Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Round 2

  • Van der Linde to step in for Frijns

    Kelvin van der Linde will be making his debut in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Diriyah, with the 26 year-old set to replace Robin Frijns as the Dutchman begins his recovery from an injury to his hand.

    Frijns suffered fractures to his left hand in a collision on the first lap of the Hankook Mexico City E-Prix and underwent surgery that same evening in Mexico.

    Since the decision, van der Linde, who also lives in Kempten, has spent every day from morning until late evening at ABT, on data analysis and countless hours in the simulator.

    The South African competed for ABT in DTM in 2021 and 2022 and was a title contender right up to the finale in his debut season.

    He first got a taste of Formula E, at the 2020 rookie test in Marrakesh and is supporting ABT Cupra in simulator preparation this season too.

    Kelvin has been part of the ABT family for years in a variety of roles. He has been involved since the beginning of our comeback project and was intended as Reserve Driver right from the start – so it was immediately clear to us that he would take over from Robin. We are in constant contact with Robin and wish him a speedy recovery. Even though everyone in the team misses him a lot, we’re giving him all the time he needs to fully recover from the injury – that’s our absolute priority. The task and challenge for Kelvin to start in a World Championship without any testing is of course gigantic but he is highly motivated, works hard and the whole team will support him without any pressure.

    Thomas Biermaier, Team Boss.

    To compete in Formula E is a dream of mine – but of course I wanted the circumstances of my debut to be different. I’m very sorry for Robin and I hope he’ll be fit again quickly. I am happy about the trust and the challenge. Now I have a few long days ahead of me and then I will do my best to stand in for Robin as well as possible.

    Kelvin van der Linde, on him stepping in.
  • F3 Imola – Day 2&3

    F3 Imola – Day 2&3

    Day 2-

    Sprint Race-

    As the five red lights went out, Colapinto made the perfect getaway from pole position, but behind him Ido Cohen went down from his front row spot to fifth, whilst Collet went from fourth to second. Collet remained glued to the rear of Colapinto and with the assistance of DRS along the pit straight he breezed past his opponent.

    Collapinto’s pursuit of Collet was halted as a safety car was developed after O’Sullivan spun out of seventh and was joined moments later in the same gravel trap by Josep Maria Marti. Racing resumed on lap 10 but the green flags were only out for a couple of minutes as Reece Ushijima and Federico Malvestiti clashed exiting the first chicane necessitating the Safety Car once again.

    There was a frantic two lap race to the flag and Colapinto seized the initiative to sweep past Collet along the pit straight. The Brazilian was left vulnerable as the fast charging Hadjar but the two cars interlocked on the approach to the first chicane, Collet was out whilst Hadjar relinquished positions after going through the gravel.

    PositionDriverTeam
    1Franco ColapintoVan Amersfoort Racing
    2Victor MartinsART Grand Prix
    3Jak CrawfordPREMA Racing
    4Roman StanekTrident
    5Isack HadjarHiTech Grand Prix
    Top 5 sprint race

    Day 3-

    Feature Race-

    Stanek held his position off the line, then briefly took the lead from teammate and polesitter, Zane Maloney before the Barbados driver took charge of the race. Stanek then inherited the lead from his teammate as Maloney spun on the second safety car restart. But it wasn’t all sunshine for Trident driver as Bearman got the better jump and went ahead into Tamburello.

    Jak Crawford, then repeated Stanek’s move on his teammate, Bearman to take 2nd place on the final lap, with Isack Hadjar capitalising on a clash between Bearman and Saucy at the first Rivazza further around the lap to take third as Bearman dropped to 4th.

    A drying track led much of the field to opt for slicks but several drivers risked the wets in a bid to make a jump up the order. One of those who risked it, Caio Collet managed to charge through from ninth on the grid to lead by the end of lap one but his advantage was short lived as their was a safety car.

    PositionDriverTeam
    1Roman StanekTrident
    2Jak CrawfordPREMA Racing
    3Isack HadjarHiTech Grand Prix
    4Oliver BearmanPREMA Racing
    5Arthur LeclercPREMA Racing
    Top 5 Feature Race

    The Championship-

    It’s heating up at the front now, as Victor Martins still leads the championship but he is tied on points with PREMA’s Arthur Leclerc. With Roman Stanek in third just one point behind, we then have Jak Crawford in 4th again one point behind Stanek and rounding out the top 5 is Isack Hadjar who is again one point behind.

