Starting from 6th, Ayumu Iwasa finishes the race in 8th but a post-race penalty relegates him to 10th
Red Bull Ring
Round 8 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship kicked off at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
In the qualifying session on Friday 8 July, Ayumu Iwasa, a Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) driver, broke his personal best time in his third attempt in the second set to qualify 4th. One of the top cars was penalised and demoted in the grid, handing Iwasa a starting position of 6th in Row 3 in the Sprint Race, where a reverse grid is applied.
Under an ambient temperature of 21°C and a track temperature of 34°C, the formation lap got underway at 5:55pm. Iwasa held his position in the confusion at the first corner, but in Turn 3 he was sandwiched between two cars from both sides and dropped to 8th. This situation made Iwasa inadvertently force one car off the track, which became the subject of a post-race deliberation. He closed the gap with the front to reclaim his position, but being at the back of a pack, he was unable to make the most of the DRS and was left chasing. When a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was activated after a car stopped on Lap 12, the gap between Iwasa and the car in front increased, and when the VSC was lifted on Lap 14, Iwasa resumed the race approximately three seconds away from the car in front.
In the second half of the race, the Japanese driver gradually closed the gap. He increased his pace to close in on the front car within a second on Lap 21, but it was still difficult to overtake in the pack and he finished the 28-lap race in 8th.
After the race, a five-second time penalty was added to Iwasa's time after a deliberation on the incident on the first lap, and he was relegated to 10th.
As the tyres weren’t warm enough, I didn't get off to a good start, and I didn't get a good position in Turn 1. I then locked up tyres in Turn 3 and lost my position. At that time, I ended up pushing another car out and I was penalised for that. And the delay at the time of the release of the VSC was due to a system problem.
There are things to reflect on, but the pace of the car itself is not bad. I can push without having to be too careful with tyre management, so I think we are feeling positive for the Feature Race. The balance of the car wasn't perfect either, therefore we’ll adjust things in detail for the race.
