Another weekend of Formula 2 wraps up. Gabriel Bortoleto scored his first win in Formula 2, and Oliver Bearman got his first win of the season. The Indian driver Kush Maini had a tough outing in Austria, leaving with only 2 points in 2 races. Here is how the Austrian leg of the triple header unfolded.

Read the preview before the weekend.

Practice

The only practice session of the weekend was topped by Isack Hadjar. The Frenchman, who’s looking to regain the championship lead started the weekend strong. The championship leader, Paul Aron, was close behind him in second. It was another close session, with the whole grid separated by just over a second. Kush Maini spent some time in the pits fixing what looked like brake issues. The Indian finished the session 21st, +1.084s off the top. Campos Racing’s Josep María Martí was disqualified from the final classification. The Spaniard could not provide the minimum 0.8kg fuel sample required by Article 6.3.1 of the FIA Formula 2 Technical Regulations.

Qualifying

Isack Hadjar maintained momentum from Practice to set an early benchmark time in Qualifying. The Campos Racing driver set an opening time of 1:15.828, and championship leader Paul Aron slotted in 2 tenths behind. Returning to the pit lane after the first runs, Hadjar had smoke running out of his car. Forcing the Frenchman to end his qualifying early.

The final few laps started coming in with 5 minutes left in the session. Dennis Hauger topped the time sheets with a 1:15.487. Duerksen was close behind, just 0.008s off Pole. Gabriel Bortoleto rounded off the top 3.

Franco Colapinto qualified fourth, ahead of championship leader Paul Aron. Taylor Barnard came in 6th, putting both AIX cars in the top 6. Isack Hadjar’s first lap was good enough to put him in 7th with his teammate Josep María Martí alongside him in 8th. Oliver Bearman and Kush Maini came in 9th and 10th, making the front row for the reverse grid Sprint Race.

Sprint Race

Kush Maini started on Pole and had Ferrari Junior Oliver Bearman alongside him on the front row. Kush Maini again failed to get a good start from the pole, dropping down to P3 in the opening lap. Whereas Oliver Bearman got a superb launch to take the lead in the race at the start. Josep María Martí overtook Maini to take second place on Lap 1.

By the halfway stage Maini started to struggle and the distance between him and Marti in 2nd kept increasing. Eventually, Maini lost his podium place to Aron, followed by his teammate dropping him down to P5.

In the end, it was Bearman who maintained his lead from the start to finish first and took the Sprint Race victory in Austria. Marti finished second, while Aron held off Bortoleto to take the final podium position. Maini was overtaken by the two MP Motorsport drivers with Hauger finishing 5th, Colapinto in 6th, and Maini in 7th. The final point was scored by Duerksen for AIX.

“Happy to be back on the podium, it’s been a tough run so far, so I’m happy to finally get a result that the team deserve. We’ve been working really hard, and we are getting towards where we want to be, so let’s go get some good points tomorrow.”

Oliver Bearman after winning the sprint race

Feature Race

There was drama before the race even started. Multiple drivers stalled on the grid during the formation lap including Pole sitter Dennis Hauger. Kush Maini and Jack Crawford were the other two to stall, the 3 drivers would then start from the pitlane.

Out on track, Duerksen was the lead car on the grid. He got off the line well to lead the race ahead of Bortoleto and Colapinto in third. Bortoleto made a move down the inside at turn 4 on Lap 4 to the lead from Duerksen. Colapinto overtook him next, dropping Duerksen down to P3.

Zane Maloney stopping on track brought out the VSC briefly, and racing resumed after the car was recovered. The first round of pit stops as drivers opting for the supersofts came in to switch to softs. Marti came in before Bortoleto and the undercut worked as Marti now had the effective race lead. Bortoleto would then take the lead from Marti on lap 18. On lap 24, the two Campos cars changed positions as Hadjar overtook Marti.

Colapinto came into the pits on lap 32 from the race lead. Having opted for the alternate strategy, the MP Motorsport driver was now on fresh supersofts. He came out of the pits in P8 and quickly started making his way up the grid. By lap 38, the Argentine was up to P4, he then overtook Marti on the next lap. On the final lap, Colapinto overtook Hadjar to take second from him. However, it was Bortoleto in the front who drove brilliantly to take his first win in Formula 2.

Colapinto took P2 ahead of Hadjar, with Martí in fourth and Fittipaldi in fifth. Aron’s penalty dropped him to P6 ahead of Duerksen and Amaury Cordeel, with Taylor Barnard in P9 and Zak O’Sullivan rounding out the points P10 for ART Grand Prix.

“P1 today in the Feature Race, so happy, it’s a special track for me. I always have good memories here, and finally I could get my first Formula 2 win. I’m super super happy, thanks to the team, McLaren and everyone that supported and helped me get on the biggest step on the podium today.”

