Eight points in Jeddah after a tough initiation
Round 3 - Jeddah - Report
Luke Browning took sixth place and eight points in today’s Formula 2 Feature Race in Jeddah, a good result, if not the one he had been hoping for heading into the weekend after securing a podium last time out in Sakhir. Dino Beganovic finished 12th in this afternoon’s main event after a similarly challenging initiation as the pair made their debut at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Luke enjoyed a strong Qualifying on Friday, which would see him line up on the second row in P4 for the start of today’s race. Dino started from the sixth row after a more difficult session on Friday, albeit only half a second adrift of pole on his first visit to the Saudi Arabian track. Splitting the strategies at a circuit that usually sees its fair share of Safety Car interventions would give the team the best chance to roll the dice and improve on their positions.
The Williams Academy driver got off to a strong start on the Supersoft tyre but an opening lap scrap with Fornaroli set the tone for what would be a hard-fought race. He bided his time before a Lap 6 move with the DRS saw him lunge past the Invicta driver on the main straight to take P3, which he held for two laps before switching to the Medium tyre for a longer second stint.
Dino, who started on the Medium, lost places to the softer compound runners around him. At the first round of pitstops, he moved up to P8 and going long on the harder tyre could have played well, were it not for a VSC bunching the pack back together.
Behind him and on fresh rubber, Luke was scrapping with Dunne and the pair side-by-side into Turn 1 but the Rodin driver went deep into the corner and rejoined, baulking Browning and allowing Fornaroli to sneak by both for 11th on the road.
Back into P12, Luke would maintain position until Marti managed to surge past on L16, forcing him wide in the process. He moved back up the order when the late-stopping Medium runners pitted for the Supersoft tyre.
Dino was among them, stopping at the end of the L26. With no positive evolution of the race to towards his strategy, P13 was the best result possible today.
Neither driver was able to fight for points in Saturday’s Sprint Race. Luke started from 7th position on the reverse grid, Dino starting from his qualifying position of P13. Early double waved yellow flags followed by a VSC bunched up the field, but when the track went green, the two Hitech drivers struggled to keep pace and dropped to 9th and 15th.
Luke Browning:
“I think it's been a positive weekend. Obviously this was my first time in Jeddah, so naturally going up against third, fourth and even fifth year drivers here, getting up to speed was always going to be tough. Irrespective of that, to be a tenth off in Qualifying and then to bring some points home at the end of what was unlikely to be our best race weekend is great.”
Luke continued:
“I’m sure these points are going to pay us back towards the end of the season. So if this was a weak round for us, we’ve done very well. I’m looking forward to Imola.”
The four-week gap before the start of the European leg provides ample time to address the challenges of Jeddah and enable the drivers to resume the form they were able to demonstrate at the last round in Bahrain.
The next round of the championship takes place at Imola, Italy, on May 16-18.