Formula 2
Hadjar takes back to back feature race wins while Maini struggles as Formula 2 returns to action in Imola!
Formula 2 returned after 54 days, here’s DRC’s review for the weekend.
Formula 2 last raced in Melbourne, 54 days back. Since then the championship has had an in-season test in Barcelone and now it finally returns to racing this weekend in Imola for round 4 of the championship.
Isack Hadjar won the race for Campos Racing last time out in Melbourne and continued that form into the in-season test at Barcelona, setting the fastest time during the 3 days of testing.
Meanwhile heading into the weekend, in the Championship standings, Zane Malone tops the charts with 62 points ahead of Hitech Pulse-Eightās Paul Aron, currently the highest-ranked rookie with 47 and second overall. Dennis Hauger remains third in the Standings just six points further back while Hadjar, thanks to his Feature Race win finds himself in fourth position with 34 points. Kush Maini finds himself one point back in fifth place for Invicta Racing.
In the teamās championship, Rodin leads with 78 points, Camposā recent results have put them closest to the top team on 60. Hitech are third currently just three more points further back from their Spanish rivals. MP Motorsport arenāt far behind on 54 points in fourth position while Invicta round out the top five currently with 48 points in their column.
Qualifying
Gabriel Bortoleto took pole position in a dramatic Imola Qualifying session marked by track limits violations. The Invicta Racing driver posted the fastest lap of 1:27.056, beating out PREMA Racingās Oliver Bearman and Campos Racingās Isack Hadjar.
Bortoleto initially led with a 1:28.044, then improved to 1:27.739. After a pit stop for new Pirelli Supersoft tyres, Bearman briefly took the lead with a 1:27.111 before Bortoleto reclaimed the top spot on his final lap. Bearman and teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had their times briefly deleted for track limits but were later reinstated.
Joshua Duerksen secured P5, followed by Championship leader Zane Maloney. Roman Stanek finished P7, with Paul Aron in eighth. Franco Colapinto took P9, while Amaury Cordeel qualified tenth, securing reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race.
Kush Maini qualified in 14th place, however his time was deleted and he then moved back to 17th on the grid for both races.
Sprint Race
MP Motorsportās Franco Colapinto achieved his first Formula 2 win with a dramatic last-lap overtake on Hitech Pulse-Eightās Paul Aron during the Sprint Race at Imola. Colapinto, who initially lost a position at the start, fought back from P3 to claim victory, while Championship leader Zane Maloney of Rodin Motorsport secured third place.
Aron made a strong start from P3, overtaking Colapinto and teammate Amaury Cordeel to lead into Turn 3. A Safety Car was deployed after Roman Stanek and Isack Hadjar collided, causing a chain reaction involving Joshua Duerksen, Enzo Fittipaldi, and Dennis Hauger.
Racing resumed on Lap 6, with Aron extending his lead. Cordeel’s mistake on the next lap allowed Colapinto to move into second. By Lap 9, Colapinto was closing in on Aron, and Cordeel was under pressure from Maloney, Oliver Bearman, and Gabriel Bortoleto.
On Lap 12, Colapinto was within DRS range of Aron, while Maloney overtook Cordeel on Lap 22 for his fourth podium of the year. On the final lap, Colapinto made a decisive move at Tamburello to take the lead and secure his first win. Aron finished second, with Maloney third. Cordeel took fourth, followed by Bearman in fifth, who held off Bortoleto.
“I’m super happy, first win in Formula 2, it’s a very special day for me and for every Argentinian that has been supporting me so far. I’m super proud of the team, very proud of everyone who has been supporting me. Thank you, thank you. Thank you to all the fans and let us hope for more wins in the next few races.”
-Franco Colapinto, MP Motorsport
Kush made up 8 places at the start of the race to go from P17 to P9 in the first lap but failed to improve from there and finished the race in 9th. Taylor Barnard who initially finished in 7th was disqualified from the sprint as he failed to engage the start set-up procedure as required. This promoted Kush to P8, the final point-paying position.
Feature race:
Isack Hadjar secured his second win of the season in a thrilling Imola Feature Race for Campos Racing, moving up from third on the grid. Despite a strong challenge from Gabriel Bortoleto of Invicta Racing, who had to settle for second, Hadjar’s defensive skills ensured his victory. Joshua Duerksen of AIX Racing claimed his and the team’s first F2 podium by finishing third.