    Looking at the teams, it is PREMA who are comfortably sitting in the top spot on 95 points. ART Grand Prix are in second with 63 points so quite a big gap between the two. In third is Trident with 50 points.

    We now have a months break until round 3 of the 2022 championship, where we will be in Barcelona, Spain!

  • JMC to not race

    Juan Manuel Correa will not be racing this weekend in Imola for Round 2 of the Formula 3 2022 Championship. This means that ART Grand Prix will make the unprecedent move of running two cars instead of 3.

    Correa participated in Bahrain’s season opener without many complications, a metatarsal fracture on his left foot put him in a serious amount of pain and led him to cut his running short at the Jerez test and also skip the Barcelona test.

    Although Correa was replaced for the Barcelona test by stock car racing bound Matteo Nannini, who is also a winner in FIA F3 and a former F2 racer, the only ART GP cars on the grid will be Correa’s teammates.

    Teams in Formula 2 and 3 are deterred from not racing all of their cars when a seat becomes vacant, with disincentives that put teams in a position where filling the car as a loss-making venture with a driver without the budget needed is fiscally less punishing than not running the car at all.

    I’ve taken the difficult decision not to race in Imola. Very sad to not be there, but after assessments with my doctors, and with the profile of the injury, we feel the risk of making the injury worse is too high. I’ll be cheering ART GP on from home and I hope to be back soon.

    Juan Manuel Correa took to social media to tell the news.

    Victor Martins & Gregoire Saucy will be the only two ART GP drivers racing this weekend. We wish JM a quick recovery. See you soon on track.

    The team also confirmed with the above.

    Wishing you well JMC, hopefully not to long and we will see you back on track!

  • Federico Malvestiti joins Jenzer

    Jenzer motorsport have confirmed that Federico Malvestiti will be racing for them for the rest of the 2022 season, joining Ido Cohen and William Alatalo.

    The Italian driver had previously raced for the team back in 2020 and worked with the team at both in-season tests at Jenzer and Barcelona in the past few weeks.

    2020 wasn’t the first time Jenzer and Malvestiti have been together. They first joined forces in 2017 and 2018 in Italian F4, before a season of Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019. The same year, Malvestiti had his first taste of F3 machinery at Silverstone before a tricky rookie season…

    I’m very happy to be back in the team in a such prestigious championship. After I moved to GT cars for one year and a half I’m happy to be back in formula. Thanks to the team for giving me this great opportunity that I never expected for this season. I will do my best to work well with the team and achieve the best possible result.

    Federico said on the news.

    We welcome Federico! It is very motivating for all of us that he is back with his “old team”! Obviously, it was not originally planned like this. We now look forward and will work hard to make the best out of this second chance together.

    Jenzer’s team owner, Andreas Jenzer added.
  • Round 2- Saudi Arabian GP

    Round 2- Saudi Arabian GP

    What a great race, these new cars are definitely providing such closer racing which we have been waiting to see!

    The battle between Leclerc and Verstappen does not seem to be slowing down any time soon and I think we are all looking forward to seeing how it goes between the two great drivers.

    But it was Max Verstappen who took the win in Saudi Arabia, with Charles Leclerc finishing 2nd and Ferrari having another great weekend with Carlos Sainz taking the final podium spot.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Verstappen, P2: Leclerc, P3: Sainz, P4: Perez, P5: Russell, P6: Ocon, P7: Norris, P8: Gasly, P9: Magnussen and P10: Hamilton.

    An okay weekend for Alpha Tauri, Pierre Gasly managed to get some points after his disapointing race last weekend, but unfortunatley it was Yuki Tsunoda who had the bad luck this week as he didn’t even start the race as he stopped on track on the way to the grid.

    Not a good weekend for Williams, as Nicholas Latifi crashed during the early stages of the race which brought out safety car. Towards the end of the race, Stroll and Albon made contact which brought Alex’s race to an end.

