Sprint Race
FIA Formula2 2023
Round 12

The race ends under a red flag with no points awarded due to rain and an accident, Starting from 16th Ayumu Iwasa comes 13th

nl Zandvoort Circuit

Round 12’s Sprint Race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship took place at the Circuit Zandvoort in Netherlands.

The race ends under a red flag with no points awarded due to rain and an accident, Starting from 16th Ayumu Iwasa comes 13th

In the qualifying session on Friday 25, August, Ayumu Iwasa, a Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) driver finished a disappointing 12th. He was unable to improve his time as much as he would have liked in the second attempt of the first set and was hoping to make up for it in the second set of attempts. However, the session ended without him being able to try due to three red-flag interruptions. He started the Sprint Race from 16th due to a penalty incurred from the previous round in Belgium, which demoted him 5 places in the grid, and a penalty for another car.

At 1:15pm, when the Sprint Race was due to start, rain continued to fall and things got underway after an eight-minute delay with the Safety Car leading the formation lap. The pole-sitter had to start from the pit due to mechanical trouble and Iwasa ran the two formation lap in 15th position. The race got off to a rolling start, and on the opening lap a three-way crash caused the race to be red-flagged. Iwasa avoided the accident but was passed by a car to drop to 13th.
Following the 30 minutes required to recover the crashed cars and repair the barriers, the race was expected to resume at 2:00pm. However, the rain intensified during the red flag and after two laps led by the Safety Car, the race was red-flagged again and suspended. As the weather was not expected to improve, the race was terminated at this point.
No points were awarded as two racing laps were not completed and Iwasa holds 3rd place in the series standings.


Ayumu Iwasa
Ayumu Iwasa 11
DAMS
We hardly raced at all, but we did get some good data despite the short drive. We also got some feedback on what we tried, so it wasn’t a bad race for the team. At the start, water spray was quite heavy and it was almost impossible to see ahead. Even on the main straight it felt dangerous. The moment I saw the accident [that happened ahead], I thought about slowing down and avoiding it. I was afraid of the crashed cars hitting the wall and bouncing back, but thankfully it didn't happen and I was able to avoid the accident safely. We’ll prepare as well as ever for the Feature Race. 


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