The 2024 high-category single-seater season kicked off today, with Formula 3 starting its first of ten weekends, consisting of 20-point scoring rounds. Meanwhile, Formula 2 began its 2024 season with the first 14 weekends, composed of 28-point scoring rounds.
Here are the reports from Thursday’s action in Sakhir:
Formula 2, the last frontier before aspiring drivers enter the world of Formula 1, began its 2024 season on Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir. The race featured the new car designed by Dallara.
The classification order (top ten) was partially reversed, resulting in American Jak Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil team) starting from pole position.
A clean start saw Texas native and former Red Bull junior leading the first lap, followed by Frenchman Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix), a second-year driver.
On the sixth lap, Zane Maloney from Barbados (Rodin Motorsport) overtook Martins, securing second place. Crawford maintained his lead with a one-second advantage.
Maloney quickly closed the gap to Crawford and took the lead on the eighth lap, starting from eighth on the grid.
After 10 laps, the top five were: Maloney, Crawford, Martins, Isack Hadjar (Campos Racing), and Enzo Fittipaldi (Van Amersfoort). However, Fittipaldi was later pushed down to sixth place by Paul Aron (HITECH GP).
By lap 25, Maloney had a 2.7s advantage over Crawford, who held a similar lead over Martins. Hadjar, starting from ninth on the grid, secured third place on lap 16, overtaking Martins.
At the end of the race, while Maloney maintained his undisputed lead, Hadjar faced pressure from his Campos Spanish teammate, Josep Maria Marti. Due to his front tires being “completely destroyed,” Hadjar lost the last spot on the podium to Marti.
Estonian Paul Aron completed the top five, while Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta Racing), Brazilian protege of Fernando Alonso, finished sixth in his F2 debut.
Zak O’Sullivan (ART Grand Prix) and Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) secured the last points-scoring positions in the race.
Andrea Antonelli, the preseason Hypemeister, Italian and Mercedes junior Kimi had a quiet start to his first F2 season, finishing 14th.
His Prema teammate in his second year, Olie Bearman, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) and title favorite, finished 16th. Meanwhile, Argentine Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport) received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for starting from the wrong grid slot.
The DNFs (Did Not Finish) were Roman Stanek (Trident), Taylor Barnard (PHM AIX Racing), and Amaury Cordeel (HITECH GP). Bortoleto will start from pole position in Saturday’s race.
Gabriel Bortoleto, who started from pole position, and Isack Hadjar, who also started from the front row, were shocked and perplexed by Zane Maloney’s sudden rise, who quickly took the lead before the first corner.
Hadjar didn’t even make it to the second corner, as a slight collision from Bortoleto caused him to spin, and his race came to an end when he was hit on the side by Enzo Fittipaldi.
The safety car approached the pack, but during the restart, Maloney managed to create distance between him and the rest of the group. This marks the first time since the creation of the GP2 series in 2005 (now F2) by Bruno Michel and Flavio Briatore that a driver wins the first two races of the season.
The victorious driver expressed his joy, saying: “I am incredibly happy to have won both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race this weekend. The Rodin team did an exceptional job, and I just needed to drive the car as fast as I could. Thank you to everyone for the support. I know Jeddah will present new challenges, so we will keep pushing there.”
Josep Maria “Pepe” Marti moved up a position on the podium to secure second place, after finishing third in the Friday Sprint Race. Paul Aron secured third place 24 hours later.
Andrea “Kimi” Antonelli, a possible successor to Toto Wolff for the soon-to-be vacant Mercedes seat, managed to salvage a single point with his tenth place in the main race.
In an interview with GPWeekly last year, during the F4 race in Monza, Arvid Lindblad discussed the advantages of winning in a new series. This victory in his debut is a significant achievement for young drivers. Lindblad is only in his second year of single-seater racing.
After his impressive victory, Lindblad commented: “I just won my debut in the Sprint Race today, and overall, I am very happy with the race. I am extremely grateful to the team for doing a phenomenal job. I made some mistakes, so there are definitely areas to improve, but we will analyze the data and strive to perform even better in tomorrow’s Feature Race.”
Starting from pole position, Dino Beganovic, who has Swedish and Bosnian ancestry and is also a junior driver for Ferrari, had a challenging race. Sebastian Montoya, son of beloved F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya, also took part in this series but qualified at the back of the grid.
Laurens van Hoepen from the Netherlands secured second place, with Leonardo Fornaroli from Italy finishing third. American driver Max Esterson, coming from a simulator racing background, finished in sixth place. Mini Monty finished in 18th position.
Beganovic, who had secured pole position for the main race on Saturday, suffered a punctured tire on the first lap and ended up being the last car to finish the race.
Dino Beganovic, the next rising Super Swede, faced another stroke of bad luck. Starting from the front position, he had a slow start that left him trailing in the race.
Luke Browning, a British driver who had a dominant performance at the Macau Grand Prix last year, took the lead on the first lap and held it throughout the race. He emerged victorious in the opening main race of the F3 season, leaving no room for doubt.
Christian Mansell, an Australian driver, secured second place, while Tim Tramnitz from Germany claimed third place on the podium. Arvid Lindblad, who triumphed in the sprint race on Friday, finished in eighth place.
Despite his valiant effort, Beganovic was unable to score points due to a series of unfortunate events in both races. He crossed the finish line in 13th place in the main race.
© 2024
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