After a difficult start for the 2021 FIA Formula 3 champion, Dennis Hauger looks like he has finally found his feet in the second-tier after back-to-back race weekend wins in the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season.
The PREMA Racing man took his maiden win in Monaco’s Sprint Race and has backed it up with a Feature Race win in Baku.
With a glittering single-seater CV with a lot of race wins, the Red Bull junior explained how this win felt different to every other in the post-race press conference, “The first Feature Race win in F2 is a really good feeling, especially after such a chaotic race. To be honest, I just tried to stay calm. We had a good pitstop and got Liam. I think the overcut worked quite nicely for others.”
“In the end, we stayed calm, and we put a bit of pressure on Jüri. Obviously, a shame for him. He had a good weekend, and he had a really good pace this weekend. So I feel sorry for him, but I’m really happy with the way it worked out today.”
With the two wins under his belt, the PREMA driver made it clear that his ambitions for the season haven’t changed and he is still focused on his own progression as as driver,
“I mean, as me and Logan talked about earlier, it’s been such a roller coaster in F2, especially as rookies. It’s just about keeping the progression going. We got the Sprint Race win in Monaco and now the Feature Race win so there’s definitely progression there. We just have to keep building that up.
Before Jüri Vips crashed out of the Feature Race which handed Hauger the lead, the Norwegian driver was already started to pick up the pace and put pressure on the Hitech Grand Prix driver. He found his rhythm in the first sector and put in purple times, stating that he doesn’t know if Vips’ incident was down to “pressure or just a small mistake”.
I was pushing quite a bit. To be fair, I was just trying to stay within the DRS, he was pushing quite a lot, especially for the rears. Before that, I think I put in a purple Sector 1 and I felt like I was gaining some ground and had quite a good pace.
“So at that time, I really wanted to push to try and get closer to the DRS zone. He was quite close to the wall in the castle a couple of times, actually. I don’t know if it was pressure or just a small mistake, but there are tiny margins around there.”