With the end of the summer break within sight and drivers and teams preparing themselves to begin the second half of the season in style, it is time to look back and recap.
Without a doubt, it was one man who has shaped the course of the season so far: Stoffel Vandoorne. Expectations for the Belgian were high in his debut season, and the Belgian needed a while to acclimatise himself. However, once used to the new series, he has been near unstoppable. Dominating the end of the season alongside 2014 championship winner Jolyon Palmer, he went into the second season as a favourite for the title, and this time he fulfilled every expectation.
Vandoorne continued the season, in the same way, the last one ended, claiming pole position after pole position and feature race win after feature race win. There was little that the Belgian could have done better, especially in the first rounds of the season, and even though the latest results have not been on his usual level, beating him to the championship crown seems more and more like an impossible feat.
Rio Haryanto, currently second in the championship, is one of he most experienced drivers on the grid. While he has been more in the midfield in his previous seasons, this year he has taken himself up to the top spots as one of he few challenges of Stoffel Vandoorne. After a sprint race win in the opening round in Bahrain, the Indonesian struggled a bit, allowing Alexander to overtake him in the standings, but soon enough he found the confidence to beat Vandoorne on the race track if not in the standings and was able to claim more sprint race victories in Spielberg and Silverstone. With Rossi’s form dropping off in Hungary, Haryanto is once again Vandoorne’s closest rival, and even though the Belgian is still far away in the standings, Haryanto is more than able to keep up with him on the race track.
Third in the standings is Alexander Rossi. The American is, like Haryanto one of the more experienced drivers, and it shows: Even though the Racing Engineering man has not taken a race win yet, he has scored points consistently enough to keep up with Haryanto, despite not having a single victory to his name yet. However, Rossi needs to regain his form, with the pressure from behind, he cannot allow himself another weekend without points.
Said pressure comes from Sergey Sirotkin. The Russian rookie has been anonymous at the start of the season: He failed to score points in both Bahrain and Spain, however, the tide turned for the Rapax driver with a podium and a points finish in Monaco: since then, the Russian has been consistently fast and sliced his way up through the standings. He claimed his first GP2 victory in Silverstone and added enough to his points tally with two podium finishes in Hungary to jump up to fourth in the standings. He is undoubtedly one of the largest surprises of the season so far, but it remains to be seen if he is able to continue in the same form after the summer break.
Also one to keep an eye on is Alex Lynn: the GP3 champion had an abysmal weekend in Bahrain, finishing outside the points in both races, but nevertheless he was able to regain his momentum for Spain, where he claimed his first sprint race victory. Another weekend without points followed in Monaco, whereas in Spielberg the Brit returned to the podium. Points in Silverstone where followed by the maiden feature race win in Hungary. Lynn has shown the potential one would expect from the GP3 champion however, he needs more consistency in the second half of the season to be able to keep up with the drivers ahead.
All that said, the second half of the season promises to be thrilling: Even though Vandoorne has a seemingly insurmountable lead, the fight for second place is still wide open and anything can happen between Haryanto, Rossi, and Sirotkin. In addition to that, the field is full of strong drivers with great potential who are all waiting for their chance to put their foot down and steal the spotlight.
