After 6 rounds out of 16, the first Formula 2 season in 25 years has become as tight as championship co-ordinator Jonathan Palmer hoped it would be, but if this weekend was anything to go by, you'd have thought it was a precession as the young German starlet Tobias Hegewald scored the perfect weekend by taking pole position for both races, winning both races, leading every single lap in both races and taking fastest lap in both races, he was even quickest in both practice sessions, it was a massacre.
Which was bad news for the incoming championship leader, Italy's Mirko Bortolotti who endured a torrid weekend despite qualifying well for race 2, a pair of 9th places equalling no points, a bad weekend enough for his championship lead to be wiped out. It would be an even worse weekend though for the Indian driver Armann Ebrahim after a nasty qualifying crash with Henry Surtees knocked him out for the entire weekend meaning only 24 of the 25 cars would take the start of both races
RACE 1
STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Tobias Hegewald (Germany), 2. Andy Souchek (Spain)
ROW 2: 3. Robert Wickens (Canada), 4. Julien Jousse (France)
ROW 3: 5. Kazim Vasiliauskas (Lithuania), 6. Henry Surtees (Great Britain)
ROW 4: 7. Milos Pavlovic (Serbia), 8. Alex Brundle (Great Britain)
ROW 5: 9. Jolyon Palmer (Great Britain), 10. Philipp Eng (Austria)
ROW 6: 11. Carlos Iaconelli (Brazil), 12. Jack Clarke (Great Britain)
ROW 7: 13. Henri Karjalainen (Finland), 14. German Sanchez (Spain)
ROW 8: 15. Tom Gladdis (Great Britain), 16. Jason Moore (Great Britain)
ROW 9: 17. Jens Hoing (Germany), 18. Edoardo Piscopo (Italy)
ROW 10: 19. Natacha Gachnang (Switzerland), 20. Sebastian Hohenthal (Sweden)
ROW 11: 21. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy), 22. Pietro Gandolfi (Italy)
ROW 12: 23. Nicola Di Marco (Italy), 24. Mikhail Aleshin (Russia)
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DID NOT START: Armann Ebrahim (India)
There was action right off the line as the 11 lap race began, Robert Wickens got a poor start from 3rd spot and was then rammed in the back by the unsighted Jason Moore, eliminating both cars, as the cars littered the start line, the safety car was called for which only lasted 1 lap thanks to the length of the Spa course.
As the race restarted, there was another clash behind the runaway leader Hegewald. Souchek failed in his challenge to take Hegewald into the les combes corner, he ran across the grass causing madness behind as he retook to the track, the unfortunate man in all of this was Alex Brundle who in the confusion was clattered into by Phillip Eng eliminating both drivers, a shame for both as they had made the best starts from 8th and 10th respectively to be running 5th and 6th at the time, Jolyon Palmer was also involved but he was able to continue albeit way down the field eventually coming through to finish in 16th
From then on Souchek recovered well to pass both Jousse and Pavlovic into 2nd place where he would remain until the end, but nobody could touch Hegewald who drove out of his skin, no-body was lapping within 3 tenths of a second of the German whose win leapfrogged him up from 15th to a share of 6th in the championship with Pavlovic and Eng. Souchek however would be disappointed later on as his misdemeanours in elimiating Eng and Brundle earned him a 10 second time penalty dropping him from 2nd to 4th, this promoted Pavlovic to 2nd and Jousse to 3rd, giving the latter the championship lead by 1 point ahead of Bortolotti ahead with Souchek and Wickens a further point behind
ROUND 6
STARTING GRID
ROW 1: 1. Tobias Hegewald (Germany), 2. Robert Wickens (Canada)
ROW 2: 3. Andy Souchek (Spain), 4. Alex Brundle (Great Britain)
ROW 3: 5. Julien Jousse (France), 6. Milos Pavlovic (Serbia)
ROW 4: 7. Mikhail Aleshin (Russia), 8. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy)
ROW 5: 9. Kazim Vasiliauskas (Lithuania), 10. Philipp Eng (Austria)
ROW 6: 11. Carlos Iaconelli (Brazil), 12. Jolyon Palmer (Great Britain)
ROW 7: 13. Jack Clarke (Great Britain), 14. Henri Karjalainen (Finland)
ROW 8: 15. Tom Gladdis (Great Britain), 16. Jens Hoing (Germany)
ROW 9: 17. German Sanchez (Spain), 18. Sebastian Hohenthal (Sweden)
ROW 10: 19. Jason Moore (Great Britain), 20. Natacha Gachnang (Switzerland)
ROW 11: 21. Nicola Di Marco (Italy), 22. Pietro Gandolfi (Italy)
ROW 12: 23. Henry Surtees (Great Britain), 24. Edoardo Piscopo (Italy)
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DID NOT START: Armann Ebrahim (India)
The start was much cleaner but produced the same outcome with Hegewald leading away, if anything this one was even more dominant than the first race, Hegewald would go on to win by a massive 7 seconds with a fastest lap nearly a full second quicker than anybody else, this completed the perfect weekend for him.
There was plenty of action behind him though, Palmer and Clarke clashed in the midfield eliminating both drivers, Wickens had started poorly being passed off the line by both Souchek and Brundle, although he recovered well to pass the latter at Eau Rouge. From then on the top 3 raced away while Brundle held up the chasing pack with some good defensive driving, a tactic that failed to pay off in some part as Pavlovic finally found a way past on lap 11 of the 15 lap race. Brundle did manage to hold them off long enough to earn his best finish of the season.
Souchek and Wickens though had no answer to the ever dominant Hegewald who sormed to an easy win, Souchek's 2nd place allowed the spaniard to snatch the championship lead from Jousse going into the next round at Brands Hatch, behind the top 3, Pavlovic held off Brundle to take 4th while behind them, Jousse, Vasiliauskas and Aleshin completed the point scorers. Hegewald's 2nd win of the weekend pushed him up to 4th place, just 6 points behind Souchek and 1 point ahead of the former leader Bortolotti
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6
DRIVERS TOP 12
1st Andy Souchek 28pts, 2nd Robert Wickens 26pts, 3rd Julien Jousse 25pts, 4th Tobias Hegewald 22pts, 5th Mirko Bortolotti 21pts, =6th Mikhail Aleshin 17pts, =6th Milos Pavlovic 17pts, 8th Phillip Eng 12pts, =9th Edoardo Piscopo 10pts, =9th Nicola Di Marco 10pts, =11th Carlos Iaconelli 9pts, =11th Kazim Vasiliauskas 9pts
NATIONS TOP 12
1st Italy 41pts, 2nd Spain 28pts, 3rd Canada 26pts, 4th France 25pts, 5th Germany 22pts, =6th Russia 17pts, =6th Serbia 17pts, 8th Great Britain 15pts, 9th Austria 12pts, =10th Brazil 9pts, =10th Lithuania 9pts, 12th Finland 7pts
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