Isack Hadjar controls sprint FIA F2 race in Australia amid incidents, as Martinius Stenshorne secures his first in F3.
F2:
A slow getaway from the front row gave Hadjar the momentum to take the lead, but as the Frenchman moved to pass pole-sitter Stanek, he tapped teammate Josep María Martí who collided with P2-starter Gabriel Bortoleto. The latter duo were out after just a few metres and the Safety Car was called upon in the on the opening lap.
Victor Martins was the big winner of Lap 1, climbing eight places from P21 to 13th in the space of half a lap. After five tours behind the Safety Car, racing got underway entering Lap 7, but Zane Maloney had a tough restart, dropping from fifth position to 10th after running into the gravel out of Turn 6.
His Rodin Motorsport teammate Ritomo Miyata relegated him to 11th entering Lap 9, passing the Bajan driver into Turn 1. The fight for second was a five-car battle headed by Stanek, with the chasing pack bunched up behind closely. Going into Turn 12 on Lap 10, a spin for Andrea Kimi Antonelli sent Richard Verschoor spinning also, while Paul Aron sustained front wing damage in the process. The PREMA and Trident drivers were out on the spot and the Safety Car was called upon once again.
Martins’ progress continued at the expense of all three, with the ART Grand Prix driver up to eighth following the incident. Back to racing on Lap 15, Hadjar got the jump on Stanek once again to establish a comfortable lead. A fastest lap with seven to go gave him a lead of three seconds over the Trident driver, who was defending hard from Maini behind, while MP teammates Hauger and Franco Colapinto closed on the duo.
Martins was on the move again further back, seizing seventh from teammate Zak O’Sullivan with a late dive into Turn 11 on Lap 19. Onto the penultimate lap and Hauger finally got the move done on Maini to take third, sweeping around the outside of the Invicta driver at Turn 9 to take the place.
Hadjar had disappeared into the distance after the final Safety Car and crossed the line to win his maiden F2 race by over six seconds. Spirited defence from Stanek on the final lap earned him his best ever finish in Formula 2, holding onto second by just 0.3s over Hauger. Maini followed in fourth ahead of Colapinto, Miyata, Martins and Oliver Bearman, who rounded out the points-paying positions in eighth.
Results: https://www.fiaformula2.com/Results?raceid=1066
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the Formula 2 Sprint Race in Melbourne, multiple drivers have received post-race penalties. Isack Hadjar has been handed a 10-second time penalty after the Campos Racing driver was found to have caused a collision with his teammate Josep María Martí and Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto at the start of the Race.
The Stewards spoke to all three drivers involved and examined video evidence before determining that the Frenchman moved significantly to the right to get a run on the car on Roman Stanek in front of him without realizing that Martí had a significant portion of his car alongside him. This move caused Martí to move to the right to take avoiding action and as a result he made contact with Bortoleto leading to a second collision. The Stewards determined that Hadjar was predominantly to blame and handed him a 10-second time penalty.
This means that Hadjar loses his victory and drops down to sixth, promoting Trident’s Stanek to P1. MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger takes P2, and Invicta Racing driver Kush Maini moves up to third. The Indian driver also moves up to third in the Drivers’ Championship as a result, now on 33 points. Moreover, Oliver Bearman has also been handed a 10-second time penalty for forcing PHM AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen off the track.
After the Stewards heard from both drivers and examined all available video evidence, it showed that Bearman was alongside Duerksen at the apex and exit of Turn 4 and. While the PREMA Racing driver raced in a controlled manner, he did not leave a fair and acceptable width for Duerksen at the exit of the corner. This means Bearman drops from P8 to 15th in the classification, promoting ART Grand Prix driver Zak O’Sullivan up to eighth and giving him the final point in the Sprint Race.
Finally, Jak Crawford has been handed a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s Feature Race after the Stewards found that he did not have the correct number of tyres to comply with the Sporting Regulations in relation to the Feature Race. The Stewards considered the matter extensively and having discussed the situation with a Technical Delegate, concluded that during Qualifying, Crawford rendered the left rear tyres of both “option” compound sets unusable for safety reasons.
It was determined that it was not for reasons of force majeure and therefore Car 7 cannot comply with the regulations as a result. He will drop five places in the Feature Race as this is when the tyre is required to be used.
UPDATE 2: Campos filed a right to review against the stewards’ decision about a penalty to Hadjar. The review was dismissed by the FIA F2 stewards on several grounds which included that the submissions by the team were not new or relevant.
F3:
The top five remained the same at the start with pole-sitter van Hoepen covering off Stenshorne to retain the lead. His ART teammate and home favourite Christian Mansell stayed in third ahead of the Red Bull-liveried cars of Oliver Goethe and Lindblad. However, van Hoepen and Stenshorne quickly became embroiled in a multi-lap battle for the lead on Lap 3.
But this contest brought the rest of their rivals into play, with top 10 only covered by three seconds. Stenshorne eventually took a hold of the lead on Lap 5 on the run down to Turn 1. On Lap 6, Mansell was now coming under attack from Lindblad with the PREMA driver taking P3 at Turn 9. Just behind the pair, Goethe lost P5 to his Campos Racing teammate Mari Boya at the same corner.
In the battle for points, Dino Beganovic was on the move in other PREMA car and quickly dispatched Fornaroli at Turn 12 for P9. The Trident driver then ran wide onto the gravel, dropping him to 15th. There was more bad news for Mansell, as by the end of Lap 9 he was down in 13th and seemingly out of points contention.
Back at the front, Stenshorne had built a gap of over two and a half seconds to van Hoepen, but the ART driver was then overtaken by Lindblad. As the race moved past the halfway stage, Beganovic, was now coming under attack from Sebastián Montoya. The Campos driver made the move past on the run down to Turn 1, with the Swede then losing another position to Jenzer Motorsport’s Charlie Wurz two corners later.
In the battle for the lead, Lindblad was now well within DRS range of his Norwegian rival as they crossed the line to start Lap 13, but Safety Car intervention halted his attack. Van Amersfoort Racing’s home hero Tommy Smith collided with the rear of the PHM AIX Racing #26 car of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak at Turn 1. The Thai racer was out of the car and the race while the Australian continued on.
Back to green flag racing again on Lap 17 and Beganovic made the move past Wurz for P8 at the popular Turn 9. The Austrian ran wide at corner exit, losing further positions to drop him down to 13th. Back at the front, Lindblad was pushing Stenshorne all the way, but the Hitech driver held him off to take his first ever Formula 3 victory. Van Hoepen made it three rookies on the podium as he finished P3.
Goethe followed his teammate Boya across the line in fifth, while Beganovic overtook his fellow PREMA driver Gabriele Minì at the last corner on the last lap to take sixth. Nikita Bedrin wound up eighth ahead MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, with Montoya taking the final point in P10.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1771346081462264120?s=20
[Note: The story is as per press release]
