GUSTAV MALJA MOVES ON FROM CHALLENGING SPIELBERG F2 ROUND
Gustav Malja is looking ahead to the next round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship after a troubled weekend at Austria’s Red Bull Ring.
Malja fought an uphill battle following a difficult qualifying session at the Spielberg venueon Friday, in which he wound up in 19th place on the grid for Saturday’s opening feature race. The Swede later managed to make up seven places to finish the first race in 12th.
In Sunday’s sprint race, Malja then enjoyed an encouraging first few laps, initially running in a points-paying eighth place. However, lady luck would again refuse to smile in Malja’s direction, contact with a fellow rival frustratingly dropping the Racing Engineering driver down the order and forcing him into the pits for checks.
Malja did re-join, but well behind the rest of the field. He eventually took the flag in 15th place.
“All we can do is put this behind us and look ahead,” says Gustav Malja. “I was on the back foot massively after qualifying, but we managed to improve a lot over the weekend and the pace in the sprint race was actually really strong. At least that’s comforting as we move on. The best thing in all of this is definitely that the next race is just one week away. We will spend the time before then to thoroughly analyse what went wrong here, try and learn as much as we can from that, and then make sure we do a much better job in Silverstone.”
The FIA F2 Championship fraternity now travels straight on to the UK, where the next round of the season takes place in just one week’s time at Silverstone.
RESULTS
FIA F2 Championship – Rd. 5
Red Bull Ring
RACE 1
1: Charles Leclerc (MON), 40 laps
2: Nicholas Latifi (CAN), +1.345s
3: Antonio Fuoco (ITA), +5.160s
4: Oliver Rowland (GBR), +5.682s
5: Alexander Albon (THA), +9.846s
—
12: Gustav Malja (SWE), +36.011s
RACE 2
1: Artem Markelov (RUS), 28 laps
2: Alexander Albon (THA), +1.458s
3: Oliver Rowland (GBR), +2.055s
4: Luca Ghiotto (ITA), +5.840s
5: Antonio Fuoco (ITA), +6.629s
—
15: Gustav Malja (SWE), +67.922s
STANDINGS
FIA F2 Championship
After 10/22 races
1: Charles Leclerc (MON), 151 p.
2: Oliver Rowland (GBR), 102 p.
3: Artem Markelov (RUS), 99 p.
4: Nicholas Latifi (CAN), 72 p.
5: Luca Ghiotto (ITA), 66 p.
—
11: Gustav Malja (SWE), 28 p.
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