2, was the fourteenth race of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 2 July 2023.[1] The race would see Richard Verschoor claim a maiden victory for Van Amersfoort Racing in the series, after a late-race safety car allowed those on the alternate tyre strategy to gain a huge amount of ground.[2]
Qualifying would see Victor Martins dominate the session, consistently setting the fastest time of the session before ultimately securing pole position by a surprisingly comfortable margin, a 1:14.643 beating Frederik Vesti by almost a tenth and a half.[3] Théo Pourchaire and Kush Maini would share the second row, Jack Doohan and Amaury Cordeel the third, while Jak Crawford in tenth would be awarded pole position for the Sprint Race.[3]
Unfortunately for Martins pole position would not be enough to secure an early lead, a large amout of wheelspin for the #6 ART meaning he was powerless to prevent Vesti storming off the grid to claim the lead on the supersofts, while Pourchaire elbowed his way past his teammate for second.[2] Behind it was a clean start fo the rest of the field, Maini also making a clean getaway to claim third from Martins on the brakes for turn three, while the rest of the field got away largely in grid order with Enzo Fittipaldi the best of the those to start on softs dropping to tenth.[2]
Ayumu Iwasa was a man on the march during the early stages, with the Japanese pilot storming into the top ten on the opening lap, before benefitting from a clumsy move from Cordeel on Dennis Hauger to jump into eighth as those on supersofts began to lose pace.[2] Indeed, Fittipaldi would also begin to move up the order, following Martins past Maini on lap eight when the Indian pilot's supersofts began to run out of grip, which would send the #24 Campos into the pits at the end of the lap, following Pourchaire into the pits.[2]
Doohan and Martin were in a lap later, while Vesti held out until the end of lap nine, rejoining with a comfortable margin over Martins and managing to get Crawford between himself and the rest of the supersoft-soft runners.[2] Fittipaldi was hence left in control of the race ahead of Verschoor and Iwasa, and would soon begin to ease clear as the other two focused on nursing their worn soft tyres, while Vesti would begin picking off those who had started on softs and looked set for a dominant victory.[2]
Indeed, only outside intervention looked likely to derail Vesti's charge for victory, and that would come on lap 28 when Arthur Leclerc stopped on circuit, the #12 DAMS having shed a brand-new supersoft wheel halfway around his out-lap from the pits.[2] Leclerc stopped between turns five and six to trigger a Safety Car period, allowing those who had to swap the softs for supersofts to come in for their stops, Verschoor and Iwasa coming in straight away, while Fittipaldi, hoping for a shorter SC period, would pit a lap later but ended up further down the field.[2]
That left Vesti back in the lead of the race when the race resumed with eight laps to go, with the Dane followed by Doohan, Pourchaire and Martins, while Verschoor was now the lead driver on supersofts in fifth with Iwasa for company.[2] At the restart it was immediately clear, however, that those now on the supersofts had a huge advantage, with Verschoor easily picking off Martins into the first corner, while Iwasa followed him through in short order.[2]
Pourchaire was powerless to resist Verschoor on the following tour, with Iwasa also following him through, while behind Oliver Bearman was also strolling up the order and broke back into the lower reaches of the top ten.[2] Doohan, meanwhile, would resist the Verschoor charge until lap 38, a lunge into turn four getting the job done, while Iwasa had to wait until the exit of turn six to make his way past the #14 Invicta Virtuosi.[2]
With that Verschoor was onto the tail of Vesti, and a switch-back move out of turn three would see the #22 VAR pilot storm into the lead, with Iwasa again having to wait to make a storming move around the outside of turn six to follow Verschoor through.[2] That delay would help Verschoor no-end, with the Dutchman able to keep Iwasa at arm's length throughout the final tour to claim the first victory for VAR as a team, while Vesti rounded out the podium to increase his Championship lead.[2] Doohan claimed fourth ahead of Bearman, who ran out of time to catch the Australian pilot with Fittipaldi in tow, Pourchaire resisted Crawford for seventh, Martins secured ninth, while Jehan Daruvala also benefitted from the SC period to claim the final point for tenth.[2]
Background[]
The weather would improve in the Styrian Mountains into Sunday, and there would therefore be no threat of rain for the Feature Race as the field reconveined after the Sprint Race.[1] The circuit itself was unchanged, as was the entry list for the second race of the weekend.[1]
Halfway Check-in[]
It was status quo in the Drivers' Championship as none of the main contenders scored significant points, meaning Frederik Vesti would end the first of the season with an eleven point lead at the head of the field. Théo Pourchaire was next up in second, while Ayumu Iwasa occupied third with a seventeen point deficit to the Frenchman ahead, and an eleven point advantage of his own over Oliver Bearman. Behind Dennis Hauger had retained fifth ahead of Victor Martins, who had shot into sixth with his podium and fastest lap combo, while at the back it was still a pointless campaign for Roy Nissany, Amaury Cordeel and Brad Benavides.
