DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa secured a stunning pole position in Round 10 of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship at the Hungaroring, before taking his fourth podium finish of the season in the Feature Race.

Following the Red Bull Junior’s stunning victory at the team’s home race last weekend at Paul Ricard, Iwasa backed up that performance with a blistering lap in the final moments of qualifying to take pole by an impressive 0.381 seconds in an otherwise tight session, adding two points to his season tally.

Starting 10th, the Japanese driver put in a clean performance to pick up a point for eighth in the semi-reverse grid Sprint Race.

Iwasa again showed strong pace in the Feature Race, with some excellent work from the crew in the pit lane helping the 20-year-old take third place in a race where every driver suffered from severe tyre degradation.

Formula 2 now heads to its summer break, returning at Spa-Francorchamps in late August.

Ayumu Iwasa: “It’s been a positive weekend in Budapest, I was so happy to take my first pole in Formula 2. It’s always hard to put a full lap together here but I managed it on the final run and did a really good lap right at the end of the session. I had a solid start on Saturday, following other cars was really difficult and we didn’t move forwards as much as we wanted to. In the Feature Race tyre management was tough. I didn’t get the best start but the team did a great job in the pits to help me recover a position. We always want to win and that was our target today. However, third gives us some strong points for the championship and hopefully we can continue with our pace after the summer break.”

Qualifying: 1st (+2 points)  |  Sprint Race: 8th (+1 point)  |  Feature Race: 3rd (+15 points)

Roy Nissany: “It was a disappointing weekend for me at my home race, we’ve been having a few issues with the car that have hampered me for a couple of events. Despite this, our race pace was good, unfortunately we got hit in the Sprint Race, which took us completely out of contention but we had strong speed. Today it didn’t quite happen for us so we will look to work hard over the break and bounce back for the last few races of the season.”

Qualifying: 21st  |  Sprint Race: 19th  |  Feature Race: 18th

Charles Pic, Team Owner: “We deserved to take pole at Paul Ricard so I’m delighted we managed to take it this weekend. Once again, the team and Ayu did a great job to find the right setup and Ayu put in an amazing lap to be so far clear of the other drivers. We were also happy with the pace in the Sprint Race, with Ayu making up two places to finish P8. In the Feature Race we didn’t get the ideal start with Ayu but we made up a position thanks to some great work by the crew in the pits. Tyre degradation was tough but we held on to take another podium, which is a great result for us. Roy is struggling a bit with the car in qualifying, although his race pace is still good. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to move through the field to the points like he did at Paul Ricard, so we’ll keep working hard over the next few weeks for him to return strongly at Spa at the end of August.”

Image: Dutch Photo Agency