Formula 2: Saturday Sprint won by Dennis Hauger

In Formula 2, the surprises already started before the start of Saturday’s sprint. The track didn’t have time to dry after a brief rain shower, surprising Ralph Boschung and Enzo Fittipaldi. They could not stay on the track and not only flew out, but also destroyed the cars. Accordingly, they both left.

This delayed the start of the race by 5 minutes and when the race started Dennis Hauger started confidently and kept the lead. Immediately, in the very first corners, Jack Crawford tried to attack him, but the Norwegian managed to fight back, albeit with difficulty.

In general, the battle for positions was going on throughout the pack and the start turmoil between some cars meant there were minor contacts, although without much consequence. Unless Ayumu Iwasa got a puncture and was forced to pit to change tyres, which happened on the 3rd lap. This dropped the Japanese DAMS rider to last place.

On lap 5, Zane Maloney rushed to attack Victor Martin, and their duel continued into several corners, but the Frenchman, running fifth, managed to defend the position.

In the 7th lap, Arthur Leclerc attacked Kush Maini and even took the lead, but the Indian showed perseverance, did not give up, counterattacked the Monegask and remained third.

After the first ten laps, Hauger was leading, but was unable to extend the lead over Crawford; Maini kept getting third and Leclerc kept trying to get ahead of him but to no avail. At the same time, it was clear that Arthur was taking risks, because at the most critical moments, of course, he struggled to keep the car on the track.

Meanwhile, the clouds gathered, the risk of rain increased, which should have mixed all the cards, of course, and the engineers began to radio the riders to prepare for the worsening of the situation on the track.

On lap 13 Maloney was able to get ahead of Marten in a completely puzzling maneuver, and at one point it looked like the Barbadian rider was going to fly off the track to the side of the road, but Zane still managed the situation keep under control. .

However, it started to rain and it became increasingly difficult to stay on track. At that point, after contact with Juan Manuel, Correa turned over Jack Duane’s car, it stopped, so the safety car immediately took off. The stewards began to investigate the incident and after some time it became known that the American received a time penalty of 10 seconds.

It started raining quickly but quickly stopped, but a few riders pitted anyway and put on intermediate tires, although this was a questionable decision. In any case, it was precisely because of this that Victor Marten, Jehan Daruwala and Ayumu Iwasa ended up in the tail of the pack, but the Japanese, who clearly had nothing to lose, returned to the pit lane and returned to the slicks. . Just as the safety car was due to return to the pits, Ben Benavidez flew off the track, forcing Bernd Maylander, the safety car driver, to remain on the track for a few more laps.

On the 20th lap, the safety car left the track, the fight resumed, but there was very little left before the finish. At the restart Hauger kept the lead, he was closely followed by Crawford followed by Maini.

One of those clearly in a hurry to switch to wet tires was Theo Purscher, and he obviously couldn’t keep up with the pace of those on slicks. Attempts to add only resulted in him flying to the sidelines.

However, the race ended here: Dennis Hauger, who was already on the podium in Bahrain, took his first win of the season. But American Jack Crawford was in the top three for the first time, as was Kush Maini, another Formula 2 debutant, which is also a great achievement.

After the first race of the Australian weekend in the individual classification of the youth series, a curious picture emerged: formally Ralph Boschung remains in the front row, who did not even start today. Second place goes to Ayumu Iwasa, who won the qualification the day before and got an extra bonus point for it, and he has the same points as the Swiss.

On the third line is Theo Purscher, who did not cross the finish line in the sprint, but was classified. And Hauger, the winner of today’s race, has moved up to fourth and will start tenth tomorrow, so he still has a chance to improve his standings as he loses to the leaders by just three points.

It is quite possible to expect a fierce battle to take place in the main race of the weekend tomorrow, which will lead to new permutations in the individual standings.

Saturday match results