Liam Lawson Claims Second F2 Win Of 2022
Jul 25, 2022
Two outstanding overtakes, timed to perfection sealed the deal for Lawson
A measured drive by Kiwi ace, Liam Lawson, has seen him secure a second Formula 2 win of the 2022 season during the weekend’s sprint race in France. The Carlin driver made two brilliant moves in the race with a stand-out overtake on fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong the highlight.
Cool and calculated would be a good way to describe Liam Lawson’s drive as the young driver from Pukekohe demonstrated a very level head in the heat of battle.
After a mediocre start saw Lawson falling down the order into Turn 1, losing second to Armstrong and third to Brazillian Felipe Drugovich momentarily, but he maintained composure and kept in touch with Armstrong before making his first lunge on Armstrong into Turn 1 on lap 4.
The pair have battled closely through their respective careers and the action through the first sector and somehow avoided contact, just millimetres apart was intense. Truly a masterful display of talent a mutual respect from each of the Kiwis.
Onto the Mistral Straight and with another helping of DRS, the Lawson made an audacious dive at the chicane, turning the outside line into the inside line on corner exit to seal P2.
After making the move on Armstrong, the gap to race leader Jehan Daruvala stood at 2.2s but Lawson set about hunting him down immediately to cut it down to 1.6s by Lap 6. By Lap 8, the Carlin driver broke into DRS range, dragging a DRS train down to fifth-placed Drugovich along with him.
In the fight for first, Lawson stuck with the Prema Racing car ahead of him and with DRS, repeated his move he made on Armstrong earlier into the chicane to take the lead of the Sprint Race. The Carlin driver quickly dashed clear, making up over a second to escape the DRS range of his closest pursuer.
“We were able to win from second, I had a bad start and dropped back. But the car was really really good the whole race, especially from mid-race onwards, it came on really strong and we were able to make some nice moves to take the win. I’m happy with that. Tomorrow is the main focus now and we need to try and move forward and make up as many positions as we can.” Said Lawson during the post-race media conference.
With this victory, Lawson moves himself up to sixth in the Driver’s Championship on 71 points and Carlin team principal, Stephanie Carlin, is pleased to see the team achieving the results they deserve this season.
“I’m really happy. It's great for the team. It's been a bit of a tough season in a way because we've had pace throughout every event. We've been there, the car has been there so to have this bit of a surge from the midpoint of the season, back to where we think we should be after some bad luck and a few things going the wrong way for us, Liam’s win is just a really great result.” Said Carlin.
The next Formula 2 race will be at the challenging Hungaroring circuit in Hungary, July 29-31