In the Teams' Championship there had been likewise no movement, leaving Prema Racing as the leaders as the first half of the campaign concluded on Saturday evening in the Styrian mountains. ART Grand Prix were their closest challengers in second, having trimmed the lead to 28 points after the opening battle of Spielberg, while behind DAMS had lost a little ground in third, no eighteen clear of MP Motorsport as the latter broke through the 100 point barrier. Rodin Carlin then completed the top five ahead of Campos Racing, while at the foot of the table debutantes PHM Racing by Charouz were still hunting their break through points finish.
Entry List[]
The full entry list for the 2023 Red Bull Ring 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 no surprise that the pitlane became instantly busy as the qualifying session began, with drivers knowing they would get potentially three flying laps on each of their sets of tyres around the short Red Bull Ring, with the slipstream effect expected to be significant.[3] The early pace was set by Roman Staněk, the first to set a representative time, before Frederik Vesti went fastest, albeit briefly, with a 1:15.134 with Théo Pourchaire, his title rival, falling short and slotting into second.[3] Victor Martins then showed his pace, storming into first and breaking into the 1:14s with his first proper attempt, while Enzo Fittipaldi also looked to have serious pace as he leapt into second only to have his lap time deleted.[3]
Indeed, track limits would play a part in denying improvements for several drivers on their second attempts, Jack Doohan having his better second run deleted to dump him back down to fifth.[3] Amaury Cordeel, meanwhile, was showing some of the strongest qualifying pace of his F2 career as he shot into second, just before the field went into the pits for their tyre swap and minor adjustments.[3] Eleven minutes were left on the clock when the field flooded back onto the circuit, with a lot of early jostling for position as drivers set about trying to find a tow from their rivals to boost their straight-line speed.[3]
Fittipaldi was an early pace setter for the post-stop runs, finally delivering a clean lap to leap back into second place and retain a lap, although that was soon overshadowed by Martins, who found another quarter of a second to improve his mark to a 1:14.643.[3] Vesti chased him across the line but was down by a tenth as he flashed across the line, while Pourchaire was unable to best his effort and settled into third.[3] The final runs would begin with Fittipaldi getting blocked by Jehan Daruvala as the Indian pilot rejoined from an off, before abandoning his final attmept after a lock-up into turn three.[3]
Indeed, barring a late leap to fourth from Kush Maini there were no significant improvements in the final moments of the session, a combination of quick wearing rubber and track limit breaches meaning improvements were not forthcoming for most of the field.[3] As a result Martins was left on pole ahead of Vesti, Pourchaire and Maini, while tenth place for Jak Crawford left the American pilot on pole for the Sprint Race.[3]
Results[]
The final qualifying result for the 2023 Red Bull Ring Feature Race are outlined below:
| 2023 Red Bull Ring Feature Race Qualifying Result | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Ave. Speed | Grid |
| 1st | 6 | Victor Martins
|
ART Grand Prix
|
1:14.643 | — | 208.255 km/h | 1 |
| 2nd | 7 | Frederik Vesti
|
 Prema Racing
|
1:14.782 | +0.139s | 207.868 km/h | 2 |
| 3rd | 5 | Théo Pourchaire
|
ART Grand Prix
|
1:14.813 | +0.170s | 207.782 km/h | 3 |
| 4th | 24 |  Kush Maini
|
 Campos Racing
|
1:14.858 | +0.215s | 207.657 km/h | 4 |
| 5th | 14 |  Jack Doohan
|
Invicta Virtuosi Racing
|
1:14.860 | +0.217s | 207.651 km/h | 5 |
| 6th* | 4 |  Enzo Fittipaldi
|
Rodin Carlin
|
1:14.953 | +0.310s | 207.393 km/h | 9* |
| 7th | 15 |  Amaury Cordeel
|
Invicta Virtuosi Racing
|
1:14.987 | +0.344s | 207.299 km/h | 6 |
| 8th | 12 |  Arthur Leclerc
|
DAMS
|
1:15.017 | +0.374s | 207.217 km/h | 7 |
| 9th | 2 | Jehan Daruvala
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:15.085 | +0.442s | 207.029 km/h | 8 |
| 10th | 9 |  Jak Crawford
|
Hitech Pulse-Eight
|
1:15.087 | +0.444s | 207.023 km/h | 10 |
| 11th | 22 | Richard Verschoor
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
1:15.128 | +0.485s | 206.910 km/h | 11 |
| 12th | 23 | Juan Manuel Correa
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
1:15.203 | +0.560s | 206.704 km/h | 12 |
| 13th | 1 |  Dennis Hauger
|
MP Motorsport
|
1:15.237 | +0.594s | 206.611 km/h | 13 |
| 14th | 16 |  Roy Nissany
|
 PHM Racing by Charouz
|
1:15.244 | +0.601s | 206.591 km/h | 14 |
| 15th | 3 |  Zane Maloney
|
Rodin Carlin
|
1:15.374 | +0.731s | 206.235 km/h | 15 |
| 16th | 11 | Ayumu Iwasa
|
DAMS
|
1:15.469 | +0.826s | 205.975 km/h | 16 |
| 17th | 20 |  Roman Staněk
|
Trident
|
1:15.502 | +0.859s | 205.885 km/h | 17 |
| 18th | 17 | Brad Benavides
|
PHM Racing by Charouz
|
1:15.650 | +1.007s | 205.483 km/h | 18 |
| 19th | 8 | Oliver Bearman
|
Prema Racing
|
1:15.690 | +1.047s | 205.374 km/h | 19 |
| 20th | 21 | Clément Novalak
|
Trident
|
1:15.702 | +1.059s | 205.341 km/h | 20 |
| 21st | 10 | Isack Hadjar
|
Hitech Pulse-Eight
|
1:15.808 | +1.165s | 205.054 km/h | 21 |
| 22nd | 25 |  Ralph Boschung
|
Campos Racing
|
1:15.828 | +1.185s | 205.000 km/h | 22 |
| 107% Time: 1:19.868[5] | |||||||
| Source:[5] | |||||||
- * Fittipaldi served a three place grid penalty for causing a collision with Maini during the 2023 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race.[6]
Grid[]
| Pos. | Pos. | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Driver | |
| ______________ | ||
| Row 1 | 1 | ______________ |
| Victor Martins | 2 | |
| ______________ | Frederik Vesti | |
| Row 2 | 3 | ______________ |
| Théo Pourchaire | 4 | |
| ______________ | Kush Maini | |
| Row 3 | 5 | ______________ |
| Jack Doohan | 6 | |
| ______________ | Amaury Cordeel | |
| Row 4 | 7 | ______________ |
| Arthur Leclerc | 8 | |
| ______________ | Jehan Daruvala | |
| Row 5 | 9 | ______________ |
| Enzo Fittipaldi | 10 | |
| ______________ | Jak Crawford | |
| Row 6 | 11 | ______________ |
| Richard Verschoor | 12 | |
| ______________ | Juan Manuel Correa | |
| Row 7 | 13 | ______________ |
| Dennis Hauger | 14 | |
