2023 Silverstone Feature Race

2023 Silverstone Formula 2 Race 2
The Silverstone Circuit in 2023
Race Information
Date	9 July 2023
No.	158 (16 of 2023)
Event	Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix 2023
Location	Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK
Format	170 km / 60 min (Feature Race)
Lap length	5.891 km (3.660 mi)
Distance	29 laps / 170.839 km (106.154 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Victor Martins
Team	ART Grand Prix
Time	1:39.832 (212.432 km/h)
Fastest Lap
Driver	Victor Martins
Team	ART Grand Prix
Time	1:42.091 (207.732 km/h) on lap 23
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Victor Martins	Zane Maloney	Théo Pourchaire
Winner Team	ART Grand Prix
Time	58:54.389 (173.873 km/h)
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2023 Silverstone Sprint Race		2023 Hungaroring Sprint Race

The 2023 Silverstone Feature Race, officially the 2023 Silverstone Formula 2 Race 2, was the sixteenth race of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship, held on 9 July 2023 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK. The race, held in support of the 2023 British Grand Prix, would see Victor Martins secure an impressive victory, overcoming a five second time penalty that was incurred at the very start of the race.

The Frenchman had been imperious on Friday afternoon, sweeping to his second successive pole position in qualifying in a session disrupted by two red flag perids caused by Amaury Cordeel and a subsequent issue shortly after the session resumed. A further on-track stoppage late-on for Frederik Vesti would also prevent more changes to the order, with Martins earning pole with Kush Maini sharing the front row, Ayumu Iwasa and Jack Doohan on the second, and title pretender Théo Pourchaire claiming eighth with Vesti in tenth.

When the lights went out it was Iwasa who made the best getaway, storming between Maini and Martins to secure the lead, although Martins did get away well enough to remain a threat into the first few corners. Indeed, as Oliver Bearman swept past both Doohan and Maini for third, Martins would brave it around the outside of Iwasa into turn three, marginally running off circuit, before reclaiming the lead through turns four and five, with the rest of the field making it through without major dramas.

With that the race quickly settled down, the majority of the field having started on the soft tyres which needed to last until at least lap six before they could switch to the preferred harder compound for the remainder of the race. Indeed, Martins was allowed to escape at the head of the field, building a 4.5s lead before he was placed under investigation for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage, his move on Iwasa the incident that the stewards' were looking at.

Their decision would wait, however, for the Safety Car had to be scrambled on lap seven, just as the first drivers ventured into the pitlane, for Amaury Cordeel had spun to a stop at Stowe having turned himself around while fighting with Dennis Hauger. That allowed those on the softs to switch to hards without losing much ground, with the only drivers not to stop being those who started on hards, including Isack Hadjar, Arthur Leclerc, Juan Manuel Correa, Clément Novalak and Ralph Boschung.

The race restarted on lap eleven with Hadjar breaking clear from Leclerc and Martins, who was about to be informed he had to serve a five second time penalty, while behind Doohn was mugged by Zane Maloney and Pourchaire. However, the focus was soon at the back of the field as Vesti was spotted limping down the start/finish straight with broken suspension, the Dane having been slammed in the back by Hauger hard enough to force the #7 Prema right into the back of Roman Staněk, who had spun to a stop at Vale as a result before the restart had truly began. Hauger himself had also been an innocent party, having been collected by Roy Nissany to launch him into the rear of Vesti.

The partial blockage triggered another SC period, the field having to venture via the pits to enable Staněk's car to be cleared, with Hadjar again acing his getaway out of the final corner to secure the lead, while Bearman was elbowed back from eighth to twelfth. Elsewhere, Zane Maloney was a man on the mission as he carved his way past Boschung and then Iwasa, the latter move into Vale forcing Iwasa out wide and hence allowing Pourchaire to slip through fo seventh.

The third SC period came on lap seventeen, Bearman and Maini touching when the Indian pilot lunged down the inside of the #8 Prema resulting in the Indian pilot locking up and collecting teammate Boschung, ending both drivers' races in a single blow. Those yet to stop did so immediately, Leclerc the best placed of those after those stops as he jumped Hadjar and ended up in fourth as Hadjar fell down the field, while Martins was handed back the lead and the task of building up a five second gap to cover off his looming penalty.

