F2: Pourchaire ‘confident’ for Spa Feature Race after reducing gap to championship rival

Théo Pourchaire finished third in the F2 Sprint Race at Spa, bridging the gap to championship leader Frederik Vesti to only six points. Pourchaire spoke to media, including FormulaNerds, about the Feature Race tomorrow after outscoring Vesti in the Sprint Race.

Formula 2 are racing in Spa this weekend for Round 11 of the season. Coming into the weekend, Frederik Vesti was 11 points ahead of former teammate, Théo Pourchaire. Ayumu Iwasa and Victor Martins were also in contention, being in the top four as well.

After today’s Sprint Race, which saw Enzo Fittipaldi achieve his first F2 race victory, the gap between Pourchaire and Vesti has decreased. ART Grand Prix had a better race than their Team’s Title rivals, PREMA, after Pourchaire secured another podium, scoring eight points. Martins finished in fifth, scoring four points, whilst Vesti finished in P7, scoring 2 points, and Oliver Bearman finished the race in P13.

However, Pourchaire had initially secured P3 but after Richard Verschoor was disqualified, Pourchaire was bumped up to P2 with Hauger now finishing in P3. This also meant Martins was bumped up to P4 after finishing fifth as well.

With Pourchaire outscoring Vesti, the points gap between the two of them is now only six points.

Pourchaire spoke to media, including FormulaNerds, in the post-race press conference. There the Frenchman touched on his race today as well as looking ahead to the Feature Race tomorrow, where more points are up for grabs.

Pourchaire’s initial struggles

Speaking on his race, particularly the start, Pourchaire commented on some of his overtakes. He started the race in P6, moving up through the field rather quickly. Pourchaire said:

“The start was a bit difficult, my reaction time was really bad. But then I had a good start, so it was okay.

“I overtook Dennis [Hauger] and another car probably into Turn One. Then I was almost flat first lap into Raidillion because my car was really good the first few laps and I could overtake Ralph Boschung into Turn Five.

“After that, the first two laps, I was really really quick. But I knew I was going to have a bit of tyre deg. But at least, we tried something today and we learned a lot of things.”

Oupsss, Due to a disqualification, we pass P2 for Théo and P4 for Victor ? https://t.co/lUuPRdYakT

— ART Grand Prix (@ARTGP) July 29, 2023

‘I feel confident’ and ‘learnt a lot’

In the press conference, Pourchaire then went on to focus on tomorrow’s race. He said:

“It’s good. It’s a big race tomorrow. There’s a lot of points to take and I feel confident.

“We have a great car, starting P5 tomorrow, so it’s even better than today. We have a great chance to do a great race because there’s the pitstop strategy so a lot can happen, so let’s see.”

FormulaNerds then asked Pourchaire what he learnt from today’s Sprint that he can take forward into tomorrow. The ART Grand Prix driver answered with:

“It it’s dry tomorrow, for sure, we have a lot of data from today. I learnt a lot of things on the car balance as well, my driving, and how to improve in some areas.

“We have a lot of work to do and if it’s dry, it’s good, but if it’s wet, we start from almost zero again…we have data from free practice, but it can be difficult.”

The Feature Race

With only six points between Vesti and Pourchaire, it’s all to play for in the remaining races. Vesti starts the F2 Feature Race tomorrow in P2 after PREMA excelled in the wet Qualifying session.

However, Pourchaire has been one of the more consistent drivers all season. Given the Frenchman’s ability to overtake today in the Sprint, the Feature Race could promise a close battle between the two championship rivals.

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