Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
A rather conservative approach in Melbourne’s sprint race earned Dennis Hauger a third consecutive Formula 2 podium.
The MP Motorsport driver played smart to rise from 10th place on the reversed grid to third at the chequered flag, which became second after winner Isack Hadjar was penalised.
“To be honest, it wasn’t the hardest race in that sense,” he said referring to the positions gained on track. “I feel like everyone around came together at some point, and it was just really messy. I think the field was really tight. We all bunched up several times and it was a huge fight.
“In the end, I just tried to keep my nose clean, focus on just staying in the race and do damage limitation, and in the end it paid off. Overall, I think the pace was looking really strong. It was just really hard to get by. Once sort of the guy in front is in a DRS train as well, it’s just hard to sort of make that step.
“So I really pushed on Maini to sort of make him do a small mistake or something to get him out of the DRS of Roman [Stanek], and finally made it happen. After that, once we got the free air, we were flying.
“I feel like we’ve been pretty good at that this year in terms of being a bit patient. I think everyone in the beginning of the race already, they were really pushing and trying to get by, and it all just got really messy. So I think we were smart in that sense that we were maybe holding back a bit, and in the end as well we had really good pace. So it just showed that we were able to perform well and do our race, and keep it clean.”
The Norwegian already deployed such a strategy in the feature race at Jeddah, where he stormed to third place in the final laps after spending most of the race stuck in a DRS train.
Hauger lies now in second in the championship with 41 points, six less than leader Zane Maloney. He aims to continue adding to his tally in the feature race, where he will start from pole position for the first time in his F2 career.
“Obviously I’m always thinking that the better results I get, the more points I get. We’re all fighting for a championship here, but it’s still really early. A lot of rounds left. So it’s not in my mind exactly, but the better result, the more points. So obviously we’re just aiming to improve every race and try to get the most of most of it. And I think we did that today and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.”