F2 Australia: Iwasa survives chaos for second win of 2023

Iwasa came out on top against Theo Pourchaire at the end of a frenetic 33-lap encounter with not only his first feature race of the season but the lead of the championship, the DAMS driver now holding an eight-point advantage over ART Grand Prix’s Pourchaire.

A late collision between Victor Martins and sprint race winner Dennis Hauger meanwhile handed the final spot on the podium to Arthur Leclerc in the second DAMS car.

Iwasa made a strong getaway from pole to hold the lead on the opening lap, as Pourchaire repelled a fleeting challenge from fellow countryman Martins to hold second.

The top runners remained in that order until the safety car was scrambled when Jak Crawford crashed at Turn 11 while battling for position with Jack Doohan.

Martins led a pack of five drivers that pitted to change from soft tyres to mediums just before the safety car was called, with the other runners on the conventional strategy coming in the following lap after the caution period had started.

Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman, who had been running fourth and fifth, made contact in a congested pitlane, leaving the latter with a puncture.

At this stage, Frederik Vesti was promoted into the lead, opting to stay out on his prime tyres along with Roy Nissany, Enzo Fittipaldi and Kush Maini, while Doohan opted to ditch his mediums for soft rubber and then came in one lap later to go back to primes. Iwasa initially ran sixth after his stop, but gained a place back after Doohan pitted.

Vesti was able to build a lead out front as Nissany held up the chasing pack, with the Israeli driver holding second until he tried in vain to resist an attack by Fittipaldi through Turns 9 and 10, which allowed Maini to jump both and snatch second.

Iwasa managed to follow Maini through to grab third, and later passed the Indian driver for second, where he would remain until Vesti pitted from the lead on lap 26.

Prema driver Vesti timed his pitstop to coincide with the second and final safety car, triggered by Nissany crashing on the run down to Turn 3, slipping down to seventh in the process.

But the Danish driver gained two places back just prior to the restart as ART driver Martins ran into the back of the MP Motorsport car of Hauger, who had made his way from 10th on the grid into third, at the penultimate corner.

That promoted Leclerc from fifth to third, where he would remain to score his first F2 podium, while Vesti used the advantage of his soft tyres for the restart to pass Zane Maloney’s Rodin Carlin car for fourth place.

Jehan Daruvala (MP) was sixth, followed by Richard Veschoor (VAR), while Hitech driver Hadjar was eighth on the road but handed a 10-second penalty for rejoining the track unsafely after being hit at Turn 13 by Nissany earlier in the race.

That promoted Doohan’s Virtuosi entry to eighth ahead of Maini (Campos) and Roman Stanek (Trident). Hadjar’s penalty dropped him to 17th place behind Martins.

Ralph Boschung, who had led the championship alongside Iwasa heading into the race, was an anonymous 18th ahead of Hauger, while Fittipaldi was classified 20th after spinning on his out lap under caution and then crashing, only just missing the stricken car of Nissany.

F2 Australia - feature race results (33 laps):

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Gap
1	11	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	33
2	5	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	33	0.882
3	12	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	33	1.484
4	7	Frederik Vesti	Prema Powerteam	33	1.815
5	3	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	33	5.290
6	2	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	33	6.779
7	22	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	33	7.107
8	14	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	33	7.764
9	24	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	33	8.294
10	20	Roman Staněk	Trident	33	10.892
11	23	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	33	11.126
12	21	Clement Novalak	Trident	33	11.593
13	17	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	33	13.902
14	15	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	33	14.276
15	8	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	33	16.734
16	6	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	33	17.299
17	10	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	33	17.437
18	25	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	33	24.039
19	1	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	30	3 Laps
	4	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	26	7 Laps
	16	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	25	8 Laps
	9	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	6	27 Laps
View full results