Pole-sitter Bortoleto had a slow start, dropping to fourth and allowing Oliver Bearman to take the lead, followed by Hadjar and Duerksen. Bearman struggled to shake off Hadjar, who stayed within DRS range. After the first round of pit stops, Hadjar and Duerksen swapped their Supersofts for Mediums, with Hadjar taking the effective race lead as Bearman stalled twice in the pitlane.
By Lap 10, all drivers on Supersoft tyres had pitted, leaving those on Prime tyres out on the track. Amaury Cordeel led the pack, followed by Josep MarĆa MartĆ, Juan Manuel Correa, Victor Martins, Kush Maini, and Rafael VillagĆ³mez. Bortoleto began to close the gap to Hadjar, narrowing it to 1.3 seconds by Lap 16.
Further back, Championship leader Zane Maloney was stuck behind Roman Stanek and losing ground. Jak Crawford eventually overtook Maloney and then Stanek by Lap 25. By Lap 30, drivers on alternative strategies began pitting, but bad stops for Cordeel and MartĆ, where both had tyres come off, ruled them out of the race.
In the final laps, Bortoleto closed in on Hadjar, but the Frenchman held firm to claim victory. Duerksen finished third, making history as the first Paraguayan driver on the F2 podium.
āReally happy with the Feature Race win today after yesterdayās disappointment. Unbelievable job by the team, it was a really intense race with Gabriel, but we were really flying today and to take that win is great, so on to Monaco now.ā– Isack Hadjar, Capos Racing.
Antonelli finished fourth, followed by Colapinto and Aron. Crawford and Correa secured P7 and P8 for DAMS Lucas Oil, while Victor Martins climbed from the back to finish ninth, with Richard Verschoor rounding out the top ten.
Kush Maini finished the race in 14th place after choosing to stay out late in the alternate strategy hoping for a safety car to help him with the pit stop, but there was no safety car during the race and the Invicta driver had to settle out of the points.
Championship Standings
Zane Maloney remains at the top of the Drivers’ Championship despite finishing 11th, though his lead has shrunk to just five points over Paul Aron. Isack Hadjar’s latest performance moves him into the top three, with 59 points, only nine behind Maloney. Gabriel Bortoleto’s strong showing in Imola places him fifth in the Championship with 38 points. Kush Maini finds himself 8th in the standings with 34 points
In the Teams’ Standings, Campos Racing now leads with 85 points, thanks to Hadjar’s victory, just one point ahead of Rodin Motorsport. Hitech Pulse-Eight is in third with 78 points, closely followed by MP Motorsport, while Invicta Racing holds the fifth spot.
Up next
The championship heads to the streets of Monaco this weekend for the seasonās second double header. The Indian audience can catch all the sessions live on Fancode and F1TV.
Formula 2
Kush Maini wins in Hungary: Formula 2 Round 9 Review
Explore the top storylines from an action-packed Formula 2 weekend in Hungary, including Kush Maini’s first win, Kimi Antonelli’s strategy triumph, and championship rivals’ struggles.
The weekend at Hungary was action-packed, just as you would expect Formula 2 to be. The championship rivals had a bad outing, giving everyone else a chance to catch up to them. While Kush Maini scored his first in F2. Here are the top talking points from Hungary.
Kush Maini is Finally a Race Winner in F2
Kush Maini finally became a race winner in Formula 2. After qualifying P9 for the feature race, Maini would start the sprint race on the reverse grid front row. Verschoor was on Pole and was starting on hard tyres, just like Kush. At the start, both Maini and Verschoor got off the line well, but Kimi Antonelli who was starting on softs got past them. Maini, in P3, kept piling the pressure on Verschoor in P2. Eventually, Antonelli’s Softs ran out of rubber and a lock-up from him helped Verschoor and Maini get past the Prema driver. Maini finished in P2 behind Verschoor, but a post-race disqualification meant the Indian driver was promoted to the top step.
Kush Maini scored valuable points in the Feature Race, starting from P9 on the alternate strategy and finishing P7. He took home 16 points from Hungary, marking his tied second-best weekend in terms of points.
Kimi Antonelli wins the Feature Race on the alternative strategy.
Kimi had a weekend full of gambles in Hungary. In the Sprint Race, Kimi gambled to start on Softs while the majority were on Hards. The gamble didn’t pay off as his tyres wore off before the end of the race and he had to pit for fresh rubber. In the Feature Race, Kimi again gambled on the alternative strategy. This time, however, it worked perfectly. Two Safety Car interventions helped Kimi utilize his alternative strategy perfectly.
