Red Bull F1 practice Ayumu Iwasa claimed 3rd place on the podium in round 12 of the Dutch FIA F2 Championship race. The ranking of the series rose to 6th place.
The twelfth round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship in the Netherlands featured a feature race on 4 (Sunday). Ayumu Iwasa, who qualified 5th, started from 5th place in 3rd place. At 10:20 a.m., the formation lap started in the dry with an air temperature of 21.4°C and a track temperature of 21.7°C.
Ayumu Iwasa, who got off to a good start and let the lead car pass, was forced to hold onto his 5th position when the car in front derailed at the first corner. After the machine that deviated from its course returned to the course, it again deviated from its course and crashed into the barrier, and the safety car (SC) was introduced. After two laps of the SC in the lead, the race was red flagged due to the time needed to repair barriers, and all cars returned to the pits after completing four laps.
The race was suspended for about 20 minutes to replace the damaged barrier, and from the 5th lap the race was restarted with a rolling start after SC took the lead. At the end of lap 10, the machines that had started on soft tires started to stop, and Ayumu Iwasa also pitted on lap 13 and changed to hard tyres. Ayumu Iwasa, who returned to the race in 12th position, fought a fierce battle with a machine with the same strategy and moved up in position, rising to 4th place among the machines adopting the same strategy. After that, a car ahead made a pit stop and Ayumu Iwasa finished 10th.
On lap 18 while racing in 10th place, a machine went off the track and stopped, and the SC was reintroduced. After leading for four laps, the race resumed on lap 22, but the lead car’s acceleration was slow, and the following cars were confused and an accident occurred. Several cars crashed around Iwasa and the third SC was introduced. Iwasa dodged this accident and moved up to 9th position. When the race resumed on lap 26, the machines that had not yet changed tires began to stop, and by the time all the cars had completed their pit stops on lap 29, Iwasa was in 3rd place. .
Ayumu Iwasa is approaching less than 1 second from 2nd place, but he has trouble overtaking on a course where it is difficult to overtake, and he goes on laps. Ayumu Iwasa fought to the finish and looked to improve his position, but the race ended after 38 laps with a time limit of 1 hour. Ayumu Iwasa finished 3rd, his fifth podium of the season.
Ayumu Iwasa, who added 15 points in this race, moved up to 6th place in the series standings with a total of 114 points.
“Overall I think it was a good race,” commented Ayumu Iwasa.
“The start and the pit stop were good, and the pace was good. Compared to the sprint race, my tracking (when I fell behind) was a bit worse, but it was more a question starting than setting up the machine. I think that’s one of the things we need to improve, because of the tire warming issues before and during the SC.”
We knew crashing on restart was a risk in such a situation, so we took a margin. Even so, it was barely.
“At the end of the race, we tried to increase our pace and try to pass, but even though we were in front of the peloton, it was still difficult to pass. There was not as much of a gap in speed than when I overtook at .
“I would like to concentrate on the race in front of me without worrying too much about the classification of the series.
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