    Ricciardo looked like he had an engine problem at the end as he stopped at the pit entry, the same with Alonso but it looking like an overheating issue instead.

    Another good race for Russell, another good amount of points helping the Mercedes team, great way to start the season. Also a great race for Norris too, starting P11 and finishing 7th, which makes it the first points for McLaren this year.

    The Championship-

    Leclerc leads from his teammate by 12 points, with Max 8 points behind Sainz and George in 4th with 22 points. Ferrari leads the constructors by 40 points from Mercedes with Red Bull just 1 point behind them.

    We are back in less than two weeks and we are returning to Australia for the first time since 2019, for round 3!

  • F2 Jeddah- Day 2&3

    F2 Jeddah- Day 2&3

    Day 2-

    Dennis Hauger had been promoted to reverse grid pole as Jack Doohan was disqualified from Qualifying and the PREMA of Hauger took full advantage of being on pole.

    Hughes reaction wasn’t as quick as Hauger’s but an early Safety Car brought action to a stop as Amaury Cordeel lost control of his Van Amersfoort and collided with the wall.

    Fourteen laps remained when action resumed, with Hauger still in the lead with Williams and Hughes behind him. Lawson managed to over take Iwasa before a second safety car. This time because of a collision at the back between Doohan and Sargeant.

    It was Lawson who took the win with his old team Juri Vips in 2nd and Drugovich finishing 3rd. It looked like Hauger was going to take the win until he went into the pit Lane whilst it was closed and got a 10 second stop-go penalty. Jake Hughes finished in 3rd but got disqualified due to a technical infringement.

    Day 3-

    Drugovich chopped across to get Verschoor covered, and the move worked as the top five maintained position at the end of Turn 1.

    This didn’t last though as Liam Lawson made a move on Ralph Boschung for P4, before making a move on Armstrong down the main straight.

    Drugovich went into the pits on Lap 9 to ditch the softs, handing the lead to Verschoor who was hoping the over-cut would work but it wasn’t meant to be as the driver dove into the pits a lap later and came out behind Drugovich.

    Disaster struck for the title contenders, Pourchaire was forced to retire from the pits, before Lawson pulled to a stop at the exit of the pit lane due to his tyres not being fitted properly.

    It was P1 for Drugovich, P2 for Verschoor and P3 for Daruvala.

    We are back for F2 for testing from 12th to 14th April in Barcelona with our next race weekend being from the 22nd to 24th April in Imola!

  • Schumacher to not race

    Haas driver, Mick Schumacher “physically well” after his high-impact crash in qualifying yesterday. Despite that Haas, confirmed that Mick will not be taking any further part of the Grand Prix.

    The German driver was circulating in Q2 when he lost his car through the back end after riding over the kerbs, the driver spinning heavily into the wall and the impact causing massive damage to his car.

    Schumacher was taken to the circuits medical centre and from there by helicopter to a hospital for a precautionary check.

    But ahead of today’s race, Haas confirmed that Schumacher would not take the race start, writing on Twitter: “In light of today’s qualifying incident, Mick Schumacher will not participate in tomorrow’s #SaudiArabianGP.”

    The team provided an update later on: “We can confirm that Mick has been released from hospital and has returned to his hotel.”

    Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner, meanwhile, confirmed that he’d been in contact with Schumacher following the crash, saying: “I spoke with him directly. He spoke to his mum, I spoke to his mum a few times and kept her updated. He has no injuries which you can see – they just wanted to check on him, doing some scans to see that there is no damage from the impact of the forces. Taking any risks tomorrow, it’s not on,” added Steiner. “We are in Melbourne in two weeks and it’s better to focus on that one to make sure that we are in a good state there.”

  • Round 2- Saudi Arabia Qualifying

    Round 2- Saudi Arabia Qualifying

    What on earth happened today in qualifying! But it’s Sergio Perez taking his first ever pole position in F1! With Leclerc in second and Carlos Sainz on third.

    The full top 10 are: P1: Perez, P2: Leclerc, P3: Sainz, P4: Verstappen, P5: Ocon, P6: Russell, P7: Alonso, P8: Bottas, P9: Gasly and P10: Magnuessen.

