Luca Ghiotto secured a double podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, which moved him up to fourth place in the FIA Formula 2 Championship standings, ahead of Nicholas Latifi.
The Russian Time driver finished fourth on the road in Saturday’s Feature race having lost a place to team-mate Artem Markelov, but the disqualification of both race winner Charles Leclerc and third placed Oliver Rowland promoted him up to second in the classified results.
“We knew we had better pace than qualifying showed,” said Ghiotto. “My opening couple of laps were strong but the VSC didn’t help those who started on the Option tyre.
“Artem and I raced hard for a couple of laps but he had more grip at that stage.”
Ghiotto completed the podium with a third place finish in Sunday’s Sprint race but felt that without the late safety car, he could have challenged for an even better result, such was his pace advantage at the end of the race.
Nether-the-less, the Italian now has his eyes firmly focused on second place in the championship standings, with thirty-six points separating him from Rowland with three rounds of the season remaining.
“A second podium in two days feels good but I could possibly have done even better if it hadn’t been for the late-race Safety Car,” said Ghiotto. “I saw from yesterday that it could be tricky making the tyres last well and towards the end I was about half a second quicker than the guys ahead and hoping to attack at the end, but you can’t control things like that…
“It’s my fourteenth points-scoring result in sixteen starts and with three weekends still to go, my target is second in the championship. It’s close between Rowland, Artem and I.”
