Driver Academy report: Saudi Arabia

The high-speed, twisty Jeddah Corniche Circuit wasn't just challenging the 20 Formula One drivers last weekend – Formula 2 also returned to Saudi Arabia.

After repeated red flag stoppages seen at the 2021 event, it was no surprise that F2 kept the track marshals busy once again this year.

For Williams Driver Academy members Roy and Logan, the trip to Jeddah had some cause for celebration and some thoughts of what might have been.

Plenty of overtaking, safety car slowdowns, a DNF, but – eventually – points will give the duo much to think about, before returning to action at Imola next month.

Roy Nissany Roy made it two Feature Races in a row where he's taken all-important points from a top ten finish, after keeping his head down to grab eighth place. He was agonisingly close to securing a reverse grid front row start, as he sat inside the top ten late in a stop-start qualifying session. However, after the final red flag period ended, he slid back to P12 – meaning he'd start the Sprint and Feature Races from the midfield. His Sprint Race began with a cloud of tyre smoke, as he locked up into Turn 1 but did well to avoid contact with others. Roy dropped from 10th to 12th with more laps spent behind the safety car than laps racing. But after a spin ahead of him and battling past Enzo Fittipaldi, he regained his top ten position. With Jake Hughes' disqualification, a P9 classification had Roy just one place away from claiming a point. Sunday's Feature Race would prove more productive. He avoided a Lap 3 squeeze by Jehan Daruvala and Calan Williams to keep his DAMS in one piece, letting him fight with an undamaged car as the race went on. A pass on Williams for 10th place had Roy back in the points – and once the pit stops had ended, he sat in P8. Despite late pressure from Jack Doohan, who had fresher Pirellis, Nissany held on to score four championship points. Logan Sargeant The double top ten finishes that Logan took on his debut in Bahrain sadly didn't recur in Saudi Arabia, despite a spirited fightback after a tough start to his weekend. Logan's second trip to Jeddah saw him in the wall at Turn 17 in qualifying – the debris caused one of the session’s three red flags – and Sargeant would start both races towards the back of the grid thanks to his limited running. Unfortunately, Logan was a passenger in another incident on Saturday. After staying out of trouble on the opening lap, Doohan rear-ended the American on the Lap 7 safety car restart. Doohan thought that the grid had returned to racing speeds and accelerated into the back of Sargeant's Carlin. Thankfully both drivers were uninjured, but any chance for Logan to climb through the pack was over. He did fare better in the Feature Race – despite starting from P18 – and patiently kept his tyres working on the alternate late-race pit stop strategy. Once he had fitted the soft Pirellis and re-emerged in 14th, Logan could finally begin to hunt down those ahead of him. His blistering pace saw him set the third-fastest lap of the day and pass two rivals, before running out of laps to challenge for points and having to settle for P12.