Piloto da Sauber Academy, Zane Maloney, achieved an impressive performance in the Bahrain Sprint race for Rodin Motorsport, securing his first victory in Formula 2 after starting eighth on the grid. Jake Crawford, starting from pole position in the reversed grid, managed to hold onto a podium position in second place for DAMS. Red Bull junior driver, Josep María Marti, a rookie, showcased his talent by securing a commendable third place for Campos Racing.
Crawford made a great start, taking the lead early in the race. Zak O’Sullivan attempted to overtake his ART GP teammate, Victor Martins, for second place, but was unsuccessful. The top three positions remained unchanged after the first 23 laps, with Enzo Fittipaldi and Zane Maloney completing the top 10. However, a Virtual Safety Car period occurred when Amaury Cordeel’s car was removed from the track at turn 4, bringing the pack closer together.
Taylor Barnard, who started on the front row, had a challenging start and dropped to 10th place in his PHM AIX Racing car. The race resumed on lap 3, and Martins, the 2023 rookie of the year, pressured Crawford for the lead. The group of five leading drivers aimed to create a gap to the rest of the pack, with Red Bull junior driver Isack Hadjar not far behind in sixth place.
An exciting battle between Maloney and Fittipaldi ensued, with Maloney overtaking Fittipaldi for fourth place and then setting his sights on O’Sullivan. On lap 4, Maloney successfully passed O’Sullivan for third place at turn 1. Demonstrating his pace, Maloney set the fastest lap and closed in on Martins, who was in second place.
On the fifth lap, the race became a three-way battle between Crawford, Martins, and Maloney for the lead, while Fittipaldi, Hadjar, and O’Sullivan fought for fourth place. O’Sullivan, who started on harder tires, struggled as the laps went on and dropped further down the standings. Maloney continued his ascent and overtook Crawford on lap 7, securing the lead at the exit of turn 4.
Questions arose whether Crawford had pushed his soft tires too hard in the early laps, as Martins closely followed him. PREMA drivers Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman, considered strong championship contenders, faced balance issues throughout the weekend. Despite not being required to make a pit stop in the Sprint race, both drivers decided to change their tires, resulting in them rejoining the race in 18th and 19th positions, respectively.
After dropping to the outer part of the top 10, O’Sullivan, equipped with hard tires, began to make progress on lap 14, overtaking Fittipaldi for eighth place, who was on soft tires.
Meanwhile, Martins, who was in third place, encountered issues on lap 15 in the sequence of turns 5, 6, and 7. As the French driver completed his fifteenth lap, Hadjar was right behind him and successfully overtook him in the DRS zone heading into turn 4 on lap 16.
At the front of the race, Maloney had a comfortable lead of approximately 3 seconds over Crawford, who was in second place. Crawford, in turn, had a six-second gap to Hadjar in third place.
Unfortunately, Martins’ problems continued, and he was overtaken by another Red Bull junior driver, Martí, from Campos Racing, on lap 18.
Martí then found himself in a battle for the final podium position with Hadjar, who was also a Campos driver and a Red Bull junior driver. Hadjar was struggling with front tire wear. Martí managed to secure third place at turn 1 on lap 20, but Hadjar put up a valiant fight in the first sector. However, he ultimately had to settle for fourth place.
Martins’ situation worsened as he dropped into the midfield, losing fifth place to several close competitors as they started lap 21.
Maloney comfortably secured his first victory, crossing the finish line with a lead of over five seconds ahead of Crawford. Martí finished one and a half seconds behind Crawford, turning his 11th place starting position into a podium finish.
Hadjar held onto fourth place, and rookie Paul Aron from Hitech finished in fifth place, managing to fend off rookie Gabriel Bortoleto from Invicta Racing.
McLaren junior driver Bortoleto battled a group of cars and managed to overtake O’Sullivan, who was in seventh place, with a 1.8-second advantage.
Dennis Hauger from MP Motorsport claimed the final points-paying position in eighth place, while reigning Super Formula champion Ritomo Miyata finished ninth for Rodin.
Trident’s Richard Verschoor completed the top ten positions.
PREMA had a challenging day, with Antonelli finishing in 14th place and Bearman in 16th place.
The Formula 2 action will continue with the Feature race on Saturday, starting at 1:30 PM local time (10:30 AM GMT).
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