Nicholas Latifi added more valuable points to support his FIA Formula 2 Championship title charge at Circuit Paul Ricard in France this weekend.
Nicholas, a three-time Formula 2 winner in 2019, opened the weekend with another Friday practice appearance for ROKiT Williams Racing in Formula 1, as part of his role as the team’s reserve driver.
But after a quick car swap, the Canadian’s focus turned to his Formula 2 commitments and he secured P6 on the grid for Saturday’s Feature Race.
“F2 practice was a bit average, but I was still confident of finding the necessary step in qualifying,” the 23-year-old explained.
“It could have been much worse, as I didn’t get a good lap on my second set of tyres, so at the end of the day P6 was a bit of a relief.”
He made up ground during a competitive Feature Race on Saturday and secured P5 for 10 points, but in Sunday’s reversed-grid race he lost ground and classified P6.
“In the races, we didn’t have the pace,” he admitted. “They were both very strange races, as there was absolutely no [tyre] degradation. It was pretty much flat out the whole way both times, and the racing was quite scrappy.
“In the Feature Race we didn’t have the best of pit stops either, so we came out fighting for positions and it spiralled a bit from there. In the circumstances P5 was decent.
“I was looking to capitalise in the Sprint Race, and made some changes overnight to the car, but unfortunately we made some other areas worse. We just didn’t have the pace.”
Nicholas left France second in the Drivers’ Championship, with the sixth round of the season taking place in Austria next weekend (28-30 June).
“Okay I lost the championship lead this weekend, but I still claimed 14 points and they’re really important,” he said.
“We’ll have a reset before we get to the Red Bull Ring, hopefully it will be a more normal weekend and we’ll be back on the pace.”
