Armstrong back for round two of Formula Two at Silverstone

After a difficult weekend at Britain’s famous Silverstone circuit, New Zealander Marcus Armstrong is readying himself to fight back.

His rivals in the FIA Formula 2 championship reset the top ten last weekend, bumping Armstrong from sixth on points to eleventh and prompting a week of evaluation and consideration of data for his team, ART Grand Prix.

Armstrong says: “Last weekend we learned a lot about the car but perhaps not in the way I would have preferred. Now we have to fight back into the top ten and I want to turn the results from last weekend around to score some good points”

Armstrong (20) has put in some sensational charges from down the field when required, though as always, qualifying well is key to a top finish. The intensity of the competition is borne out in the qualifying results so far: in four race weekends four different drivers have taken pole position.

This weekend marks the mid-point in the ten-round championship, organisers having announced last week that they had approved an additional round at Sochi in Russia. The F2 calendar runs at Formula One race weekends, putting drivers in front of key F1 managers and talent spotters.

Marcus Armstrong first raced at Silverstone two years ago in the FIA Formula Three Championship. The 5.891 km Silverstone circuit first hosted F2 races in 2017 and Saturday’s 29-lap feature race goes to a distance of 170.839 km the sprint race that closes out the weekend on Sunday covers 21 laps and runs to 123.711 km. Weather forecasts for the weekend predict cloudy but fine conditions on Saturday with a high of 28 degrees C; a chance of some rain on Sunday with a high of 27 degrees.

This is the second of two consecutive weekends at the British track as the premier motorsport categories continue a compressed season in response to the Covid 19 pandemic.