On the back of Sunday’s pair of race wins for Richard Verschoor and Maya Weug, MP Motorsport came away from its Easter race weekend at Jeddah with the lead in the drivers’ championships in both FIA Formula 2 and F1 Academy. In many ways it was a weekend of redemption for the Dutch single-seater squad, as Verschoor was denied a win in Saturday’s sprint race before bouncing back on Sunday. Weug took her Sunday win after being pushed off-track while missing out on a race 1 win by a mere two tenths.
Two days into the F1 Grand Prix-supporting event in the Saudi Arabian coastal city, it didn’t look like this was going to be MP Motorsport’s most successful race weekend of the season so far. Despite a fourth for Verschoor in Formula 2 and a second place for Weug in the weekend’s first races for both series, the team had experienced several setbacks, not least with Verschoor missing out on a top qualifying spot, as the red flag came out a 100 metres before he would have completed his final flying lap, and then losing a well-deserved win in the sprint race. After crossing the line in first, Verschoor was hit by a 5-second time penalty for forcing another driver off the track – a close call with the Dutchman already owning the corner before pushing his rival wide.
The next day, though, Verschoor drove a storming race from ninth on the grid to convert the prime option strategy into an utterly brilliant win. Hitting the front once the all the soft-compound runners had pitted, the MP driver pulled off a massive middle stint, lapping quicker than the virtual leaders on fresher medium-compound tyres behind him – in fact, the Dutchman produced a string of fastest laps of the race between laps 17 and 20 before a well-executed pitstop put him on a fresh set of softs on lap 24. Rejoining in second place, Verschoor subsequently erased his 4-second deficit to P1 to snatch the lead with one lap to go. It was redemption through what was arguably the best of Verschoor’s five F2 victories to date.
“We were strong in qualifying, but the red flag made life a bit more difficult”, said Verschoor. “In the sprint, we had a very good run – looking back, there’s nothing I would have changed. I really think the penalty was a bit harsh, but in the end it was their decision. The feature race was one of the best races I have ever done, so big thanks to the team for giving me a great car. We were flying on the prime! The tyres were just fine – I was pushing like crazy, so I think we simply got it right today. The pitstop was good, the strategy was good, the pace was good – everything was good! So yeah, happy with the execution of that, and I’m looking forward to Imola.”
Verschoor now leads the drivers’ championship by 12 points while MP Motorsport moved up to a close second in the teams’ championship.
In F1 Academy, Maya Weug fought for the top places in both races, like Verschoor narrowly losing out on the win on Saturday but making up for that on Sunday. On both days, the Ferrari junior came from behind with some strong passing moves to threaten for the win. From the partially reversed grid of race 1, Weug passed her championship rivals to push for victory but came up short by just two tenths. In race 2, however, the Dutch driver overcame the challenge of being shoved off-track to claim a well-earned victory.
“I’m super happy – first win of the season, first win with the team”, said a jubilant Weug. “I think it was already meant to be happening at Shanghai, but of course it didn’t. We’ve been having a very good pace all season and it’s been great with the team working off track, but also on track in testing. Looking forward to Miami and to keep working on the sim next week. I have to thank the team for all the hard work. The car felt mega, so I can’t wait for the next race!”
Weug’s teammates Alba Hurup Larsen and Joanne Ciconte each produced a strong brace of races, the teenage rookies duelling with their more experienced rivals to both leave Jeddah with points-scoring drives. Larsen particularly shone with a pair of P5s while Ciconte took ninth in race 2 to grab her first F1 Academy points. Weug now leads the title race by seven points, while MP is just two points short of the lead in the teams standings.
MP Motorsport will now have a rare weekend off before its next pair of challenges awaits on 3-4 May – the second round of the F4 Spanish Championship at Navarra, with René Lammers as the team’s frontrunner, and the third round of the F1 Academy series at Miami. F2 and F3 will return at Imola on 17-18 May, while in the same weekend the Eurocup-3 season will start at the Red Bull Ring.
Credit: Dutch Photo Agency (FIA F2) or Getty Images (F1 Academy) as the photographers.
