Zane Maloney comes through the field to win sprint FIA F2 race in Bahrain, as Arvid Lindblad secures F3 victory.
F2:
Crawford made a brilliant start from pole while his fellow front row starter Taylor Barnard of PHM AIX Racing lost out on the run down to Turn 1, being passed by ART Grand Prix drivers Victor Martins and Zak O’Sullivan. It proved to be a dire first lap for Barnard as he was down to ninth just as the Virtual Safety Car was called upon following a collision between Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Amaury Cordeel and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez.
As racing went back green to start Lap 3, Crawford resisted Martins’ attempts to take the lead, while Maloney was showing good pace as he dived down the inside of Enzo Fittipaldi at Turn 11. The Rodin Motorsport driver was on a charge, using the soft tyres to his advantage and getting past the hard shod O’Sullivan for third at the start of Lap 4, and then Martins for second on Lap 6.
It was proving a tough outing for O’Sullivan as he was then down to eighth after losing places to Fittipaldi, Isack Hadjar, Paul Aron, and Martí. There were more overtakes with Hadjar now making the move past Fittipaldi for fourth. Back at the front, Maloney’s charge continued on Lap 8 as he passed Crawford for the lead on the exit of Turn 4. The DAMS driver resisted Martins’ attempts to overhaul him, but their tussle was allowing Maloney to escape, the Rodin driver nearly two full seconds up the road.
Rookie Aron was showing strong pace for Hitech as he made his way past Fittipaldi down the main straight for fifth place. With the VAR driver struggling, Martí became the next to overtake him at the same place, while Hauger dived down the inside of O’Sullivan at Turn 4 to take eighth just behind them.
Fittipaldi’s fortunes worsened on Lap 14 as O’Sullivan turned defence to attack and took the final points paying position. He ended the lap 11th after losing out to Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata. Campos were once again on the move as Martí overtook Aron on the entry to Turn 1 for fifth. Further up the road, a mistake from Martins at Turn 6 allowed Hadjar to close in and on the next lap, pass his countryman, moving him up to third.
On Lap 18 Martí made his move down the inside at Turn 1 to pass Martins. The Campos pair now battled away for the final podium position as the Spanish driver cleared teammate Hadjar for third. Martins’ woes continued as he lost fifth place to Aron and was soon under threat from Hauger.
Lap 22 and the battle for the final points-paying positions continued with Martins slow through the first corners, and he lost out to Hauger, Bortoleto, and his teammate O’Sullivan, dropping him out of the points. At the front, Maloney had extended his gap over Crawford to five seconds and crossed the line to take his first ever F2 victory. Martí placed third ahead of teammate Hadjar, with Aron rounding out the top five. Bortoleto came home for sixth in his maiden F2 race, while O’Sullivan took seventh for ART ahead of Hauger, who had dropped down to eighth.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1763580761330856294?s=20
F3:
Van Hoepen covered off teammate Nikola Tsolov on the run to the first corner, but the Bulgarian was able to sweep around the outside to take the lead. Further back, pole winner from Thursday Dino Beganovic suffered damage in the opening exchanges after contact with Trident’s Santiago Ramos at Turn 1. The Mexican fell to the rear of the field while the PREMA Racing driver was in for repairs at the end of the first lap. Beganovic was later handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident.
After losing his lead from reverse grid pole, van Hoepen was able to stick with his ART teammate and with DRS, the Dutchman swept back through on Lap 4 at the first corner to retake the top spot. The battle continued up the hill and the Bulgarian squeezed his way back through to re-pass for the lead. Their battling allowed Max Esterson to close back up on the pair of them in third.
ART teammate Christian Mansell had been battling hard with Sami Meguetounif on Lap 5, and after initially losing a spot to the Trident driver, the Australian fought his way through into Turn 1 for seventh. That allowed Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning the momentum up the hill into Turn 4 to pull off a pass around the outside of the pair of them to take P7 himself. Unfortunately for the Briton, the move was completed off the road, and he earned a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Up ahead, the lead battle became a five-car fight as Lindblad and Fornaroli caught up to Esterson. The former was able to pass the Jenzer Motorsport driver on Lap 9 for third, and the American’s lost momentum out of the first corner allowed the Trident driver through on corner exit. As the race reached halfway, van Hoepen retook the lead with a pass into T1 on Tsolov. Once more though, the Bulgarian fought back through and re-passed his teammate into Turn 8 as they battled side-by-side.
Onto Lap 13 and after being tracked closely over several laps by Lindblad, van Hoepen got a little wide at Turn 11, opening the door for the PREMA driver to take second position. Lindblad wasn’t done yet and he claimed the lead of the race on Lap 15 with a DRS pass into the first corner. But Tsolov fought back through immediately, re-taking first on the run up to Turn 4 again.
One lap on and this time the PREMA driver made the move stick into the first turn, leaving Tsolov with little hope of fighting back through on corner exit. With a strong lap, Lindblad broke out of DRS range to the Bulgarian driver leaving him to fight those behind. Van Hoepen took full advantage and passed for second with three laps remaining.
Fornaroli was next to take a spot from the ART driver, clearing Tsolov for third position on Lap 18 into Turn 1 under braking. Once Lindblad took the lead and escaped, there was no catching him and he claimed the first race win of the 2024 F3 season for PREMA as the youngest driver on the 2024 grid. Van Hoepen secured a podium for ART on his debut also while Fornaroli rounded out the podium for Trident in third.
Tsolov wound up fourth to put two ARTs in the top five while Tim Tramnitz secured P5 for MP Motorsport. Gabriele Minì made a strong drive through to the points-paying positions and battled with Esterson for sixth on the final lap. The American driver held on by just 0.004s in a drag race out of the final corner. Mari Boya, Oliver Goethe and Sami Meguetounif rounded out the points in eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1763518797153988799?s=20
[Note: The story is as per press release]