Gabriel Bortoleto after winning the feature race.

Championship Standings

In the Championship standings, it’s Paul Aron who maintains his lead at the top. Bortoleto now slots in 3rd thanks to his Feature Race win. The Indian driver Kush Maini remains 8th in the Standings.

Up Next

With half the championship now over, we head to Silverstone next from 5-7 July.

Follow Desi Racing Co for regular updates from the world of motorsports

Halfway into the 2024 season, Formula 2 will make a stop at Austria for Round 7 of the championship. Paul Aron leads the championship standings with just 9 points separating him from the Frenchman Isack Hadjar. In the Team Standings, it’s a solitary point that separates the top two. Campos Racing leads Hitech Pulse-Eight, with MP Motorsport and Invicta Racing close behind.

Read the full Formula 2 Round 6 Review.

Can Aron maintain his form?

Paul Aron is having a debut season even he wouldn’t have expected. The Estonian driver has scored a podium in every single round till now. Championship leader with 100 points, he is yet to step on the top step. Can he finally get on the top step in Austria?

Isack will look to take the top step back

Isack Hadjar had a rather quiet time out in Spain. The Campos driver scored a total of 13 points during the weekend.

Before this, Isack was on a brilliant run, scoring 73 points in the last 3 rounds before Spain. The first 2 rounds of the championship are what could hurt Hadjar potentially in his championship fight. He scored only 5 points in the first 2 rounds, which again came at the sprint race in Bahrain. He would love to go back to winning ways in the Red Bull Ring, being a Red Bull Junior.

“It’s not going really well,” said Hadjar assessing his season as a whole.

“We had a few good rounds, I think the first two rounds didn’t really favour us.

“For me, the Championship started in Melbourne and since then we have been competitive. I’m happy with that and I think we have a really good chance to take the lead soon,” said Hadjar.

DAMS looking to continue form

DAMS Lucas Oil had their best weekend of the season in Spain. The team won both the Sprint and Feature Race with both their drivers stepping on the top step. Correa even made it a double podium for the team in the Feature Race by coming in 3rd after making the best out of his alternative strategy. Spain was the first time the team won since Monaco last year. Before Spain the team had scored a total of 46 points, in Spain alone, they scored 46 points. They currently sit 6th in the standing with 92 points.

“Let’s be humble, no big expectations,”

said Yannick Hubert, team principal of Dams

“First, we have to understand what we need in Austria, we know that it’s a Mickey Mouse track, very narrow, very small, so it will be a different challenge, so nothing to compare with here. We just have to be very focused on the next event as a single event and do the job,” said Hubert.

Kush Maini would want to build on his Spain performance

Kush had a tough few rounds before Spain, scoring only 1 point. It was later found out that his car suffered from a broken chassis. The problem having been solved in Spain did give results, with the Invicta driver scoring a podium in the Sprint race. In the Feature Race, Kush opted for the alternative strategy, which is to start on Hards and then switch to Softs towards the end. This proved fruitful as he finished P6 having started P10 in the race. When he came out of the pits he was P15, he then put in a string of consistent fast laps to move up 9 places in almost as many laps to add 8 points to his tally.

Schedule and Where to Watch?

You can catch all the live action on F1TV and Fancode in India.

Formula 2 made its first stop of the triple header in Spain. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosted Round 6 of the Formula 2 championship. Having hosted several weeks of testing here before, many of the drivers were coming to a track they have driven a lot on.

Paul Aron came into the weekend as the championship leader while Campos was leading the team’s championship. Kush Maini was looking to bounce back after having scored just 1 point in the last 2 rounds.

Free Practice

Championship leader Paul Aron set the pace in Free Practice. The Estonian driver was the fastest with a time of 1:26.922. Enzo Fittipaldi was second quickest, just 0.136 down on Aron with Colapinto rounding up the top 3.

Qualifying

Paul Aron continued his strong pace from Free Practice to take his first pole in Formula 2. Aron put in a time of 1:25.385 to set the benchmark in the initial run. Taylor Barnard went off at Turn 9 and into the barriers causing a red flag in the session. As a result, the winner from Monaco will start both races from the back of the grid. The session resumed with a few more drivers going out to complete their first flying laps and Isack Hadjar removed Aron from the top of the timing sheet with a time of 1:25.205.

With under 10 minutes to go, the drivers headed out for their second run on fresh softs. It was Aron once again who climbed to the top with a time of 1:24.766. Jack Crawford joined Aron on the front row with just 0.002s off. Colapinto rounded the top 3 with a time of 1:24.772. Gabriel Bortaleto joined Colapinto on the second row, 0.055 off of pole. Antonelli finished inside the top 5, narrowly ahead of Ritomo Miyata in 6th.

“I did the in-season test here and have driven the track in other categories, so I have experience around this track whereas before in earlier rounds, it was the first time driving the track for me, which is difficult with Practice only being 45 minutes.