Martins duly aced his restart on lap nineteen to secure the lead, and quickly set about building it, while behind Leclerc lunged past a sleeping Pourchaire into turn four in the hopes of fighting for a podium finish. Yet, running at such pace was a risk with nine laps left to run on soft rubber and it was not long before Leclerc, having failed to get on terms with Maloney, was back in Pourchaire's sights, with the title pretender expertly scything back past on lap 25 to reclaim third.

Leclerc's pace collapsed soon after, a lock-up a lap later gifting fourth to Doohan, before slipping behinid Iwasa and Bearman in the final laps. Out front, meanwhile, Martins was relentless in setting times close to his fastest lap effort, and would duly build up a seven second lead in those laps to ensure he eliminated the five second penalty and claimed victory from Maloney. Third for Pourchaire meant he ended the day just six off of the non-scoring Vesti in the Championship, with Doohan, Iwasa, Jehan Daruvala, Enzo Fittipaldi, Bearman Leclerc and Jak Crawford rounding out the scorers.

Background

The conditions would vastly improve overnight at Silverstone, with a very low chance of rain to affect the Feature Race, after the Sprint Race had been a largely soaking wet affair. Otherwise, there were no changes to either circuit or field ahead of the Feature, with no alterations via penalties resulting from the Sprint Race to affect the grid that had been established after qualifying.

A Dominant Point

Frederik Vesti had increased his Championship lead as a result of the Sprint, although the fact that his dominant victory had only amounted to just a single point improvement to his hold on the seemd like scant reward for his efforts. Indeed, second place and fastest lap meant that Théo Pourchaire had done all he could to limit the damage to his title ambitions in the first race at Silverstone, with the Frenchman ending the day 21 points behind the Dane, while holding a thirteen point gap to Ayumu Iwasa in third. Oliver Bearman, meanwhile, would end his rollercoaster day in fourth ahead of Richard Verschoor, while Enzo Fittipaldi had been the day's biggest mover as he leapt up to sixth.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a day of consolidation for Prema Racing, as they increased their lead to 45 points at the head of the table. Indeed, it was scarcely the reward they would have wanted for Vesti's performance, for ART Grand Prix had like their lead driver done enough to limit the harm to their title ambitions and keep pace with the leaders, while also enhancing their grip on second as their lead over DAMS grew to 36 points. Behind, Rodin Carlin had held fourth ahead of MP Motorsport, Campos Racing's pointless run had continued, while PHM Racing by Charouz had come the closest they had yet to a maiden point, Roy Nissany having fallen short of eighth place by just eight tenths of a second.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2023 Silverstone Feature Race is displayed below:

2023 Silverstone Feature Race Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Livery*
1	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:HAU 23 Livery.png
2	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:DAR 23 Livery.png
3	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:MAL 23 Livery.png
4	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:FIT 23 Livery.png
5	Théo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:POU 23 Livery.png
6	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:MAR 23 Livery.png
7	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:VES 23 Livery.png
8	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:BEA 23 Livery.png
9	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:CRA 23 Livery.png
10	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:HAD 23 Livery.png
11	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:IWA 23 Livery.png
12	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:LEC 23 Livery.png
14	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:DOO 23 Livery.png
15	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:ACO 23 Livery.png
16	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:NIS 23 Livery.png
17	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:BEN 23 Livery.png
20	Roman Staněk	Trident	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:STA 23 Livery.png
21	Clément Novalak	Trident	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:NOV 23 Livery.png
22	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:VER 23 Livery.png
23	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:JCO 23 Livery.png
24	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:MAI 23 Livery.png
25	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t	File:BOS 23 Livery.png
Source:

• * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

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. 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. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report

The track was dry and looking quite quick as the field left the pits for qualifying, knowing they would at best get two flying laps out of their soft tyres, although given the demands on the tyres for the race the need to have a set for the race was also being monitored. Regardless, there was a quick out-pouring onto the circuit lead by the DAMS duo of Ayumu Iwasa and Arthur Leclerc, with those two duly going on to set the initial pace on the first runs as they both set 1:41.100 with their first efforts, with Iwasa deemed to be ahead having set the time first. Their times would stand but for a moment, however, as the rest of the field set their efforts, Théo Pourchaire and Richard Verschoor among those to do so before they were elbowed out by Victor Martins on a 1:40.576, a tenth faster than anyone else.

