Aussie Watch: Doohan drives to F2® podium in Saudi Arabia
Monday, 20 March 2023
The Aussie banishes the bad memories of his Bahrain blowout, racing to second place in the F2® Feature Race in Jeddah on Sunday.
Jack Doohan has got his FIA Formula 2® title chase back on track, the Australian bouncing back after a pointless opening event of the season in Bahrain with a second-place finish in the Feature Race in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The Australian 20-year-old, driving for the Invicta Virtuosi Racing team, got his weekend off to a strong start when he qualified fourth, which became seventh on the grid for the start of Saturday's reverse-grid 20-lap Sprint Race.
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Doohan scored two world championship points – his first for the season – after finishing seventh in the Sprint, and began Sunday's 28-lap Feature from third on the grid after French driver Theo Pourchaire (ART) was give a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision in the Sprint.
Doohan held his starting position of third place for the opening six laps before being the second driver in the 22-car field to pit, and gradually worked his way back into podium contention. The decisive moments came on laps 16 and 17, when a spin for Briton Ollie Bearman (Prema) promoted him to eighth, which became seventh when pole-sitter Victor Martins (ART) retired soon afterwards.
With several drivers ahead yet to make their mandatory pit stops, Doohan moved through from fifth to second with five laps remaining, eventually finishing 3.959secs behind race-winner Frederik Vesti (Prema) to score 18 world championship points.
"To get some solid points, 18 – it's obviously good," Doohan said in the post-race press conference.
"The top guys in the championship didn’t score so great today so to be up there and to get higher up on the board, consolidate myself for the year, it's great. We did a good race, did the maximum we could. I don't think I had the outright pace but to finish P2 … I'm happy.
"I still don’t have that same feeling that I had at the end of last year, but I think that's only a positive. I think when we get things sorted, we're going to be very hard to beat."
With 20 points for the season after four races, Doohan sits in sixth place in the drivers' standings, the same place he ended 2022 after a season where he took three victories.
Doohan and the rest of the F2® field will next be in action at the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 from March 30-April 2, the first visit of the intermediate-class step to F1® in Melbourne.
FIA Formula 3® – with Australians Hugh Barter, Christian Mansell and Tommy Smith on the grid – will also make its Albert Park debut on the F1® undercard.
