Jak Crawford primes his strategy to win feature FIA F2 race in Barcelona, as Arvid Lindblad passes pole-sitter to win in F3.
F2:
Pole sitter Paul Aron got the perfect launch to lead into Turn 1 ahead of Crawford and Colapinto. Further back, contact sent Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger spinning into the gravel at Turn 2 leaving both out of the race. Isack Hadjar was the biggest winner, moving up from 11th to fifth in the opening half lap prior to the Safety Car deployed for Hauger and Martins’ incident, with both drivers OK but their cars in need of recovering.
Racing resumed on Lap 4 and Aron retained the lead, escaping over a second clear to move out of DRS range to Crawford behind. Lap 8 and the Hard compound runners began to benefit over those on Softs, with Joshua Duerksen taking fifth from Hadjar into Turn 1 as the highest-placed driver in the white-walled tyres.
Crawford was in from second at the end of the lap, with Ritomo Miyata and Zak O’Sullivan following the DAMS driver in from inside the top 10 to fit the Hard tyres. Enzo Fittipaldi and Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney were next in on Lap 9, but a slow getaway for the Van Amersfoort Racing driver allowed the Bajan to leapfrog him in the pitlane exit. That was compounded as Rodin teammate Miyata passed Fittipaldi with his tyres up to temperature.
Gabriel Bortoleto pitted on Lap 11 for Invicta Racing, filtering back out in P14 behind Crawford but with warm tyres, O’Sullivan was able to pass him on the outlap to take the position. Leader Aron was called into the pits and Colapinto followed him in on Lap 12. The Hitech rejoined ahead of Crawford but with the DAMS driver on his rear wing.
Through Turn 3, the American driver took ninth from Aron, while Colapinto retained position over Bortoleto. Lap 13 and the Brazilian was in the slipstream and passed the MP Motorsport driver into Turn 1, just prior to a Virtual Safety Car for the stationary AIX Racing car of Taylor Barnard at the pitlane entry. With his car cleared, racing resumed entering Lap 14.
Closing to within half a second of Crawford, Aron looked to be shaping up for a move but going onto Lap 16, he slid off the road after a snap of oversteer at the final corner. He rejoined in 11th, dropping three spots to Bortoleto, Colapinto and O’Sullivan. Title rival Hadjar meanwhile moved ahead of Maloney into 13th to put the Hitech driver within his sights.
Duerksen had been the leader and yet to pit on the alternative strategy but on Lap 18, he slowed to a half in the middle sector to bring out another Virtual Safety Car. His stoppage handed the lead over to Juan Manuel Correa, also yet to pit on the Hard Pirellis. With the AIX cleared, racing resumed on Lap 20 and Colapinto put Bortoleto under immediate pressure, with the Invicta driver getting his elbows out to keep the place.
Just behind them, Aron got the slipstream to take 10th from O’Sullivan at Turn 2. One lap later and Hadjar eased by the ART Grand Prix driver at Turn 1 to move himself up another position. Colapinto had DRS on Bortoleto and on Lap 23, he moved ahead to take seventh at Turn 1.
With 10 laps to go, Correa pitted from the race lead for the Soft compound tyres, filtering back out onto track in P9 just as Aron made a brave dive on Bortoleto into Turn 1 to take fifth. As Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Amaury Cordeel pitted for his mandatory stop, Crawford retook the lead with Colapinto his closest rival for the win 3.6s behind in P2.
On his Softs, Correa was making good progress, moving ahead of Maloney for seventh at Turn 5, which became sixth with Andrea Kimi Antonelli making his mandatory stop. Lap 31 and using a DRS boost, he eased by Hadjar for fifth position with Bortoleto half a second up the road in P4. Three corners later and he was into fourth place with a sizeable grip advantage.
He cruised up to Aron and on Lap 33, rounded the Estonian at the first corner to climb into the podium places. Onto Lap 34 and Hadjar deposed Bortoleto for fifth position while Invicta teammate Kush Maini gained seventh at the expense of Maloney on the run into Turn 1. The Invicta teammates were nose-to-tail on the final lap and going wheel-to-wheel into the first corner collided with one another, leaving Bortoleto with front wing damage and Maini ahead in sixth.
Crawford was entirely untroubled though, taking his second Formula 2 race victory ahead of Colapinto and a resurgent Correa. Aron came across the line in fourth to retain his Championship lead over fifth-place driver Hadjar. Maini led Bortoleto across the line in sixth and seventh respectively, with Maloney, Cordeel and home favourite Josep María Martí rounding out the points for Campos Racing.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1804826591802896483
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race in Barcelona, Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto has been handed a time-penalty. The Brazilian collided with teammate Kush Maini on the final lap of the race as the pair fought for sixth position.
After the race, the Stewards heard from both drivers and examined all available video evidence, before determining that Bortoleto had been the driver wholly responsible for the contact. As a result, the Stewards elected to apply a five-second time penalty to the Brazilian.
With the time penalty applied, Bortoleto drops from seventh in the Feature Race classification down to 10th, promoting Zane Maloney, Amaury Cordeel and Josep María Martí up one place each in the order.
Hauger reprimand: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20Barcelona%20Event%20-%20INFRINGEMENT%20-%20Car%2011%20-%20causing%20a%20collision.pdf
F3:
It was as you were at the start with Mansell getting a strong launch from pole to lead Lindblad and his ART teammate Nikola Tsolov. Oliver Goethe though was the one driver to lose out in the early exchanges as he dropped from fifth to eighth, promoting Luke Browning and Leonardo Fornaroli up to fourth and fifth respectively.
Mansell was coming under pressure from Lindblad for the lead and the PREMA Racing driver’s attack finally paid dividends on Lap 5 as he went round the outside of Mansell at Turn 1 to take the first position. Just behind them, Browning had now got ahead of Tsolov for the third place at the same corner.
Approaching the halfway stage of the race, Mansell was now over a second and a half behind Lindblad, with Browning being told to make the move past the ART driver for P2 as soon as possible. Goethe was able to get past van Hoepen for P6, with the Dutchman now coming under pressure from Martinius Stenshorne.
On Lap 17, Lindblad was now well over three seconds clear out front while Mansell had escaped from DRS range of Browning. The Hitech driver was now coming under pressure from Tsolov and Fornaroli as they battled for the final spot on the podium.
The Trident driver then made his way past on Lap 22, going round the outside of Tsolov at Turn 1. Fornaroli now set his sights on Browning up ahead, the gap between the pair just a second. Tsolov though was beginning to struggle on his tyres and lost out to Goethe for P6 on the next lap.
Browning and Fornaroli went wheel-to-wheel for P3 on the penultimate lap and further behind, Stenshorne and van Hoepen were doing the same for P7. However, the McLaren junior and ART rookie collided at Turn 4, leaving both with punctures. On to the final lap and Fornaroli went around the outside of Browning at Turn 2 to take P3, just as heavy rain hit the track.
But this did not disturb Lindblad as he took his second victory of the season ahead of Mansell and Fornaroli to become the youngest Feature Race winner in F3 history. Goethe also got past Browning on the final lap for P4, while Tsolov took P6 ahead of Alexander Dunne and home favourite Mari Boya. Dino Beganovic wound up in P9 while Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León took the final points paying position.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1804798734917566549
Here’s how F2 and F3 sprint race panned out
[Note: The story is as per press release]