F2: Doohan dominant in first F2 win of 2023 season

Jack Doohan went untroubled from pole position to score his first F2 victory of the year for Invicta Virtuosi Racing. The Australian held the lead from lights out and never gave it up, managing the gap to PREMA Racing’s Frederik Vesti behind.

The Dane finished second to strengthen his Drivers’ Championship advantage once more, while Victor Martins secured third for ART Grand Prix to take the sixth podium of his rookie season.

AS IT HAPPENED

Doohan got a great launch from pole to lead into Turn 1 while third-placed Vesti went wheel-to-wheel with Martins into the first corner. On the run to Turn 2, the PREMA Racing driver got the move done to seal second position.

Oliver Bearman started on mediums from seventh, but the Briton fell back to ninth on the opening lap, passed by Dennis Hauger and Enzo Fittipaldi who were both on the softs. Juan Manuel Correa made an electric start to move up five places to P10.

Zane Maloney was the first of those on the soft tires to make a mandatory stop on Lap 8. The Rodin Carlin driver rejoined down in 21st, but his stop dragged a few more in on the following lap. Ralph Boschung and Jak Crawford made their stops on Lap 9 to rejoin ahead of Maloney.

Isack Hadjar was the first of the top five to stop on Lap 13 from fifth and Théo Pourchaire responded one lap later, both swapping to the mediums. The ART Grand Prix driver rejoined in 14th to remain ahead of his compatriot, but both were caught up behind Amaury Cordeel on old medium tires. The pair eventually cleared the Belgian driver, but it allowed the leading trio of Doohan, Vesti and Martins to extend their stints on the softs.

Ayumu Iwasa was the leading driver on the alternate strategy, having started on the mediums but opted to pit on Lap 20 to fit the soft tires. The DAMS driver filtered back out in 10th position.

Vesti made the swap to mediums on Lap 23, rejoining in fourth position just 1.4s ahead of title rival Pourchaire.

Martins pitted on the following lap and filtered out on cold tires ahead of Vesti. The Mercedes junior breezed back through to take the place on the run to Turn 2. Pourchaire tried to follow through at Turn 4, but his teammate held firm, leaving the #5 ART running over the tire marbles and off the track. That allowed Hadjar to sneak his way through to take fifth position on the road.

While his rivals scrapped on track, Doohan made his stop on Lap 25, rejoining with the lead of the race and 8.7s ahead of closest challenger Vesti in second.

Iwasa was onto the back of Pourchaire quickly with his soft tires fired up. The Japanese driver got the switchback out of Turn 1 to take fifth position from the ART driver on Lap 26.

The DAMS man wasn’t finished, and after tracking Hadjar down, the Japanese driver made a late dive down the inside at Turn 1 to move himself into fourth position on Lap 35.

Out in front, Doohan was untroubled from lights out, and the Australian set the fastest lap on the way to a Grand Chelem victory, having led every lap from pole position.

Vesti secured more important points in the Championship battle with second position, just ahead of Martins who made a late charge in an attempt to take P2 from the PREMA driver.

Iwasa secured fourth ahead of Hadjar and Pourchaire, who lost ground to Vesti, ultimately finishing in P6. Hauger secured seventh after his Sprint Race victory on Saturday ahead of Fittipaldi. The Van Amersfoort Racing pair of Correa and Richard Verschoor rounded out the points in ninth and 10th respectively.

KEY QUOTE – Jack Doohan, Invicta Virtuosi Racing

“Amazing race. Honestly, it was quite perfect so I’m very happy. Good start and a really good stint on the options followed by a better one on the mediums. All went to plan today and an awesome stop by the boys and an amazing car so thank you so much to Invicta Virtuosi and I’m looking forward to next weekend in Spa-Francorchamps.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

With another podium finish, Frederik Vesti’s advantage in the Drivers’ Championship grows to 11 points over Théo Pourchaire. The PREMA Racing driver now leads on 153 to the ART Grand Prix driver’s 142. Ayumu Iwasa is now on 132 points in third. Victor Martins moves himself up to fourth in the Standings on 105, ahead of Jack Doohan, who is up to fifth on 100 points after his win.

In the Teams’ Standings, PREMA Racing remain out in front, but ART Grand Prix continue their pursuit and are now level with the Italian outfit 247 points. DAMS stay third, now on 171 points.

UP NEXT

FIA Formula 2 heads to Spa-Francorchamps for the final race ahead of the summer break from 28-30 July.

Race Results