Liam Lawson and Juri Vips back on podium in Formula 2’s penultimate round in Jeddah
The 6.174km Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was home to an action-packed weekend of racing as the team took to the track in the return of Formula 2, following a short break in the calendar.
With much unknown about the freshly built circuit, there was plenty to learn as the F2 cars assembled to the track during the Free Practice session. The Hitech Red Bull duo of Vips and Lawson settled with P6 and P11 respectively as they got to grips with the tightly-walled street circuit.
With the longer runs complete, attention turned to qualifying, where the team put full focus on setting some clean laps. Juri Vips came out in P8, setting a lap of 1:41.610 and Liam Lawson in P10, setting a lap of 1:41.619, just 0.741s off the pace overall.
On Saturday, the team started off the race sessions nicely with both drivers taking to the podium following an expert drive in a 20 lap Sprint Race. The second Sprint Race was one to forget for both Liam and Juri, as the duo spun out of the session after a hard fight, and were forced to retire from the race.
After some delay to the proceedings, Sunday’s Feature Race was finally confirmed to be going ahead, following a delayed session due to barrier repairs from a previous race. An incident on the opening lap on the grid meant that the session was cut to a mere 20 minutes and the final order was decided after two laps of racing. Vips finished in P6 and Lawson in P9, collecting points as they rounded out the top-ten.
Hitech will return to the track this weekend when the season concludes at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit on 10-12th December.