“But I have F2 experience around Barcelona, so that’s why I can fight for the top positions in Qualifying.”

Said Ritomo Miyata after qualifying 6th, his best ever this season.

Further down the order, it was Joshua Durksen in 7th, Juan Manuel Correa in 8th, and Victor Martins in 9th. Kush Maini qualified in P10 and got the Pole for the reverse grid Sprint Race.

Sprint Race

Kush Maini started the sprint race on pole and had fellow Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins on the front row. At the start, Martins got off the line well while Maini suffered wheel spin which dropped him to fourth. Ritomo Miyata got a good start from 4th on the grid as he went ahead of Maini and Correa to take 2nd in Turn 1.

Onto Lap 2, Maini made his way back to podium places after overtaking Correa in turn 1. Further down, the fight for the final few points-paying positions was intensifying. Antonelli and Hadjar fought hard early on for the seventh position.

Victor Martins kept putting in solid lap times to distance himself from Miyata. By lap 10, Martins had pulled 1.5s ahead of Miyata, with Maini close 1.1s behind in 3rd. Hadjar finally cleared Antonelli on Lap 12. The Italian was then soon overtaken by Crawford who took the final point-paying position from him.

Ritomo Miyata got two 5s time penalties for track limits violations, which meant Maini would finish P2 if he stuck close behind. With Miyata’s penalty, the battle for the final podium position heated up. On the penultimate lap, Correa overtook Bortoleto to take 4th place (3rd after Miyata’s Penalty). Bortoleto kept falling behind with both Aron and Crawford overtaking him for 5th and 6th.

In the front, however, it was the Frenchman who took the chequered flag. Martins scored his first win since Silverstone 2023. Maini finished 2nd, taking his 3rd podium of this season.

Correa took 3rd place but was handed post-race penalties which promoted Aron to the final step of the podium. Crawford and Bortoleto rounded up the top 5. Hadjar, Miyata, and Correa finished in 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively, the final points-paying position of the race.

Multiple post-race penalties were awarded for track limit violations. 7 drivers got a total of 10 5s time penalties between them after the chequered flag.

Feature Race

Championship leader Paul Aron started on Pole position with Jack Crawford alongside him on the front row. Aron got the perfect launch at the start, leading Crawford and Colapinto into turn 1. It was not the same for Victor Martins who made contact with Dennis Hauger. Both drivers were spent spinning into the gravel at Turn 2. With both drivers out of the race, Safety Car was deployed to recover the cars.

On lap 8, the pendulum swung towards those who opted for the alternative strategy, starting on Hard tyres. Joshua Durksen was the first to benefit, overtaking Hadjar who was on Softs for fifth position. Crawford pulled the trigger first, he came in to get rid of his Softs and take a new set of Hards. Aron was called into the pits on Lap 12, he came out ahead of Crawford but the DAMS driver overtook him through turn 3.

Taylor Barnard had a weekend to forget. Having started last he came to a halt at the pit lane entry. VSC was deployed to recover the car. Going into Lap 16, Aron lined up a move on Crawford but due to a snap of oversteer, he slid off the road, dropping 3 spots before joining in 11th.

With 10 laps to go, Correa, who was leading the race on Hards came into the pits. Maini followed him to switch to Softs. Correa came out in 9th while Maini was in 15th. Both drivers made maximum use of their fresh softs and charged up the grid. On Lap 33, Correa made his way to the final step on the podium, overtaking Aron on Turn 1.

Maini moved up to 7th and was looking to overtake his teammate for 6th into Turn 1 on the final lap. The two teammates made contact, leaving Bortoleto with front wing damage while Maini moved up to 6th.

Jack Crawford won for the second time in F2, his first this year. Taking full advantage of his tyre strategy and the mistake made by Paul Aron. Colapinto came home in 2nd, his first feature race podium. Juan Manuel Correa returned to the podium after 5 years in 3rd.

Aron finished fourth, maintaining his Championship lead over Hadjar, who came in fifth. Maini crossed the line in sixth, followed by Bortoleto in seventh. Maloney, Cordeel, and local favorite Josep María Martí racing for Campos Racing, completed the points positions.

“We just won the Feature Race and it’s a huge result for DAMS. We did a really risky strategy and it paid off in the end. I’m so happy for the team and JM, it’s a good result for everyone.”

Said jack crawford after winning the feature race.

Championship Standings

Aron extended his championship lead after Round 6 in Formula 2. Jack Crawford moved up 6 places, thanks to his feature race win. Kush Maini is currently 8th in the standings, 50 points behind the championship leader.

Up Next

Formula 2 heads to the Red Bull Ring for Round 7 of the championship from June 28-30. This is their second stop in the triple-header, before heading to Silverstone. Catch all the action live on F1TV and Fancode.

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