Improvements were being made in the first sector on the next runs, although as the clock hit ten minutes the red flags were out as Amaury Cordeel had flown off the circuit at Copse, although the Belgian pilot quickly confirmed he was okay. It took seven minutes to clear the circuit before the session resumed, although just as cars were heading back onto the circuit the red flag was shown again, although the reason for it was not made clear. Regardless, the session would eventually resume with ten minutes left on the clock, with the entire field having used the intervention to switch to a new set of soft tyres.

Arthur Leclerc was the first driver to find a significant improvement on the fresh rubber, lowering the benchmark to a 1:40.198, before Iwasa snatched top-spot back in-spite of a twitchy moment through Brooklands. Oliver Bearman then took top spot, becoming the first man to break into the 1:39.000s, before Martins returned to the stop by a comfortable margin, the Frenchman recording a 1:39.832 to go fastest by a tenth and a half. Iwasa's next effort took him back to second, still a tenth away from Martins, before Kush Maini split the duo, but also couldn't get within a tenth of the Frenchman out front, before any improvements were denied by yellow flags in both the second and third sectors.

The triggers for that would be Frederik Vesti, stranded in sector two with a failure, while Juan Manuel Correa spun into Maggotts at the start of the third sector to prevent any improvements there either. That left Martins on pole ahead of Maini and Iwasa, Pourchaire ended up in eighth and ahead of title rival Vesti, although the Dane's disappointment was somewhat aided by the fact that tenth place gave him pole for the Sprint Race.

Results

The final qualifying result for the 2023 Silverstone Feature Race are outlined below:

2023 Silverstone Feature Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	6	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	1:39.832	—	212.432 km/h	1
2nd	24	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	1:39.945	+0.113s	212.192 km/h	2
3rd	11	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	1:39.952	+0.120s	212.177 km/h	3
4th	14	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1:39.957	+0.125s	212.167 km/h	4
5th	8	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	1:39.989	+0.157s	212.099 km/h	5
6th	4	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	1:39.991	+0.159s	212.095 km/h	6
7th	3	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	1:40.001	+0.169s	212.073 km/h	7
8th	5	Théo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1:40.019	+0.187s	212.035 km/h	8
9th	10	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1:40.026	+0.194s	212.020 km/h	9
10th	7	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	1:40.052	+0.220s	211.965 km/h	10
11th	16	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	1:40.135	+0.303s	211.790 km/h	11
12th	12	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	1:40.198	+0.366s	211.656 km/h	12
13th	2	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	1:40.314	+0.482s	211.412 km/h	13
14th	1	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	1:40.368	+0.536s	211.298 km/h	14
15th	9	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1:40.400	+0.568s	211.231 km/h	15
16th	20	Roman Staněk	Trident	1:40.526	+0.694s	210.966 km/h	16
17th	22	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:40.561	+0.729s	210.892 km/h	17
18th	25	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:40.815	+0.983s	210.361 km/h	18
19th	17	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	1:40.950	+1.118s	210.080 km/h	19
20th	21	Clément Novalak	Trident	1:41.106	+1.274s	209.756 km/h	20
21st	15	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1:41.457	+1.625s	209.030 km/h	21
22nd	23	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:42.084	+2.252s	207.746 km/h	22
107% Time: 1:46.820
Source:

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Victor Martins	2
	______________	Kush Maini
Row 2	3	______________
	Ayumu Iwasa	4
	______________	Jack Doohan
Row 3	5	______________
	Oliver Bearman	6
	______________	Enzo Fittipaldi
Row 4	7	______________
	Zane Maloney	8
	______________	Théo Pourchaire
Row 5	9	______________
	Isack Hadjar	10
	______________	Frederik Vesti
Row 6	11	______________
	Roy Nissany	12
	______________	Arthur Leclerc
Row 7	13	______________
	Jehan Daruvala	14
	______________	Dennis Hauger
Row 8	15	______________
	Jak Crawford	16
	______________	Roman Staněk
Row 9	17	______________
	Richard Verschoor	18
	______________	Ralph Boschung
Row 10	19	______________
	Brad Benavides	20
	______________	Clément Novalak
Row 11	21	______________
	Amaury Cordeel	22
	______________	Juan Manuel Correa

Race

Results

The final classification of the 2023 Silverstone Feature Race is displayed below:

