Jack Doohan impresses in Germany with first Euroformula podium
Double R’s Red Bull Junior P2 overall in Rd5 and Rookie winner
Best finish of fifth for Linus Lundqvist in race one of weekend
Woking squad climbs into top three of Teams’ Championship
Australian driver Jack Doohan produced an outstanding perfor
mance for Double R Racing during the third event of the Euroformula Open season at Hockenheim over the weekend, 25th/26th May, to secure a superb second place finish in round five, coupled with his maiden Rookie class victory.
Red Bull Junior driver Doohan, son of 500cc Grand Prix motorcycling legend Mick Doohan, starred in opening qualifying on Saturday with second on the grid for Woking’s Double R and he continued to impress in the first of the weekend’s races later in the day at the German track.
During round six on Sunday, Doohan’s bid was badly impeded on the opening lap when he was caught-up in the aftermath of a tangle involving two rival cars. Rejoining a long way down, he fought back very strongly to post a seventh place result – fourth highest placed Rookie.
Sweden’s Linus Lundqvist experienced a more frustrating weekend than his team-mate, but chalked up important championship points for fifth place overall in the opening encounter and fourth in the Rookie classification.
Sunday’s race went awry at the end of lap one having run wide out of the final corner. Holding fifth at the time, as Lundqvist rejoined the track the underside of his car hit the kerb heavily which tore away the front-wing assembly on his Dallara F317. He retired soon after with suspension damage.
“We definitely raced better this weekend and were more competitive, which is what we’re aiming for, but we didn’t get the win we wanted unfortunately”, said Double R team principal Anthony Hieatt, “The team has done a great job all weekend again, all of the boys put in a huge amount of work as they always do, and now we look to Spa where we’ve had a lot of success in the past.
“Jack did a great job in qualifying on Saturday and the first race, fantastic to see him take his first podium and the Rookie win. In race two he was turned around but showed storming pace to come back through. It’s been a tough weekend for Linus, he had the capability for the podium in race two but the damage to the car was too severe after hitting the kerb at the end of lap one.”
First year Euroformula driver Doohan celebrates season-best in Germany
Doohan was in terrific form in qualifying on Saturday morning for race one of the weekend, storming to second on the grid with a time of 1m31.984 seconds – the Rookie class pole position – and only just missing out on the outright pole by a mere 0.076 seconds. Lundqvist made it both Double R cars in the top five with a lap of 1m32.312 seconds, fourth quickest of the Rookie drivers.
Maintaining second off the start, Doohan lapped competitively in his HWA-powered Dallara F317 and remained there until lap 10 when successfully challenged by fellow Red Bull Junior stablemate Liam Lawson.
Following a spin for Lawson five laps later, though, Doohan moved back up into second place where he stayed to the chequered flag on lap 19 to claim a fantastic first outright podium on only his third weekend in Euroformula and, with it, his maiden Rookie victory.
From the third row of the grid, Lundqvist surged through to third place overall on lap one but hopes of making it a Double R podium double started to fade on lap three when he was edged back to fourth and the Swede then slipped to fifth, fourth Rookie, on lap 11 where he remained to the flag.
Lundqvist emerged from round six qualifying on Sunday morning as the fastest of the Double R duo with the sixth best lap of 1m32.049 seconds, third quickest Rookie, exactly a single tenth of a second ahead of Doohan in seventh, fourth Rookie.
After making a good start, Lundqvist moved into fifth and looked set to mount a challenge for the podium but after running wide at the final corner on the opening lap his Dallara sustained significant damage which triggered retirement.
Doohan’s race was also badly impacted on the first tour, the Australian tagged from behind at the hairpin and forced wide off the circuit. After rejoining the track a long way down in 13th place, he scythed through the order with tremendous pace to eventually finish in seventh and fourth Rookie.
Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium will host the fourth event of the Euroformula Open season a fortnight from now, on 8th/9th June. Double R Racing will also be in action on the same weekend at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in the UK with its BRDC British Formula 3 Championship squad.
2019 Euroformula Open Championship Standings
6th Linus Lundqvist, 43pts; =7th Jack Doohan, 28pts
2019 Euroformula Open 'Rookie' Standings
3rd Linus Lundqvist, 26pts; 4th Jack Doohan, 23pts
2019 Euroformula Open Championship Team Standings
3rd Double R Racing, 21pts
