Colton Herta's F2 Season Gets Off To A Rough Start With Big Crash In Practice

Formula 2 is always an entertaining series that gives you a glimpse at the F1 stars of tomorrow. This season, it'll get some extra attention stateside as ex-IndyCar driver Colton Herta will be competing in it.

The 25-year-old test driver for Cadillac is hoping to snag enough super license to one day jump into an F1 car. That is going to be easier said than done, and while Herta and Cadillac know this, it was a bit of a rough start to his F2 career.

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F2 serves as a support series to F1, so they're starting their season at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia.

However, Herta's maiden free practice session ended early when he lost the rear of his car exiting a corner, sending it gearbox-first into the tire barrier.

As the great F2 commentator Alex Brundle noted in that clip, the concern wasn't so much the damage, but the fact that it cost Herta some valuable track time.

He's an incredibly experienced driver, especially at his age, but he's still trying to come to grips with a new car and doing it on new circuits.

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The next time Herta hopped in his No. 4 for Hitech Grand Prix, it was for qualifying.

F2 uses one 30-minute session to set its grid, and while Herta was off the pace of some of the frontrunners who have F2 experience under their belt, he managed to qualify P14 and just behind his teammate Ritomo Miyata, a hair over a second off the polesitter Dino Beganovic.

The only issue with this is that P14 is kind of no man's land. 

For Saturday's sprint race (Friday night here in the US of A), the grid gets reversed from P1 to P10. This means that the driver starting on pole will be the driver who qualified in P10, while the driver who qualified P9 starts alongside in P2.

Confusing, I know…

However, Herta stays stuck in P14, and in the Sprint, points are only awarded to the top 8.

So, he's in a better position for Sunday's (Saturday night's) Feature Race, as the top 10 score points.

Not an ideal start for Herta, but it might be best to get that first crash out of the way, then put his head down and focus on the race.