2023 Silverstone Feature Race Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1stFL*	6	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	29	58:54.389*	-	1:42.091FL	28'
2nd	3	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	29	+2.051s	-	1:42.737	18
3rd	5	Théo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	29	+4.749s	-	1:42.572	15
4th	14	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	29	+6.637s	-	1:42.328	12
5th	11	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	29	+12.611s	-	1:42.926	10
6th	2	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	29	+18.933s	-	1:43.230	8
7th	4	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	29	+18.963s	-	1:43.318	6
8th†	8	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	29	+23.225s†	-	1:43.544	4
9th	12	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	29	+24.155s	-	1:42.379	2
10th	9	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	29	+24.543s	-	1:44.179	1
11th	23	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	29	+27.958s	-	1:43.387
12th	21	Clément Novalak	Trident	29	+30.610s	-	1:42.938
13th	17	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	29	+30.973s	--	1:44.246
14th	1	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	29	+32.920s	-	1:43.810
15th	10	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	29	+34.573s	-	1:43.401
16th	22	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	29	+34.629s	-	1:44.409
17th‡	16	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	29	+39.777s‡	-	1:43.646
Ret	24	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	15	Collision	-	1:44.330
Ret	25	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	15	Collision		1:45.918
Ret	7	Frederik Vesti	Prema Racing	11	Damage	-	1:44.423
Ret	20	Roman Staněk	Trident	9	Collision	-	1:46.032
Ret	15	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	5	Spin		1:44.983
Source:

• 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.
• * Martins served a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage.
• ^† Bearman served a five second time penalty for causing a collision with Maini.
• ^‡ Nissany earned a ten second time penalty for causing a collision with Hauger.

Milestones

• Maiden victory for Victor Martins.
• ART Grand Prix secured their 24th win in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
  • 72nd win for ART as an entrant at GP2/F2 level.

Standings

Frederik Vesti had retained the lead despite having been eliminated from the race early on, although his lead had been largely wiped away with the Dane leaving Silverstone with a six point lead at the head of the field. Théo Pourchaire had done the majority of that damage, a podium finish ensuring he closed back onto the Dane's tail, while Ayumu Iwasa had also kept pace with the lead duo as he claimed a handful of points to remain within 24 points of the lead. Oliver Bearman was next up ahead of Victor Martins, who had shot into the top five with his maiden victory, while there were still no points on the board for Roy Nissany, Amaury Cordeel nor Brad Benavides.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a very good day for ART Grand Prix, with the French squad having almost completely eliminated the gap to the leaders Prema Racing after Martin's maximum score and Pourchaire's third place. Indeed, just six points would separate the two at the end of the weekend, while DAMS in third had slipped 73 points away as the battle was evolving into a two-horse race. Rodin Carlin was next up ahead of MP Motorsport, Van Amersfoort Racing held sixth from Campos Racing, while Invicta Virtuosi Racing had moved ahead of Hitech Pulse-Eight.

2023 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Frederik Vesti 135 ◄0 2nd Théo Pourchaire 129 ◄0 3rd Ayumu Iwasa 111 ◄0 4th Oliver Bearman 88 ◄0 5th Victor Martins 88 ▲3 6th Richard Verschoor 75 ▼1 7th Jack Doohan 72 ▲2 8th Enzo Fittipaldi 68 ▼2 9th Zane Maloney 66 ▲2 10th Dennis Hauger 60 ▼3 11th Jehan Daruvala 49 ▲1 12th Kush Maini 49 ▼2 13th Jak Crawford 39 ◄0 14th Arthur Leclerc 39 ◄0 15th Ralph Boschung 33 ◄0 16th Isack Hadjar 28 ◄0 17th Roman Staněk 11 ◄0 18th Juan Manuel Correa 10 ◄0 19th Clément Novalak 2 ◄0 20th Roy Nissany 0 ◄0 21st Amaury Cordeel 0 ◄0 22nd Brad Benavides 0 ◄0

2023 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Prema Racing 223 ◄0 2nd ART Grand Prix 217 ◄0 3rd DAMS 150 ◄0 4th Rodin Carlin 134 ◄0 5th MP Motorsport 109 ◄0 6th Van Amersfoort Racing 85 ◄0 7th Campos Racing 82 ◄0 8th Invicta Virtuosi Racing 72 ▲1 9th Hitech Pulse-Eight 67 ▼1 10th Trident 13 ◄0 11th PHM Racing by Charouz 0 ◄0

See Also

	See the related event on the Formula One Wiki
	2023 British Grand Prix

See related content on the FIA F3 Wiki 2023 Silverstone Sprint Race

See related content on the FIA F3 Wiki 2023 Silverstone Feature Race

References

Images and Videos:

References: