- Saudi Arabia hosts Round 3 of FIA Formula 2 Championship
- Swedish racer looking to build on Bahrain podium
Dino Beganovic returns to action in the FIA Formula 2 Championship this weekend as he prepares to take on Saudi Arabia’s fast-flowing Jeddah street track for the first time.
In back-to-back Middle East events, Beganovic is hoping to build on a solid performance last weekend in Bahrain, where the Hitech racer scored his first podium of the season in the Sprint Race and backed it up with additional points in Sunday’s Feature Race.
A new challenge is now waiting around the corner, as the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy junior visits the high-commitment Jeddah Corniche circuit for the first time of his career.
“It’s going to be interesting taking on a circuit I’ve never driven before,” says Dino Beganovic. “It doesn’t happen very often anymore – the last time it did was in Qatar last year for my F2 debut and that went very well. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the track in Jeddah. It’s really fast with some very quick corners and a high-grip surface. It will be fun to try it out.”
Having never previously driven the track, Beganovic has spent additional time preparing for the unique Jeddah venue.
“We’ve laid down extra time in the simulator for this race, trying to prepare in the best possible way,” Beganovic explains. “Also on the engineering side, we’ve spent a lot of effort to ensure we hit the ground running. It will be important to get into the flow of the track in practice already. The championship is firmly underway now, we’ve got our first podium in the bag, so I’m really excited for this weekend and building our charge from here.”
Beganovic and his 21 rivals will hit the track for the first time in Friday’s sole practice session. Qualifying takes place later the same day. As always in Formula 2, two races are set to be staged, with the Sprint Race slated for Saturday and the Feature Race acting as a precursor to the Saudi Arabian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday.
TIME TABLE
FIA Formula 2 Championship
Rd. 3 – Jeddah (SAU)
All times local (GMT+3)
Friday April 18
Free Practice: 12.55-13.40
Qualifying: 18.00-18.30
Saturday April 19
Sprint Race: 18.15-19.00
Sunday April 20
Feature Race: 16.25-17.25
LIVE TIMING / RESULTS
www.fiaformula2.com
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
FIA Formula 2 Championship
After 2/14 rounds
1: L. Fornaroli (ITA), Invicta Racing, 26 p.
2: A. Dunne (IRE), Rodin Motorsport, 25 p.
3: L. Browning (GBR), Hitech, 25 p.
4: J. Martí (ESP), Campos Racing, 23 p.
5: R. Verschoor (NED), MP Motorsport, 21 p.
—
6: D. Beganovic (SWE), Hitech, 12 p.
