DAMS added six points to their 2022 tally after Ayumu Iwasa put in an excellent drive in the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps.

In a slippery qualifying, neither Iwasa nor his teammate Roy Nissany were able to break into the top-10, finishing the session 13th and 15th respectively. Both drivers put in good performances during Saturday’s Sprint Race, with Iwasa taking ninth and Nissany 11th, both narrowly missing out on points.

The Red Bull Junior showed good pace during the Feature Race, making up positions in the opening laps before running long on the alternate strategy. Following a good stop from the DAMS crew, Iwasa went on a late overtaking spree to work his way up to eighth, which became seventh following a post-race penalty for another driver.

Ayumu Iwasa: “We can be pleased with our pace in today’s Feature Race, I got a strong start and then the strategy was perfect, we had great speed towards the end of the race and I made some good overtakes, which was fun. We probably had better performance than we showed this weekend, the conditions were tricky on Friday and we didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to, which had an effect on the entire weekend. I’m looking forward to Zandvoort, I was strong there last year and took a podium finish, so I’m hoping to return to the front.”

Qualifying: 13th  |  Sprint Race: 9th  |  Feature Race: 7th (+6 points)

Roy Nissany: “On Saturday we had a good race, recovering four positions to take P11. It was a good call from the team to bring me in for new tyres under the Safety Car and we had strong pace overall, but it’s so tight at this stage of the season between all the teams. The Feature Race didn’t go our way but we had very low tyre degradation so there are definitely a lot of positives to take into Zandvoort.”

Qualifying: 15th  |  Sprint Race: 11th  |  Feature Race: 19th

Charles Pic, Team Owner: “We’re finally back after the long summer break and the weekend started in typical Spa conditions, with constant fog and drizzle. Qualifying was a bit disappointing, we had the potential to make it into the top-10 so to miss out was a shame. Despite that, both Ayumu and Roy put in good performances on Saturday. After the late Safety Car we decided to split the strategies and put Roy on new tyres but it was difficult to make much progress thanks to the low tyre degradation and DRS trains and we just missed out on the points with both cars.

“In the Feature Race we had to do something different so we opted to go with the alternate strategy on both cars. It worked really well for Ayumu, he made up positions at the start and was able to overtake others at the end, resulting in a solid P7 finish. For Roy, we told him to be aggressive at the start to make his way through the field but unfortunately he had some contact and damaged his front wing, meaning we had to pit earlier than expected. Overall it wasn’t our best weekend, but we can be happy with the recovery in the Feature Race to pick up points and we’ll look for better next weekend at Zandvoort.”

Image: Dutch Photo Agency