Just three green flag laps is “not really a race” admits F2 winner · RaceFans

Formula 2 sprint race winner Zak O’Sullivan admitted it felt strange to be awarded points for the drastically shortened event.

Persistent rain on Saturday played havoc with F2’s schedule. Its sprint race was originally due to take place before Formula 1’s qualifying session but was postponed by four hours due to the conditions.

The race finally began on a damp track with fresh rain falling. The Safety Car was summoned due to a stationary car after three laps, at which point the rain intensified to a level where the race was red-flagged and swiftly abandoned.

Zak O’Sullivan won the race from pole position on the partially-reversed grid, having qualified 10th. He admitted the shortened race came as a disappointment.

“It would have been nice to do 18 laps, I think it was meant to be,” said O’Sullivan after his second victory of the season. “Four or five push laps and it’s classed as a race, but not really a race.”

As less than half of the race distance was covered, drivers received a reduced points allocation. Only the top five scored and O’Sullivan received five points. The points awards for shortened races were revised after F1 controversially awarded half points for a race which officially lasted just one lap at Spa in 2021.

Richard Verschoor, who finished second, was also disappointed by the early end to the race, though he admitted it may have helped him beat Zane Maloney to the final podium place.

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“Of course you would prefer to do the full race,” he said. “At this point, I was being attacked by Zane so of course I didn’t mind the Safety Car at that point, and get away with the trophy. But I’m here to race so of course I would have proved to have a full race.”

However drivers agreed the red flag was necessary due to the worsening conditions at the track.

“It started off pretty okay, that’s also the reason why we did a standing start,” said Verschoor. “But it got progressively worse throughout the race.

“To be honest I was just thinking about the red for I think 10 seconds and then it became red. Then there was too much [rain] and I could only imagine the guys behind me, they had so much more spray. Already for me in third it was quite bad so it did get worse during the race.”

Dennis Hauger, who finished second, enjoyed better visibility but accepted it would have been much worse for those running further back in the 22-car field. He said he “had no idea” why the red flag was shown at first and wondered “what happened on track, because for me it didn’t feel like it was that wet.”

“Even the spray for me wasn’t that bad so it wasn’t really in my mind,” he continued, “but looking back obviously for the guys further back for sure it would have been more of an issue.

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“But I felt we’ve been in these similar conditions in Silverstone where maybe it also should have been red-flagged. At least from my point of view it wasn’t too bad but for sure the safety is the most important and in the end it’s their call and they know better than us who has the full picture? So in the end it was the right call, I guess.”

Rain has caused visibility problems for many races at Spa in recent years. Last year Dilano van ‘t Hoff was killed in a crash during a Formula Regional European race at the track following a restart in wet conditions with poor visibility.