| ______________ | Roy Nissany | |
| Row 8 | 15 | ______________ |
| Zane Maloney | 16 | |
| ______________ | Ayumu Iwasa | |
| Row 9 | 17 | ______________ |
| Roman Staněk | 18 | |
| ______________ | Brad Benavides | |
| Row 10 | 19 | ______________ |
| Oliver Bearman | 20 | |
| ______________ | Clément Novalak | |
| Row 11 | 21 | ______________ |
| Isack Hadjar | 22 | |
| ______________ | Ralph Boschung |
Race[]
Report[]
Results[]
The final classification of the 2023 Red Bull Ring Feature Race is displayed below:
| 2023 Red Bull Ring Feature Race Race Result | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Race Time | Strat. | Fastest lap | Pts. |
| 1st | 22 | Richard Verschoor
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
40 | 56:31.050 |  -
|
1:18.085 | 25 |
| 2ndFL | 11 | Ayumu Iwasa
|
DAMS
|
40 | +0.415s | -
|
1:17.575 | 19FL |
| 3rd | 7 | Frederik Vesti
|
Prema Racing
|
40 | +1.921s | -
|
1:17.695 | 17 |
| 4th | 14 | Jack Doohan
|
Invicta Virtuosi Racing
|
40 | +2.222s | -
|
1:18.146 | 12 |
| 5th | 8 | Oliver Bearman
|
Prema Racing
|
40 | +2.860s | -
|
1:17.673 | 10 |
| 6th | 4 | Enzo Fittipaldi
|
Rodin Carlin
|
40 | +3.147s | -
|
1:17.655 | 8 |
| 7th | 5 | Théo Pourchaire
|
ART Grand Prix
|
40 | +6.714s | -
|
1:18.422 | 6 |
| 8th | 9 | Jak Crawford
|
Hitech Pulse-Eight
|
40 | +7.348s | -
|
1:18.622 | 4 |
| 9th | 6 | Victor Martins
|
ART Grand Prix
|
40 | +7.971s | -
|
1:18.192 | 4 |
| 10th | 2 | Jehan Daruvala
|
MP Motorsport
|
40 | +9.343s | -
|
1:18.146 | 1 |
| 11th | 1 | Dennis Hauger
|
MP Motorsport
|
40 | +9.582s | -
|
1:17.899 | |
| 12th | 10 | Isack Hadjar
|
Hitech Pulse-Eight
|
40 | +9.915s | -
|
1:17.825 | |
| 13th | 21 | Clément Novalak
|
Trident
|
40 | +11.594s | -
|
1:18.335 | |
| 14th | 25 | Ralph Boschung
|
Campos Racing
|
40 | +13.020s | -
|
1:17.948 | |
| 15th | 3 | Zane Maloney
|
Rodin Carlin
|
40 | +14.622s | -
|
1:18.355 | |
| 16th | 16 | Roy Nissany
|
PHM Racing by Charouz
|
40 | +15.054s | -
|
1:18.387 | |
| 17th | 15 | Amaury Cordeel
|
Invicta Virtuosi Racing
|
40 | +17.355s | -
|
1:19.037 | |
| 18th | 23 | Juan Manuel Correa
|
Van Amersfoort Racing
|
40 | +17.740s | -
|
1:19.393 | |
| 19th* | 17 | Brad Benavides
|
PHM Racing by Charouz
|
40 | +20.467s* | -
|
1:17.858 | |
| Ret† | 24 | Kush Maini
|
Campos Racing
|
33 | Damage† | -
|
1:18.012 | |
| Ret | 12 | Arthur Leclerc
|
DAMS
|
26 | Wheel | -
|
1:19.268 | |
| Ret | 20 | Roman Staněk
|
Trident
|
25 | Clutch | -
|
1:19.345 | |
| Source:[7] | ||||||||
- Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
- Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
- FL Indicates a driver was awarded the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the top ten finishers.[7]
- * Benavides was awarded a five second time penalty for excessive track limits breaches (4).[8]
- † Maini was awarded a five second time penalty for excessive track limits breaches (4).[9] However, as he did not serve this penalty at his stop and subsequently retired, the stewards' awarded a five place grid penalty for the next race that the Indian racer took part in (2023 Silverstone Sprint Race).[9]
Milestones[]
- Third victory for Richard Verschoor.
