It would hardly be possible for Zane Maloney to have a better start to the season. The Sauber Academy driver secured victory in the feature race in Sakhir (Bahrain) on Saturday, completing a clean sweep of wins in the opening round of the season.
Maloney (Rodin Motorsport) opted for an alternative strategy by starting on soft tires. He lined up in third place, behind Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta Racing) and Isack Hadjar (Campos), who collided at turn one. This opened the way for the Barbadian driver to take the lead.
Enzo Fittipaldi (Van Amersfoort Racing) couldn’t avoid hitting Hadjar’s car, causing a safety car intervention and the retirement of both drivers. Bortoleto was penalized by ten seconds. After the safety car period, Maloney held off Zak O’Sullivan’s (ART Grand Prix) pursuit to maintain the lead.
The tire change cycle began at the end of lap 10 when Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) made his mandatory pit stop. There were some decisive moments during the pit stops, such as Jak Crawford’s (Prema) retirement due to issues. Moments after Maloney and Josep María Martí (Campos) changed tires, Martins suffered a breakdown and stopped in an escape road position, requiring the safety car to be deployed.
At that time, Kush Maini (Campos) was leading the race without having made a pit stop and took advantage of this strategy to secure a top ten finish after starting from the back of the grid. The safety car period had no impact on Maloney’s performance.
The young driver continued to dominate the race, resisted opposition at the restart, and crossed the finish line with a comfortable 4.621s lead. Martí secured second place comfortably, with a lead of over seven seconds over Paul Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight) – including a five-second penalty imposed on the Estonian driver for speeding in the pit lane. O’Sullivan finished fourth and Bortoletto recovered to fifth despite the initial warning.
Further down the field, Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) achieved eighth place and set the fastest lap, earning an extra point. Promising rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) scored his first career point by finishing in tenth place.
Results:
