Not long ago in Bahrain we saw Kush Maini lose his pole position due to a technical infringement, something out of his control. One week later in Jeddah, we see him getting his (and this country’s) first pole position in an eventful weekend. Here’s DRC’s Formula 2 Jeddah review.
Friday
The weekend kicked off with Dennis Hauger topping the Free Practice session, closely followed by Kush Maini in second, just 0.103s behind. The top 12 drivers were separated by a mere 0.775s, setting the stage for a highly competitive qualifying session where anyone could vie for pole position. In the challenging context of street circuits like Jeddah, luck becomes a crucial factor during qualifying, as drivers on fast laps might face disruptions from yellow flags, preventing them from completing their laps.
Oliver Bearman aimed for a comeback following a disappointing weekend in Bahrain, where he finished 16th and 15th in the sprint and feature races, respectively, without scoring any points. After securing P4 in practice, Bearman rebounded by setting the fastest time in qualifying, claiming pole for the feature race on Sunday. Kush Maini trailed closely, only 0.025s behind the British driver. Jak Crawford secured the third spot, while Victor Martins and Enzo Fittipaldi improved late in the session to secure the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
Bearman would later be called up by Scuderia Ferrari to fill in for Carlos Sainz, resulting in Kush Maini inheriting the pole position for the feature race. Kush Maini earned 2 points as he would start the race on Sunday from the front spot.
Sprint Race
With the top 10 from qualifying reversed for the sprint race, Paul Aron started on pole with Richard Verschoor alongside him in the front row. Aron maintained his lead after a swift start, but the appearance of the Safety Car, caused by ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins ending up in the wall at the exit of Turn 2, disrupted the flow. The safety car was called in on lap 4, and by lap 8, the top four were separated by 1.5s. Verschoor executed a lunge down the inside of Aron at Turn 1, taking the lead from the Estonian.
The race saw incidents, overtakes, and a Virtual Safety Car period, but Verschoor emerged triumphant, securing the victory on the podium alongside Hauger and Aron.
However, following the sprint race, both Trident cars were disqualified after a technical breach. As a result, Verschoor lost his victory, while Stanek lost 10th place. The MP Motorsport driver Dennis Hauger inherited the race win, Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron was promoted to second, while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi moved up to third.
Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini moved up to eighth and into the final points-paying position.
Feature Race
Kush Maini was on pole with Jack Crawford alongside him on the front row. Maini got the perfect launch to keep the lead into Turn 1. Before the second lap could begin, the safety car was called out to recover the stranded cars of Josep María Martí and Roman Stanek. Out of the opening chicane, Josep María Martí spun and was left with damage, while Trident’s Roman Stanek couldn’t avoid the Campos Racing car. Back to green flag conditions, Maini retained the lead comfortably as he opened up the gap on his supersofts to Jak Crawford behind.
After the first round of pitstops, Maini retained the net race lead. Meanwhile, Fittipaldi, who had started in 4th, tracked down the Invicta driver. On Lap 13, he dove to the inside of the Indian driver, securing the fourth position and the net race lead.
Over the next laps, both Fittipaldi and Maini gained positions, climbing up to P1 and P2, respectively. Towards the end of the race, Maini started to drop back from the race leader and into the DRS window of the drivers behind. On the final lap, Maini led a DRS train down to fifth.
Maini held onto P2 for Invicta, but a three-wide drag race for the final podium position went the way of Hauger, who finished just 0.031s ahead of Crawford in fourth and Cordeel, who dropped to fifth by 0.127s.
”Really happy with the podium in the end. The Sprint Race was a bit difficult for us but we put our heads together and sorted the car out for the Feature and it seemed to move in the right direction, which I’m really happy about. We seem really competitive and I’,m happy to leave with a good amount of points.” – Kush Maini
Upfront, Fittipaldi comfortably took his first F2 Feature Race win, a result that elevated him to second in the championship standings.
“It was a really good race. Everyone from Van Amersfoort gave me an amazing car. We were absolutely flying out there. Even after the Virtual and normal Safety Car, we still won by almost eight seconds, so we were flying. I’m just so happy to get the win in just the second round and to be in the fight for the Championship.” Enzo Fittipaldi
UP NEXT
Formula 2 heads down under for Round 3 from 22-24 March, visiting Melbourne for the second time in the Championship’s history. Keep an eye on our channels for a detailed schedule in IST. You can catch all the F2 action live in India on F1TV Pro or Fancode’s Annual Subscription.
