The second part of the 2022 mid-season Formula Virtual driver rankings. This segment features a number of future stars, as well as former front-runners who would be hoping to be doing better. 20. Johan HalvosenA glimpse at the Drivers' Championship standings would suggest the North Star duo are the closest pair of team mates so far this season, with just one place and two points separating them, but this couldn't paint a more inaccurate picture. Having been comfortably the leading light at North Star for the past four seasons, Johan Halvosen has suddenly found himself against an incredibly competitive Brock Kidd. It's tough to say whether the complete 180 in terms of performance between the two is as a result of Kidd stepping up or Halvosen falling back, but the truth is it's probably a combination of both. Halvosen has gone to having fairly comfortably beaten every team mate he's raced against, to being outqualified at every race so far this season, and with a cumulative margin of a whopping 2.553 seconds. In addition, despite the North Star looking marginally better in terms of performance compared to last season, Halvosen failed to qualify for two races, while Kidd was regularly in the top three of the pre-qualifying cohort. Neither North Star has been particularly fortunate in terms of finishing races either - they've only both reached the flag in two of the eight V-Prix's so far this season - but this is where the Championship flatters Halvosen. Kidd has retired from double the number of races, with two of those coming whilst running in points positions, the same can't be said for the Dane. Halvosen needs to find form quickly in the second half of the season, as his reputation as one of the stand-out performers outside of a top team is being quickly dismantled. 19. Hunter RyanFresh off the back of having the beating of Puccio Giodano last season, many expected Hunter Ryan to continue his upward trajectory this season, but the Australian has been unable to replicate the form of 2021. Despite his impressive season, Ryan's season was still punctuated by weekends where he was way off the pace, and that trend has continued this season, with Ryan frequently finding himself amongst much slower cars in the back few rows of the grid. Only once has he beaten Giodano in qualifying, having been on average 6.8 places behind - the second largest gap only to the AMR duo - and with a whopping cumulative margin of over 3.2 seconds, the largest between any pair of team mates. Ryan's race performances have been better, but his miserable starting positions are making the Australian's life way harder than it needs to be. Only once has he beaten Giodano to the flag, and even then the Italian found himself further back than he should have been due to an incident, albeit one of his own making having already been running behind Ryan. On average Ryan is finishing 4.4 places down, the second largest gap between team mates. The Australian has shown flashes of the brilliance that saw him beat Giodano last season - such as backing his team mate up brilliantly in Malaysia, bouncing back from an awful home weekend the race before that was largely outside of his control, but the positives have been way too infrequent, especially compared to what was expected after the way 2021 unfolded. 18. Tumo KinnumenTumo Kinnumen returning to Westwood in 2021 was supposed to be the fairy-tale reunion, but the team were still finding their feet after returning to the sport and both endured a rough campaign. Surely then, the hope would be higher than for 2022 they were going to bounce back? Yet it hasn't been the case, in fact they've fallen even further back, looking less likely to score points and now finding themselves at risk of failing to qualifying on a weekly basis. Kinnumen has done what he can, but even a man of his talents can only do so much. He's frequently bested Barclay in qualifying and holds the advantage in races too by a score of 3-2, yet his average finish of 17.5 is 2 lower than his team mates, suggesting he's struggling to extract the maximum on the days when the points are handed out. Indeed, the only times Kinnumen has finished higher than 18th were at the opening race in Japan and the attrition hit Czech Republic V-Prix, a pair of 13th placed finishes. With Peugeot buying out the team for next season, there's surely a brighter future ahead, but Kinnumen has work to do over the next 8 races to prove he's ready to lead a manufacturer effort in FV. 17. Danilo ForiniDanilo Forini's second season in Formula Virtual is already over after his teams withdrawal, but he competed in over half the races of the first eight, and with fairly considerable success. Despite the shortcomings of his Franklin - a far cry from the car he took to multiple podiums last season - Forini comfortably saw off the challenge of new team mate and veteran Will Hoskins, beating him in 4 of the 5 qualifying sessions and races the pair shared, losing out only at Silverstone where Hoskins appeared to come alive in front of his home crowd. In a car that looked nowhere near points in any race it competed, Forini snatched an unexpected point in Australia and for a while that seemed as though it may save the team from pre-qualifying, especially when he backed it up with a twelfth place in the very next race, a rain-hit Malaysian V-Prix. It wasn't to be however, as the team became more and more absent, and Forini was left with a more and more difficult job. Despite being in a completely different position in the order to his first season, Forini showed the same amount of potential, and will be hoping the short memories of FV teams aren't enough that he's forgotten about for a seat elsewhere next season. 