Aussie Watch: Doohan's fiery exit halts progress in Monaco
Monday, 29 May 2023
The four Aussies in the F1® feeder categories failed to score in Monaco, with Jack Doohan's F2® race coming to a dramatic end with a crash when in sight of the podium.
Jack Doohan's difficult FIA Formula 2® season has continued, the Australian seeing a potential podium finish slip through his fingers after crashing out in the Feature race at Monaco on Sunday.
The 20-year-old held station from fourth place on the grid at the start of the 42-lap race and was trailing Danish race-leader Frederik Vesti (Prema Racing) and French ART teammates Victor Martins and Theo Pourchaire after 22 laps before he crashed heavily at Massenet (Turn 3), backing his car into the outside barrier and stopping broadside across the track, the trailing pack thankfully avoiding his stranded Invicta Virtuosi Racing machine.
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The crash came after Doohan had sideswiped the barriers at Tabac (Turn 12) earlier in the race and damaged his front wing, which failed in the latter incident.
Doohan's car quickly burst into flames, but the Australian was able to hastily extract himself from the cockpit to safety as the race was red-flagged for 20 minutes to clean the circuit and fix the damaged armco barrier.
It was an unfortunate end to a weekend where Doohan, fresh off topping the timesheets on two days of the three-day test in Barcelona between the rounds in Azerbaijan and Monaco, showed his pace by qualifying on the second row for the second time in eight races this season.
In Saturday's 30-lap Sprint race, where he started from seventh place with the top 10 from qualifying lining up in reverse grid order, Doohan finished sixth and snared four championship points, recording the fastest lap of the race with five laps remaining.
With 10 of the season's 26 races complete, Doohan sits in 13th place in the drivers' standings on 28 points, 18 of which came in the Saudi Arabia Feature race, and he now has six non-scores in 2023.
It was an equally difficult weekend for Doohan's trio of compatriots in the FIA Formula 3® championship, with Tommy Smith, Christian Mansell and Hugh Barter failing to score points in either the Sprint or Feature races of F3®'s first visit to Monaco in 18 years.
Of the three Aussies, Smith enjoyed the best result with 15th place in Sunday's 27-lap Feature, the Melburnian gaining four places in his Van Amersfoort Racing entry from 19th on the grid.
The 20-year-old was in the thick of it in Saturday's 23-lap Sprint too, Smith finishing 21st after a combative drive that saw him collected by Oliver Goethe (Trident) at Portier (Turn 8) on lap six, the German later assessed a 10-second time penalty for being deemed to have caused the collision.
Mansell and Smith raced in close proximity all weekend – 18-year-old Mansell finished a place ahead of Smith in 20th in the Sprint and two places behind in 17th in the Feature, unable to add to his four world championship points earned at the most recent round in Australia, eight weeks ago.
Meanwhile Barter, Mansell's Campos Racing teammate, was unlucky in both races, having to pit after collecting debris in the Sprint before setting fastest lap while finishing 25th, and having his front wing broken in contact with Mexican Rafael Villagomez in Sunday's feature, eventually finishing 26th in the 30-car field.
After six of 18 races for F3®, Mansell sits 16th in the championship standings, with Barter (19th) and Smith (21st) still waiting for their first points this season.
Doohan, Smith, Barter and Mansell will back up next weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with F2® and F3® both on the undercard for the Spanish Grand Prix from June 2-4.
