As the F2 season heads into the summer break, the iconic Spa-Francorchamps hosted a damp last race of the first half of the season.
Known for being the longest track of the season, at 7.004km, Spa is renowned for its often unpredictable weather and challenging layout, featuring legendary corners like Eau Rouge and La Source.
Qualifying
Qualifying saw Ollie putting in impressive times early on. With 20 minutes left in the session, Ollie was second fastest. Unfortunately, the Prema’s pace was quickly outshone by other cars and he ended up in P15.
Despite the disappointing result, Ollie’s early speed showcased his potential on one of the more demanding tracks on the calendar.
Sprint Race
The Sprint Race in Belgium was marred by torrential rain, leading to an initial four-hour postponement of the session. When the Sprint finally got underway, Ollie made an electrifying start. By the penultimate corner of the opening lap, he had surged from P15 to P8 in a series of superb overtakes, including passing Championship leader Isack Hadjar.
On the second lap, Jak Crawford took P5 from Colapinto on the run to Eau Rouge, leaving Colapinto to defend against Ollie’s Prema teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. By Lap 3, Ollie was pushing hard. Antonelli moved alongside Colapinto with Ollie following suit as the Prema pair passed Colapinto.
With Ollie now in P7 and on the attack, the race was then neutralised as Josep Maria Marti’s car came to a stop and the Safety Car was deployed. As the rain soon intensified, the session was red-flagged on Lap 8. It was ruled that the race would not restart due to the weather.
In the shortened race, less than 50% of the laps were completed, meaning only the top five places on the grid were awarded points. Due to this, despite his thrilling climb to P7, Ollie was not able to score points in the Sprint Race.
Feature Race
In Sunday’s Feature Race, a slow start from Zane Maloney combined with the chaos of the first corner meant a disappointing result for Ollie. Going into a spin on the entrance to Turn 1, Ollie hit the Campos Racing car of Marti, taking both drivers out in the opening lap. A Safety Car was deployed to recover the cars.
In a weekend that just kept getting worse for Ollie, after the race, he was handed a five place grid penalty for causing a collision. When the incident was investigated by the stewards, they ruled that Ollie was responsible for moving to the left and making contact with Zane Maloney first, before hitting Marti.
As a result, Ollie was handed the penalty which he will serve at the next race in which he participates.
Looking Ahead
Reflecting on an all around challenging weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, there were moments of brilliance that were unfortunately cut short. The season resumes at the end of August in Monza with the Italian Grand Prix, 30-01 Sept.
