Liam Lawson took his second Formula 2 win of the season on Saturday, putting a move on Jehan Daruvala with 5 laps to go in the Sprint Race at Paul Ricard. F1 Feeder Series spoke to the Red Bull Junior drivers about their fortunes so far this year.

By Tyler Foster

Starting on the front row behind fellow Red Bull Junior Jehan Daruvala, Lawson had a poor getaway and fell to third. After the initial setback Lawson showed pace throughout and made two almost identical passes on Armstrong and Daruvala at Chicane Nord.

For Lawson, while it may only be ten points, it was an impressive performance to get them. This was his third win in his ongoing Formula 2 career while being in his second this season. After a strong start to 2022, that included finishing on the podiums in all of the first three races of the season, Lawson has struggled with inconsistency and as a result is 89 points behind championship leader Felipe Drugovich.

While Lawson has shown championship potential at points this season, there have been entire races where he has been almost forgettable. The Red Bull Junior currently sits 47 points behind his Carlin rookie teammate and Williams Academy driver Logan Sargeant. After his victory on Saturday, we asked the Carlin driver whether he was disappointed with his points tally of 71 at this point in this season.

Extremely frustrated with where I sit at the moment

Liam Lawson on the current F2 standings

“Yeah, extremely frustrated with where I sit at the moment, especially considering how good the car has been this year. The team has done a great job in general to provide us with a great car every weekend. If I look back to last year, I was sort of in a similar position to now but I definitely lacked the raw speed, whereas this year it’s been there. Obviously, a lot of reasons but from my side it’s frustrating. A few races left and right now the focus is to repeat today as many times as possible.”

Daruvala just can’t win at the moment

While for Lawson this marks his second victory of the season, it is another case of so close but yet so far for Prema’s Jehan Daruvala. The Indian started on reverse-grid pole but failed to clinch what would have been his first victory of the year. For Daruvala, despite having finished on the podium six times in 2022, and five of those being P2, he is yet to stand on the top step and this is seemingly becoming a mental barrier for the 23-year-old.

Fourth in the championship, Daruvala is not performing below par but has missed out on multiple opportunities to grab victory this year. It seemed as though he would finally change this in Paul Ricard on Saturday, but he struggled to hold his pace throughout and had to fight to hold onto second place. We asked Jehan after the race whether this failure to win was becoming a bit of curse for him at this point in the season.

“Yeah, I do think it’s frustrating, not to be winning but I’m giving my best. The team are giving their best as well. We’ve been close many times but hopefully tomorrow or the next few rounds we will change that for sure.”

Header photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool