Reverse polesitter Cohen says Race 2 will be “a good opportunity to show what I’ve got”

After spending the majority of his debut season fighting with the backmarkers, Carlin Buzz rookie Ido Cohen scored his highest finish to date in Race 1, taking 12th, and he believes he’s learned a lot from fighting with those at the front for a change.

The result was Cohen’s second top 20 finish since stepping up from the Euroformula Open Championship but it means that he’ll now start from reverse grid pole for the first time in Race 2.

“It was good to be driving around some of the quicker drivers,” said Cohen. “That shows us the racing lines that they take, which is something that we can use going forward. I can implement that into my driving, which can only help me to improve.

“It was a very exciting race, a lot more exciting than we expected. There was a lot of fighting around me and we managed to go forward from P16 to P12, which means that we will start from reverse grid pole in the next race, so that’s good.”

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Carlin are the only team on the grid who have yet to score a podium this season, a wrong that Cohen hopes to put right in Race 2. The Israeli will be searching for not only his first podium, but also his first points.

“I think that tyre degradation will be key,” he continued. “I was getting really close to the car ahead of me during the whole race and my tyres were getting quite bad towards the end.

“Hopefully I can hold onto P1 at the start of the next race, and from there, degradation should be better because it’s worse when you’re following drivers and (you are) close to them. It should be easier from the front.

“It has been a very difficult season for me and the team in general so far. It’s a relief for me to get a good result and start from pole. It’s a good opportunity for me to show what I’ve got.”