Round 3 of the FIA F2 Championship Spain celebrated its feature race on Sunday, 22nd. Ayumu Iwasa, who was 6th in the qualifying held on Friday, started from 6th in the 3rd row.
At 11:35 am, the formation lap started in conditions with a temperature of 31 ° C and a road surface temperature of 40 ° C. As with the sprint race the day before, Ayumu Iwasa, who made a good dash at the start, climbed to 4th place, but allowed two cars to lead in the position at the 1st corner approach and passed the 1st corner in 6th place. She then kept her position and finished the first lap in 6th place.
Ayumu Iwasa, who was approaching the car in front and asked about the timing of overtaking, tried to pass the car in front on the third lap, but the car in front caused trouble and suddenly slowed down. Ayumu Iwasa, who was inevitable for her, touched the front and suffered damage, forcing her to pit in. The slowed down machine stopped on the course and a safety car was introduced.
Ayumu Iwasa, who dropped to 18th position, made a second pit stop to change tires on the 8th lap of the next lap when the safety car was released. With this pit stop, Ayumu Iwasa is in 20th position at the end.
Ayumu Iwasa, who changed the tires at an early timing, started catching up while managing the tires, and moved up to 11th position on the 24th lap due to the pit stop of the preceding car. On lap 25, she passed the slow-paced front car and moved up to 10th in the points range. However, after that, she changed tires and passed the race to beat the pace, and on lap 27 she went down to 14th. Still, Ayumu Iwasa kept his tires and stayed, overtaking the car in front on laps 35 and 36 at the end of the race to move up to 12th position and finish the race on lap 37 in 12th place.
Ayumu Iwasa was expected to start from a good position and was expected to be in the top position, but the feature race ended with 0 points, and although he added 8 points in the sprint race, the series ranking fell to 11th place. However, it will be a close battle with her high rank, and it is expected that it will come back after the next race.
“It was an unlucky race,” commented Ayumu Iwasa.
“I was thinking of a strategy to start with soft tires and keep it for a long time, so it would be a very disappointing result because I could have been in the upper ranks if there was no accident. I returned to the position by positioning up to the first corner. “
“The previous car had a difference in pace when starting with hard tires, and when I was closing the gap to pull out, I suddenly slowed down, so there was nothing I could do about it. It seemed that the alignment was out of order when I got involved in it, and the balance went wrong throughout the race. “
“Still, I think it’s a positive part that I was able to set the pace and manage the tires well, and I was able to increase the pace and overtake in the final stages.”
“The next Monaco is my first course, and if I crash with a few mistakes, it will ruin Race Week, so I’d like to prepare well.”