16. Felix PerezFresh off the back of making Will Hoskins look fairly amateur last season, Felix Perez has been paired with an actual amateur this year, but Stefan Klien has arguably kept the highly rated Mexican honest on more occasions than expected. While the results suggest Perez has comfortably been in front, the numbers indicate it's been far closer. Perez has been bested by rookie Klien in half of the qualifying sessions, and has only led him home on three of the five occasions both have still been running at the end, with a cumulative qualifying gap of only 0.381. Having said that, Perez has made the difference when it's mattered - the sign of a top driver, especially in the face of adversity such as the car he's been handed this season after a trio of seasons where he was consistently in the hunt for strong points finishes. He kept his head in the rain of Malaysia and amongst the late retirement carnage of the Czech Republic to net a total of four points. It isn't enough at this stage to keep FIRST clear of pre-qualifying, but Perez will be looking forwards and keen to score that result that will, and he looks the more likely of the teams drivers to do so. 15. Maximilian ThunstromSuper star Swede Maximilian Thunstrom was always going to be up against it this year as team mate to defending Champion Nathaniel Powers, but off the back of a strong end to his rookie year in 2021 - including an outstanding win at Indianapolis - he must have had hopes of at least keeping Powers honest. He was just edged out from the sharing the third row with his team mate in Japan by Vasquez, but utilised a medium tyre strategy to great effect to take a well-deserved podium, but unfortunately for Thunstrom this remains the most recent competitive session in which he's placed higher than Powers. On average he's qualified 3.3 places behind his team mate - though it should be noted Powers is extracting the absolute maximum from his car - however has only finished 2.0 behind, and this is only as large as it is due to his struggles to fight through the order on a generally unfavourable strategy in comparison to Powers when he's started at the back due to the team missing the strategy deadline. Nonetheless, despite having been fairly comfortably beaten, Thunstrom is only 19 points and 1.7 seconds cumulatively behind a five-time World Champion, which isn't as bad a display as it could have been, though he'll be keen to be on pace more frequently in the second half of the season. 14. Jean MattsonJean Mattson entered this season as a very firm back-up driver to team mate James Vasquez, especially with the Columbian scoring all of the teams points last season, finishing a whopping 11 places higher than Mattson in the Championship. The elder statesmen has returning in 2022 with renewed vigour however, and while Vasquez is still very much the leading light - Mattson has failed to outqualify his team mate at all, and has only led him home twice, both thanks to a significant strategy advantage - the Frenchman is doing enough to back his team mate up and bag consistent points for Ingram. 4.0 places behind in qualifying is reduced considerably to just 1.4 in races, though admittedly again this is largely as a result of some blinding strategy calls from Ingram, especially - and incredibly conveniently - when Mattson has found himself further down the order on the grid than expected. The Frenchman's race craft hasn't diminished in the slightest however, with his race performances seeing him ranked as the 7th best driver on Sunday's. 13. Yakumi TakahashiLast year Yakumi Takahashi built on his maiden season in 2020 very well, and heading into their third campaign, both he and Arrow would have been looking to cement themselves firmly in the midfield this year and as regular points scorers. The results and Championship position might not reflect it, but it's difficult to argue they haven't done it. Takahashi has an average qualifying position of 13.4 and race finish of 13.1, which is the 13th highest average result in both sessions - pretty much bang in the midfield. It is admittedly outside of the top ten, but Arrow can count themselves incredibly unfortunate to not have more points. Things finally clicked in Germany when an exceptional weekend from Takahashi saw him claim a best of the rest position in both qualifying and the race, earning himself and the team a best ever result of 7th. The Japanese driver has already looked like a star in the past two seasons, but has this year also fairly comfortably swept aside new team mate Nick Addison, the Australian arriving from Franklin having secured two wins last season, leaving the paddock in no doubt to how good Takahashi actually could be in a better car. A bit more consistency from both Takahashi and Arrow - in terms of performance and reliability - and they'll be a serious threat in the multi-team battle for seventh in the Championship.
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