    You’ve probably noticed Hamilton who isn’t in the top 10, well, he got knocked out in Q1 and qualified 16th. His first time since 2017.

    Mick had a nasty crash in Q2, which stopped the running for a while whilst checking he is okay and clearing up the track. Thankfully he got out of the car okay and is going to hospital for check ups to make sure!

    McLaren had a better weekend than last weeks already, both drivers making Q2 and starting P11 and P12. Hopefully some points for the team tomorrow!

    So far a good weekend for Alpine, both drivers starting in the top 10. They had a good weekend last weekend so let’s see what they can do!

    Predictions for tomorrow-

    P1: Leclerc, P2: Perez, P3: Verstappen, P4: Sainz and P5: Russell. I think the Ferrari’s are that just bit in front of the Red Bull’s and if the pit stops go okay for the Italian team, I can see them winning the race.

    Hopefully McLaren in the points, that will boost the team massively before a break, and they have clearly made a step forward too!

    Times for tomorrow-

    Feature Race F2: 13:35pm (GMT). Saudi Arabian GP: 18:00pm (GMT).

  • F2 Jeddah- Day 1

    F2 Jeddah- Day 1

    Round 2 in Saudi Arabia has started, let’s take a look at the first day.

    Free Practice-

    Felipe Drugovich set the pace in a disrupted practice session, he posted a 1:44.100 with Liam Lawson and Marcus Armstrong following the Brazilian driver.

    It was Van Amersfoort first appearance at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and they was the first team to get on track.

    There was a lengthy stoppage due to Cem Bolukbasi went into the barriers, once it was cleared their was 13 minutes on the clock.

    Lawson came close to taking the top spot but was still 0.150 of the benchmark.

    The second red flag of the session stopped the running completely as there was 8 minutes to go. Theo Pourchaire lost control of his car at the exit of 22 and collided with the wall.

    Qualifying-

    A late showing from the fastest man from this morning, Felipe Drugovich, snatched pole position in the final minute of qualifying with a 1:40.422. The Brazilian finished ahead of Richard Verschoor and last weeks pole sitter, Jack Doohan.

    Hughes broke the 1m 42s barrier for the first time, Hughes sat in P1 before Theo Pourchaire pulled to a stop on track and made the first red flag of the session as he had smoke coming from his ART Grand Prix.

    The time to beat when the session resumed when 1:41.538, the resumption was short-lived though as Logan Sargeant crashed bringing out the second red flag.

    It’s Jake Hughes who is on pole position for tomorrow’s Sprint Race as the top 10 switch round. Where as for Sunday it’s Felipe Drugovich!

    Times for rest of weekend-

    Saturday: Sprint Race: 12:30pm – 13:15pm (GMT)

    Sunday: Feature Race: 13:35pm (GMT).

  • Hulkenberg to race in Jeddah

    Hulkenberg to race in Jeddah

    Sebastian Vettel will miss the second race, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the German is still recovering from contracting Covid-19 before the season opener in Bahrain.

    The news means that, as in Bahrain, Nico Hulkenberg has been called up to jump in the AMR22 again.

    Hulkenberg will now get to experience the dramatic Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the very first time, following a difficult opening for Aston Martin as both drivers didn’t manage to score points.

    The team have confirmed they expect Vettel who is currently recovering in Europe, having flown home after the Official Pre-Season Test in Bahrain to be fit for the Australian Grand Prix weekend taking place from the 8th to 10th of April.

    “It was interesting,” said Hulkenberg after the race. “It was difficult, very difficult to be honest – first time [racing] obviously in a long, long time. There’s so many things happening in the race, it’s so dynamic, the car balance is changing, the fuel load is changing, so it’s difficult to keep up with all these changes and stay on top of things.”

  • Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

    After our first visit in December, we are back in Saudi Arabia for Round 2 of the F1 2022 Championship with Formula 2 also joining us.

    After a double DNF for Red Bull can they have a good weekend or will problems strike again? Can Mercedes sort out their porpoising? How are Ferrari going to go into this weekend after securing pole position, and a 1-2. Well all eyes are onto the weekend…

    Who needs a good weekend?

