F2 and F3 Weekend in Zandvoort: Pigeons and much more
- Cristina Mazzotti
- Sep 6, 2022
- 3 min read
Zandvoort was the second weekend in a row for both championships, who are having a pretty busy schedule after the summer break. Pigeons were for sure the stars of the weekend: spectators had a lot of fun watching them being so unbothered by the cars speeding a few centimeters away from them. But let’s go through the Orange weekend now.
F3: Monza will be decisive
If you're asking yourself where the title fight is at after the Belgian GP, well, in anyone’s hands - and that’s why it’ll be Monza who will decide the next F3 champion. Zandvoort certainly helped a few of the contenders to get an advantage on the others, in fact the championship battle was once again revolutionized. Starting with qualifying: Alatalo crashed on the last push lap and brought out the red flag. Few were the drivers gaining advantage from that: Hadjar, Crawford, Martins and Maloney are for sure the honorable mentions, since they respectively qualified 6th, 3rd, 2nd and with Maloney taking pole position. But it made things very difficult for Leclerc and Bearman, who were taken away of their flying lap, leaving in their hands a 20th and 14th place respectively and making the championship battle even harder.
The Sprint race started with a bang - quite literally as Colapinto crashed into Stanek. Both managed to continue the race, but the poleman Maloney, while trying to avoid the contact, went wide in the gravel, losing quite a few places. The first two rows showed us quite an incredible race with Saucy losing few positions at the start and Collet overtaking him to start battling with Correa for 1st place. A thrilling battle, but also very respectful towards each other, saw Collet taking the win in front of Correa and O’Sullivan: great race from both of them too, and first podium after his comeback to F3 for JM Correa. No points scored for Leclerc and Bearman, making their fight for the title not the easiest one.
Feature race tells another story though: after dropping back at the start, Bearman managed brilliant overtakes that put him in tenth place at the checkered flag. On his climb, the Prema driver and O’Sullivan collided, giving the Williams academy driver a 10s penalty after the race. The championship, now looking a little different than after SPA’s race, sees Martins taking 1st place, followed by Hadjar, Stanek and Bearman. The now on top Martins, didn’t have quite an easy feature race, as his tires were suffering the high degradation; Maloney eventually took the win, matching the Frenchman with 2 feature race wins. Crawford, who had a great start, while making a move for P2 made a mistake which cost him a few places and the chance of a podium.
F2 finally brings joy
We often moaned how boring some of the F2 races had been this year, but Zandvoort took us by surprise. As for F3, the F2 qualifying was crucial for the development of the weekend, and it cost Pourchaire a lot. The French driver hit the wall while on a flying lap which forced him to later start both races from P16. Meanwhile his number one rival took an impressive pole position, keeping up his positive streak.
Pourchaire’s hopes for the title left him from the start of the Sprint race: the ART GP driver went wide in T1, getting back on track last. Armstrong won the race taking his 3rd sprint race victory of the season.
Feature race was a total show: Sargeant crashed into the barriers in T1 and red flag came out: this will make it difficult for the American to shorten the gap between him and the two title contenders. After the rolling start, Sato pitted but stopped in the gravel shortly after as his front left tyre came off: it wasn’t properly put on and his car eventually caught fire. The Japanese driver didn’t hesitate to put out the fire, serving himself of the marshall’s fire extinguisher. The drivers did not even have the time to come out that the SC was back on track, as Doohan and Novalak crashed at the restart, putting an early end to their race.
Fantastic win from Drugovich who will be, joined on the podium by the Dutch Verschoor at his home race and the Japanese Iwasa.
In conclusion a pretty eventful weekend, especially regarding the championship fight in both championships. let’s see what the Italian weekend will bring as it’s F3 last racing weekend of the year, who’ll come out from it as a winner? Stay tuned.
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