Formula 2: Victor Martin opens the scoring

If Saturday’s sprint took place on a track that dried up after the rain in rather difficult conditions, when the skill of the youth series riders was just being put to the test, then Sunday morning at Silverstone, although it was gloomy, but at least there none of it dripped from the gray English skies.

At the end of the morning the Formula 3 race was held in light rain, so it cannot be said that the asphalt was completely dry, but at least it was allowed to start on slicks.

Victor Marten, who won qualifying on Friday, started the weekend’s feature race from pole, but did not start in the best of ways, unlike Ayumu Iwasa, who took the lead in the opening moments, although he started third. That did not suit the French debutant ART, and he immediately managed to earn back. But he did it in a not quite correct way – we will come back to this topic later.

The Japanese did not intend to give in, but Marten set such a high pace in the first laps that Ayumu had to settle for second position. After a few laps, Victor has already built up a lead of more than 2 seconds.

Third was Oliver Berman, who claimed a high result until the last yesterday, but made an unfortunate mistake when the finish was already very close. But it must be assumed that the 18-year-old Briton was determined to improve today, so he didn’t allow Enzo Fittipaldi to take his position.

The Brazilian soon fell behind, but Jack Duane, who climbed the podium yesterday, was already catching up with him – it was he who forced Berman to make a mistake in the sprint. On lap 5 the Australian overtook Fittipaldi and moved up to 4th position, although he struggled to keep the car on the track in the next corner. From Berman, his opponent yesterday, Duane separated by about two seconds, and it was clear that Oliver should be his next target.

On lap 6, yellow flags appeared and many drivers went to the mandatory pit stop. As it turned out, Amory Kordil’s car had stopped on track, so the yellow flags were replaced by a safety car. In this situation everyone also decided to change tires – therefore the drivers had to run on hard tires for the remaining 23 laps. This is a lot, and another question is what condition the tires will be in closer to the finish.

Meanwhile, it became known that the stewards paid attention to the episode in which Marten regained his lead on the first lap – it was suspected that Ayumu, defending himself, forced him to leave the track, but the Frenchman nevertheless overtook to the end. The judges had to find out if that overtaking action was correct.

Before the restart, Marten lost a number of positions due to a pit stop, but still ran third and Isaac Hadjar took the lead, followed by Arthur Leclerc.

On lap 10, the safety car returned to the pits and the fight resumed. But almost immediately it became clear that Bernd Maylander would have to get back on track immediately, because at the restart there was a collision between the leader of the individual classification Frederik Vesti, Roman Stanek and Dennis Hauger. The Czech driver suddenly braked and Frederik collided with his car from behind. And the Norwegian has already rammed it.

Vesti was able to make it to the pits, where his nose cone was replaced, and he even attempted to return to the track, but soon stopped again, this time completely. The left suspension on the Dane’s Dallara was broken in the collision with Stanek’s car – strange that the mechanics didn’t see this when they changed the front wing.

Hauger’s car also suffered damage and he too had to pit for a new nose cone.

Before the second restart, the order of the top five was the same as after the first restart, being Hadjar-Lecler-Martin-Novalac-Correa. But the general attention was drawn to Theo Purscher, who took 2nd place in the individual competition: the Frenchman rode at the very end of the prize ten and since Vesti retired, he had a chance to at least significantly reduce the gap. Of course, for this it was necessary to make serious efforts.

Hadjar had a great restart and immediately started to pull away from the rest of the peloton. Purscher moved ahead of Duane and Ralph Boschung into 8th position, while Iwasa overtook Zane Maloney to 6th.

It was then that the stewards’ verdict became known: they decided that Marten, who was off the track on the first lap of the race, was given an unfair advantage on his return. For this he received a penalty of 5 seconds.

Around the same time, Boschung and Kush Maini collided in the area of ​​the start-finish line, both got out, but to get their car off the track, the safety car had to be released again and the peloton drove down the pit lane behind them. Some riders decided to change tires again and the order in the top five changed.

Marten returned to the lead, followed by Maloney, Purcher moved up to 3rd position, Leclerc was 4th and Iwasa was 5th.

When the safety car returned to the pits, there were still 10 laps to go to the finish. Marten faced a difficult task: if he dreamed of victory, he had to create a lead of more than five seconds.

On lap 21, Arthur Leclerc took advantage of Purcher’s mistake and nimbly slipped past him as he almost ran into Maloney’s car. As a result, the Monegask moved up to 3rd position and has already started to attack Barbadian rider Rodin Carlin. He defended himself fiercely and Leclerc complained over the radio that Maloney had pushed him off the track.

With five laps to go, Marten brought the lead to almost 4 seconds and continued to pick up the pace – he was also the author of the best lap of the race.

On lap 25, Purcher managed to bounce back, get ahead of Leclerc and get back to 3rd. Arthur soon made a mistake when Duane attacked him, he couldn’t stay on track and Jack calmly climbed up to 4th position.

On the 27th lap, Martin’s lead exceeded 5 seconds, respectively, if the Frenchman manages to hold on and develop it, then the victory should go to him anyway.

Leclerc continued to lose ground after his mistake. It seems he claimed the podium until recently, but apparently the tires finally started to give up, so by the penultimate lap of the race Arthur was already 9th.

The hero of the day was, of course, Victor Marten, last year’s Formula 3 champion: despite a bad start and a 5-second penalty, he crossed the finish line first, more than seven seconds ahead of Zane Maloney. This is his first F2 win but there is no doubt that success will give him confidence and we will be hearing about him more than once.

When the Marseillaise hit Silverstone at the awards ceremony, as Victor plays for the French ART team, the whole world heard the chorus of its employees singing the French national anthem.

Maloney, a rider from the island of Barbados, member of the Red Bull youth program, also deserves credit: after starting from 7th, he took 2nd.

And Theo Purscher, who finished third, was able to close the gap on Frederik Vesti, who was simply unlucky today. The Dane remained the leader of the individual classification, but his lead was reduced to just 6 points.

Racing results

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