- Also Verschoor's first win since the 2022 Bahrain Sprint Race.
- Maiden victory for Van Amersfoort Racing as an entrant in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Standings[]
It had been a net gain for Frederik Vesti as he outscored his closest challenger int he Championship, the Dane increasing his advantage to twenty points as the weekend in the Red Bull Ring came to a conclusion. Théo Pourchaire had retained second, while a podium and fastest lap for Ayumu Iwasa meant that the Japanese pilot had moved to within four points of Pourchaire and within 24 of the Championship lead. Oliver Bearman was next up after his strong late-race charge, Richard Verschoor had catapulted himself back into the top five with his first win of the campaign, while there were no changes at the foot of the table as Roy Nissany, Amaury Cordeel and Brad Benavides all failed to score once again.
Likewise, Prema Racing had been the big winners after the trip to Austria, the Italian squad's lead having grown to a comfortable 43 points, with ART Grand Prix equally settled in second. DAMS, meanwhile, had gained a little on the lead duo in third but still faced a 69 point deficit to the leaders, while Rodin Carlin had moved up to fourth ahead of defending Champions MP Motorsport as they both moved past the 100 point mark. Van Amersfoort Racing, meanwhile, were up to sixth after their first F2 triumph, overhauling Campos Racing, while PHM Racing by Charouz had still failed to threaten the scorers as they remained pointless at the foot of the table.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See Also[]
|
See the related event on the Formula One Wiki |
| 2023 Austrian Grand Prix |
|---|
|
|
References[]
Images and Videos:
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 '2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship calendar announced', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 01/11/2022), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/1TcNhOuCEgcklihGU4PPfu/2023-fia-formula-2-championship-calendar-announced, (Accessed 01/11/2022)
- ↑ 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: Verschoor gets Spielberg redemption in frenetic final laps', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 02/07/2023), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/4OwGXWPpskBmJnbMjEuKSN/feature-race-verschoor-gets-spielberg-redemption-in-frenetic-final-laps, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 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 'QUALIFYING: Martins runs the show from start to finish in Spielberg', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 30/06/2023), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/6pulS0pKlyCsrPM2zlZTGf/qualifying-martins-runs-the-show-from-start-to-finish-in-spielberg, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 'F2 Entry List - Spielberg 2023', fia.com, (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, 29/06/2023), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Spielberg%20Event%20-%20F2%20Entry%20List%20-%20Spielberg%202023.pdf, (Accessed 06/09/2025)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 'F2 Qualifying - final classification', fia.com, (FIA, 30/06/2023), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Spielberg%20Event%20-%20F2%20Qualifying%20-%20final%20classification.pdf, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 'Novalak disqualified and three drivers penalised following Spielberg Sprint Race', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 01/07/2023), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/2afwB7GcvlIx75yNLir28u/novalak-disqualified-following-spielberg-sprint-race, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 'F2 Race 2 (Feature) - final classification', fia.com, (FIA, 02/07/2023), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Spielberg%20Event%20-%20F2%20Race%202%20(Feature)%20-%20final%20classification.pdf, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 'Document 56', fia.com, (FIA, 02/07/2023), https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Spielberg%20Event%20-%20INFRIGEMENT%20-%20Car%2017%20-%204%20x%20track%20limit%20violations.pdf, (Accessed 10/09/2025)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 'Kush Maini penalised following Spielberg Feature Race', fiaformula2.com, (FIA Formula 2, 02/07/2023), https://www.fiaformula2.com/Latest/3jUjxQOEGdfvclLeC4nkSg/kush-maini-penalised-following-spielberg-feature-race, (Accessed 10/09/2025)