Two class podiums from two races for Swedish driver with P3 in Rd9
Jack Doohan hits back from Rd9 frustration with Rd10 Rookie podium
Euroformula Open driver Linus Lundqvist raced to his first Rookie class victory of the season at the Hungaroring in Hungary on Sunday, 7th July, on a strong day for Double R Racing with team-mate Jack Doohan also climbing the round 10 podium with third in class.
Sweden’s Lundqvist, the reigning BRDC British Formula 3 Champion, began the fifth event of the campaign well on Saturday, 6th July, with third in class during round nine and an even stronger performance in round 10 – fifth overall from eighth on the grid – capped a successful weekend.
Doohan bounced back very well on Sunday with third in class, carving his way through from 12th on the grid into a terrific seventh place result overall. During Saturday’s contest, an unfortunate spin early-on while battling for seventh led to an uncharacteristic 16th place, 10th in the Rookie battle.
In terms of the championship, Lundqvist has moved back ahead of first year F3-level driver Doohan into the top six of the overall title fight, with the Australian seventh and 13 points shy. In the Rookie standings, Lundqvist is in third place with Doohan just three points adrift in fourth.
“Linus and Jack have raced very well again this weekend, and it’s great to see them both on the Rookie podium especially with Linus getting his first win”, said Double R team principal Anthony Hieatt, “We’ve got a very good race car, but there is still work to do in qualifying and we need to get our game together there.
“There is a hugely talented grid in Euroformula this year and working hard to compete, and to push for wins, is what we’re all about at Double R – if this was easy we wouldn’t want to do it! Our aim for Red Bull Ring next weekend is to start making that step in qualifying and to fight for more podiums.”
Lundqvist and Doohan both made strong starts to the Hungaroring weekend, the Swede lapping in the top five in opening free practice on Friday, 5th July, and Doohan then posting the fifth best time overall in the second session.
In round nine qualifying on Saturday, Lundqvist was the quickest of the team-mates with the sixth fastest time, just 0.5 seconds shy of the front row, while Doohan was little more than a tenth of a second further adrift which translated to eighth on the grid for the opening contest.
Very hot temperatures greeted competitors for the first 17 lap race on Saturday afternoon and at the start Lundqvist made a great launch before moving up into fifth, third in the Rookie class, into Turn One. Pressuring Yuki Tsunoda for fourth, Lundqvist was just 0.3 seconds behind into lap three with precious little to split the pair over the next few tours.
As the race entered its second half, the three cars behind Tsunoda started to close up and so Lundqvist had to begin paying more attention to the threat from behind. Into the closing stages, though, the gaps began to spread out and the Double R driver held fifth, third Rookie, to the flag.
Doohan’s race initially began well, maintaining his grid position and running closely behind Christian Hahn on the opening lap. At the beginning of lap two though, into the braking zone for Turn One, the lightest of contact with Hahn’s right-rear wheel pitched the Double R car into a spin and resulted in the Australian dropping to 17th place overall.
Managing to latch onto the tail of the group battling over 14th position with just a couple of laps to run, ultimately Doohan had to settle for a frustrating 17th place, 10th in the Rookie class, at the flag but a penalty for a rival moved him up into 16th overall in a race which had promised much more.
Sunday morning’s qualifying session for round 10 was very hotly contested, although in cooler conditions than the previous day, and Lundqvist was just half a second shy of pole position but that meant eighth on the grid race two, fourth highest placed Rookie. In the sister Dallara F317 HWA, Doohan posted the 12th quickest lap which placed him sixth of the Rookie class contenders.
Both Double R racers put together a very strong start to Sunday’s encounter, Lundqvist moving up into seventh before then taking sixth through Turn Two – second in the Rookie class – while Doohan was even more impressive as he superbly carved his way into ninth position with an electric getaway and then climbed into eighth, fourth in class.
Hounding their respective rivals lap after lap, Lundqvist right behind Javier Gonzalez and Doohan challenging Teppei Natori, the Double R drivers looked extremely competitive throughout the first half of the race as they continued to apply significant pressure.
Then, on lap nine, Gonzalez went wide at Turn Four which opened up the opportunity for Lundqvist to grab fifth and the Rookie lead with Natori and Doohan also sweeping through, the latter moving up into seventh and third in class before the Safety Car was deployed.
Racing re-started on lap 12 and although both Double R drivers pressured to try and make more gains, Lundqvist having a serious look into Turn One to challenge fourth placed Christian Hahn on lap 16, the order remained unchanged thereafter.
Euroformula Open will be back in action at Austria’s Red Bull Ring this coming weekend, 13th/14th July, for the sixth event of the season. One week later, Double R Racing’s BRDC British F3 squad will return to the track at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on 20th/21st July.
2019 Euroformula Open Championship Standings
6th Linus Lundqvist, 71pts; 7th Jack Doohan, 58pts
2019 Euroformula Open 'Rookie' Standings
3rd Linus Lundqvist, 48pts; 4th Jack Doohan, 45pts
2019 Euroformula Open Championship Team Standings
3rd Double R Racing, 35pts