    Red Bull, straight up. Scoring no points in the opening round isn’t a good start for the team as well as for Max if he is going to defend his title. Perez hasn’t finished the last 3 Grand Prix’s and one of them including Saudi Arabia last year.

    Pierre needs a good weekend, it looked like he was set for points until his car caught fire last week and we all saw how consistent he can be with qualifying/scoring points, hopefully he can turn things around.

    I feel like the Aston Martin’s need a good weekend- I feel like we haven’t seen much of them during testing and last weeks race, I wanna see if they can at least get one car into Q3 or even the points as they were quite clsoe last week.

    Predictions for qualifying-

    My top five are: Pole- Leclerc, P2: Verstappen, P3: Perez, P4: Sainz and P5: Hamilton.

    This track is very unforgiving, one tiny mistake and your qualifying could be over- like we saw with Max Verstappen last year- could it happen again on Saturday?

    If teams can’t sort out the porpoising by qualifying and if it is worse here, then it could ruin some qualifying laps which could lead to some shock exits from Q2.

    Times for this weekend-

    Friday 25th-

    Free Practice F2: 11:25am – 12:10pm (GMT). Free Practice 1: 14:00pm – 15:00pm. Qualifying F2: 15:30pm – 16:00pm (GMT) Free Practice 2: 17:00pm – 18:00pm (GMT).

    Saturday 26th-

    Sprint Race F2: 12:30pm – 13:15pm (GMT). Free Practice 3: 14:00pm – 15:00pm (GMT). Qualifying 17:00pm – 18:00pm.

    Sunday 27th-

    Feature Race F2: 13:35pm (GMT). Saudi Arabian GP: 18:00pm (GMT).

  • Saudi Arabia tyre allocation

    Four months after Formula 1’s first visit to Saudi Arabia, we are returning this week along with Formula 2.

    Pirelli have chosen the compounds for this weekend, those being the middle of the range: C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), C4 (Soft). This is the first time this season the C4 compound is making an appearance.

    This choice has been made due to Jeddah’s track characteristics (both layout and asphalt), the expected temperatures, as well as the data from last years race. The new surface offered a good level of grip and reasonably contained levels of asphalt abrasion, which could lead to moderate wear and degradation.

    Due to the rapidly flowing layout, the track isn’t particularly demanding in terms of traction and braking, there is expected to be a high degree of track evolution over the weekend thanks to the Formula 2 support race.

    The fastest street circuit on the calendar has changed since making its debut, as the result of modifications requested by the governing body following a few on-track incidents last time. These consist of opening up slight lines through corners by moving barriers further back, whilst the final turn (27) has been widened by the removal of a grandstand, which could make the lap slightly faster.

    Turn 13, still features 12 degrees of banking, helping the rapid flow of the circuit that makes it the second quickest lap of the year overall, after Monza.

    Jeddah marks a completely different challenge compared to the opening grand prix in Bahrain due to the diverse track characteristics, both in terms of layout and asphalt. Driver will also use a softer range of compounds this weekend to cope with the specific demands of the track, which is nearly as quick as Monza. The teams head into Jeddah with no experience of these tyres and cars on the circuit, and conditions could be somewhat different from last time in Saudi Arabia, with the race now being held at a different time of year and a few track modifications in store. The nominated compounds are the same as 2021, but their make-up has also changed entirely from last year. As a result, the teams will have a lot of work to do to assimilate as much data as possible during free practice, especially in FP2 which will be the only relevant session, being held at the same time as qualifying and the race.

    Mario Isola, Head of Pirelli Motorsport.

    Formula 2

    The Formula 2 season, continues in Jeddah where the Medium and Soft compounds are nominated, this is a step harder than the supersoft, which was the softest option last year. The soft tyre, will present a different challenge for drivers which add more options in terms of strategy and helping with any potential safety car restarts.

  • Round 2- Diriyah E-Prix

    Now we are onto our second round an the second race day for the Diriyah E-Prix. To start the day of we had Free Practice 3.

    It was Wehrlein who topped the time sheets for free practice, with a 1m 07.215s. Most drivers lapped around a second slower than that on Friday- the track now having been cleaned uo and rubbered in further since race one.