Making use of his fresh Softs while everyone ahead of him was on old Hards, Kimi Antonelli took his first Feature Race victory in Formula 2.
Bad outing for Championship rivals
Both Championship rivals had a tough weekend in Hungary. The championship leader Isack Hadjar left Hungary with just 7 points. Finishing 4th in the Sprint Race, he was then promoted to P3 following Verschoor’s disqualification. In the Feature Race, Hadjar who was supposed to start from P3 was going to start from the pitlane instead. The Campos driver failed to leave the pits in time before the pit lane closed. After that, there wasn’t much Hadjar could do and he finished the race 18th.
His closest rival Paul Aron scored a combined 5 points during the weekend. The weekend started well for Aron, scoring the pole position for the Feature Race. This meant he’d start P10 for the reverse grid Sprint Race. He climbed up 3 spots to finish P7, later getting promoted to P6. In the Feature Race, Aron got a poor launch off the line, and then a huge lockup into turn 1 dropped him down to seventh. On Lap 7, Aron went into the back of Zane Maloney, causing both drivers to spin into a stop.
This gave other drivers to close some gap to the top. Gabriel Bortoleto currently sits P3 in the standings, 30 points shy of the top.
Everything to play for in the Teams’ Championship
The top three teams in the Formula 2 championship are separated by only nine points. Invicta Racing enjoying a good weekend to climb to the top of the standings.
Next Up
Formula 2 heads to Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for Round 10 of the championship. You can watch all the sessions live on F1TV and Fancode.
Follow Desi Racing Co. to never miss an update from the world of Motorsports.
Budapest hosts Formula 2 for Round 9 of the championship. The Hungaroring will be first stop of the double header before we head to the summer break. Here are DRC’s top 5 storylines heading into Budapest.
Read the Round 8 review here.
Hadjar will look to maintain his championship lead.
Hadjar has finally regained the championship lead that he lost to Paul Aron earlier in the season. In the last 6 Feature Races, Hadjar has 3 wins and 2 more podiums to his name. His worst result in those feature races was a fifth place finish in Barcelona.
Hadjar is currently 16 points ahead of second placed Paul Aron in the championship. The campos driver will be looking to extend this lead over the double header.
Aron looking to make a comeback after a disappointing Silverstone
Paul Aron went into Silverstone hoping to end his winless streak in Formula 2. Things didn’t go as planned and he failed to score a single point in Silverstone. Having scored a podium in each of the seven opening rounds, not scoring a point in the eighth round was disappointing. This resulted in Aron losing his championship lead to rival Isack Hadjar.
The Hitech driver will look to bounce back in Hungary. With just 16 points adrift of the top, a solid weekend can close that gap down. The results in Silverstone being majorly affected by his spin in qualifying. However, he was on provisional pole before the spin and showed good pace in the races as well. Aron will definitely be the one to watch as he now hunts for his first win and also the championship lead.
Zane Maloney looking to build on Silverstone success
Even though Maloney didn’t get a win in Silverstone, but 2 podiums in both races meant he had his second best weekend of the season so far. The Rodin driver won both races in Bahrain, getting a start people could only dream of. But, the form dipped with the Bajan scoring only 1 podium in the next 6 weekends. Silverstone was a turn in form with Maloney scoring two P2 finishes.
The solid weekend in Silverstone has put Maloney P3 in the championship standings. Coming into Budapest, Maloney will look to build on his success from last round.
Maini will look to turn his mixed weekends into solid ones
The Indian driver has scored 2 podiums in the last 3 rounds. But the performance is still far off from what people expected out of him. Having challenged for race wins and pole positions at the start of the year, that form has seen a dip since Imola. It was reported that he had a cracked chassis in Imola and Monaco. In Spain he had a brand new chassis and the form improved. Ever since then it has been a mixed bag of results.
Heading into Hungary, the Indian driver will be looking to put it all together and have a solid weekend. Hungaroring is also the track where Maini scored his first and only Formula 3 podium.
Teams’ title fight heating up
The 2024 Formula 2 teams’ title fight is intensely competitive, with Campos Racing currently leading by 23 points. Rodin Motorsport initially dominated, but their momentum waned, allowing teams like Hitech Pulse-Eight and MP Motorsport to close in. The top five teams are closely matched, with only 51 points separating them. As the season progresses, the standings are expected to remain volatile, setting the stage for a thrilling conclusion. With numerous races left, including unpredictable circuits like Baku and Lusail, the title fight is far from over.
