Motorsport: Kiwis experience highs and lows in wild Formula 2 event at Imola

Marcus Armstrong claimed his first race win of the Formula 2 season in the sprint race at Imola. Photo / Getty Images

In the cutthroat world of Formula 2, every opportunity has to be taken.

For Kiwi Marcus Armstong, technical issues onboard didn't stop him from claiming his first win of the season at the weekend, taking out the sprint race in Imola, Italy.

Sprint races hadn't been kind to Armstrong in the early dates on the F2 calendar, as he was forced out of the shorter format in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He had no such troubles in Italy, despite being without a key part of equipment.

Armstrong went into the race with his radio not working, meaning he had no input for the Hitech Grand Prix team during his race. Not only did he have to navigate the race without radio assistance, he also had to navigate a safety car period – relying on monitors around the track to see what he needed to see and managed to secure his first race win ahead of Jehan Daruvala.

"The VSC (virtual safety car) was really difficult, I was having to watch the TV and see when the Safety Car was ending," Armstrong explained after the race.

"That was really stressful. But luckily, I got away with it. There was a TV when it went green, so perfect. The rest of the race was smooth sailing, but I had a fast Jehan Daruvala following me. It wasn't that easy."

The win was his first since winning the sprint race one in Saudi Arabia last December, and his second for his Formula 2 career.

But for the highs of the sprint race, the lows of the feature race were just as significant for the Kiwi contingent, with Armstrong finishing 16th, while Carlin's Liam Lawson was first out late in the race after a heavy crash into the hoardings.

There was plenty of carnage early in the race, and that worked in favour of those who started on the super-soft compound tyres, who were afforded an early pit stop eight laps in when a full safety car was on the track.

Drivers can't pit under a VSC, but are allowed to do so under the full safety car, and most of those with the super-soft tyres changed to the medium. Unfortunately for both Lawson and Armstrong, they weren't among them.

"I guess now we need another safety car, right?" Lawson asked his team over radio, resigned to the disadvantage they were now under.

The strategy deployed by both Kiwi drivers – starting the race on the medium tyres and pitting around the 20-lap mark – placed them toward the back end of the field after their stops.

Unfortunately, there wasn't another safety car before that point but one on the track soon afterwards – of no help to the Kiwis.

Armstrong fought on to finish in 16th, while Lawson's crash on lap 32 brought out another safety car which allowed eventual winner Théo Pourchaire a couple of victory laps – with no overtaking allowed while the safety car is on the track.

Fortunately for both Armstrong and Lawson, the rough feature race didn't impact their overall standings too much. After three events on the calendar, Armstrong sits seventh on the leaderboard with 30 points, while Lawson is fourth with 35 points. Pourchaire leads the way with 52 points.