    Vergne followed Wehrlein by a quarter of a second back, and Rowland finishing off the top 3 spots.

    There was a shunt from Nick Cassidy which saw the session split in two with the 10 minutes lost to its recorvery added on to give the teams the full 30 minutes running.

    Now onto qualifying, it was the Championship leader who took pole position! With Edoardo Mortara just missing out by 0.005s, what a duel it was to watch!

    Sam Bird hit the wall just like Cassidy did in FP3, he bended the suspension on the Jaguar which forced him to pull out of the Group B fight and start 21st…

    A late flurry of laps saw then-provisional fastest man Dennis pushed out of the top four and the Duels by de Vries, di Grassi, Rowland and Lotterer. Mortara had set the pace for Group B with Frijns’ late flying lap good enough for second and progress further, with both DS Techeetah cars going through in third and fourth.

    The top 10 finishers for qualifying was: P1: de Vries, P2: Mortara, P3: Frijns, P4: di Grassi, P5: Lotterer, P6: Vergne, P7: Rowland, P8: da Costa,   P9: Dennis and P10: Sims.

    Now onto the race! 30 minutes into the race and it looked to be Nyck’s however Formula E doesn’t work that was unfortunatley. 

    It was in fact Eduardo Mortara who claimed victory in an intense race, with Robin Frijns in P2 and to make it a 1-3 for Venturi, di Grassi finished 3rd!

    Mortara had overtaken his team-mate at Turn 18 amid a furious battle between the front runners, he then had to hold off Frijns who swept by di Grassi on lap 29. But a late safety car came into play for Alexander Sims who hit the wall at Turn 6 and then had to come to a stop.

    But as the clock ticked past 41 minutes, there was no time added on and with a slow process of clearing up the Mahindra car their was no more racing apart from a last corner dash which didn’t change the order up.

    The top 10 are: P1: Mortara, P2: Frijns, P3: di Grassi, P4: Lotterer. P5: Dennis, P6: Vergne, P7: Vandoorne, P8: Rowland, P9: Wehrlein and P10: de Vries.

    The next race is in two weeks and we are in Mexico for Formula E’s sixth appearance!

  • A look into Saudi Arabia

    A look into Saudi Arabia

    For the first time this year it is race week for Formula E! Friday and Saturday we will have round 1 and 2, a double header in Saudi Arabia for the Diriyah E-Prix.

    Diriyah Circuit-

    The Diriyah Circuit has 21 twists and turns around the historic town walls of the UNESCO World Heritage site in the desert. The drivers will face a very challenging lap from as soon as the lights go green as they have a technical first sector which leads into a bobsleigh run at Turn 6.

    The circuit layout is a test of strategy with a long energy straight which closes out the lap. The race is run in the dark being illuminated by LEDs lining the circuit.

    RIYADH STREET CIRCUIT, SAUDI ARABIA – FEBRUARY 26: Aerial drone footage of the Riyadh Street Circuit during the Diriyah ePrix I at Riyadh Street Circuit on Friday February 26, 2021 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Sam Bagnall / LAT Images)

    Last year saw Nyck De Vries win round 1 and Sam Bird win Round 2 at Diriyah. Will they be victorious again? Or could we see someone else?

    Will Mercedes EQ be able to start the ground running and get away in both title fights, as they and Nyck de Vries will be hoping to challenge for the Drivers and Teams championship!

    Times-

    Thursday 27th-

    Free Practice 1: 18:00pm to 18:30pm, 15:00pm to 15:30pm (GMT)

    Friday 28th-

    Free Practice 2: 13:30pm to 14:00pm (AST), 10:30am to 11:00am (GMT)

    Qualifying: 15:40pm to 17:00pm (AST), 12:40pm to 14:00pm (GMT)

    Round 1: 20:00pm to 21:00pm (AST), 17:00pm to 18:00pm (GMT)

    Saturday 29th-

    Free Practice 3: 13:30pm to 14:00pm (AST), 10:30am to 11:00am (GMT)

    Qualifying: 15:40pm to 17:00pm (AST), 12:40pm to 14:00pm (GMT)

    Round 2: 20:00pm to 21:00pm (AST), 17:00pm to 18:00pm (GMT).