Schedule and Where to Watch.
You can watch Formula 2 live in India on F1TV and Fancode. The full weekend schedule is as follows.
Formula 2
Isack Hadjar Retakes Championship Lead: Formula 2 Round 8
Isack Hadjar retook the championship lead in Silverstone. The Frenchman scored a pole and the Feature Race win to get back on top.
Isack Hadjar took pole and a win in Silverstone to retake the Formula 2 championship lead in Silverstone. Here are the storylines from the weekend.
Disaster Weekend for Paul Aron
Paul Aron coming to Silverstone had a podium each round, this streak ended in Silverstone. Not only did he fail to score a podium, but he also didnāt score any points at all. The Estonian driver qualified P12 after making an error and spinning out with 10 minutes left in the session. This left him with major flat spots while everyone else improved their times. In the Sprint Race Aron collided with MartĆ and it left both out of the race. In the Feature Race, Aron finished outside the points in P12. Having lost his Championship lead, Aron would be looking to take it back in Hungary.
Hadjar gets the Pole and a Win
Isack Hadjar had a mixed weekend but most of it was on the good side. Qualifying on Pole, Hadjar started the Sprint race in P10. The Campos driver beached his car on lap 8 straight into Copse. The next day in the feature race Hadjar had a bad start starting from pole and fell back. Hadjar then drove brilliantly to come back into the race and was running P2 behind Crawford. A 5s time penalty for Crawford meant Hadjar who was only 2.5s behind would take the victory after the penalty was applied.
Heading into Budapest as the championship leader, Hadjar would look to extend his lead on top.
āRace winner on Sunday, unfortunately not on track like we wanted. But still, it was a really fun race with lots going on and I managed to bring those points home. Already looking forward to Budapest.ā
Isack Hadjar after the feature race
Zane Maloney takes Double Podium
Maloney didn’t get any race wins but scored 2 crucial podium finishes to climb up to 3rd in the championship standings. An uneventful sprint race as Maloney started P2 and finished P2 as well. The Feature Race however was anything but uneventful. The Bajan driver had a great start to move up 3 places. He then went on to manage his tyres and pace well to finish P2 after Crawford’s penalty. After scoring 0 points last weekend, Maloney would be happy to bounce back with two P2s.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli gets his first win.
The Mercedes Junior was having a lackluster season in Formula 2, delivering performances below everyone’s expectations of him. The prime candidate for the Mercedes seat, he had to step up to show everyone that he deserved the seat. Having started from the reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race, Kimi excelled in mixed conditions to finish P1.
āGot my first win, really happy with the result. It was a difficult race in difficult conditions, but we managed pretty well and Iām really happy to bring home the first win of the season.ā
Andrea Kimi Antonelly
The feature race ended early for the Italian after being sent into a spin by Kush Maini on the opening lap. An overall decent weekend and the Sprint Race victory will only motivate him to push for being constantly at the front.
Mixed weekend for Kush Maini
The Indian driver had another mixed weekend in Silverstone, similar to what he had in Austria one week back. The pace was looking strong for Maini in qualifying, but traffic hampered his final push lap resulting in him qualifying P8. On the reverse grid for the Sprint Race, Maini started P3 and finished P3 too, but the race was not as simple as it looks like. The Alpine junior driver was holding position in mixed conditions after being under constant pressure from his teammate. On the last lap, Bortoleto made a move on Maini on the last corner, overtaking him to finish P3. Later on the stewards deemed the move illegal, as Bortoleto overtook outside the track. This resulted in Maini getting back the 3rd place.
In the feature race, Maini tapped Kimi from behind, sending the Prema driver into a spin and giving Maini damage. This forced Maini to make an early pit stop. After that, the race was pretty much uneventful for the Indian who crossed the finish line in P19. Maini also got a 10s time penalty for the opening lap incident, but that didn’t affect his finishing position.
Championship Standings
Isack Hadjar moves to the top of the Championship ahead of Paul Aron, 133 points to 117. Zane Maloney improved his position in third, now on 101 points with Gabriel Bortoleto fourth on 98. Franco Colapinto is P5 on 92 points.
In the Teamsā Standings, Campos Racing lead with 171 points ahead of MP Motorsport in second on 158. Invicta Racing are just two points back in third position, while Hitech Pulse-Eight and Rodin Motorsport round out the top five with 142 and 120 points respectively.
Formula 2 will take a week off and head to Budapest for Round 9 of the championship from July 19-21.
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