Formula 2: Bahrain Sprint won by Zane Maloney

After the disqualification of Invicta Racing’s Indian driver Kush Maini yesterday, pole position in the main race of the season was taken over by his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto. But we won’t know until tomorrow how the Formula 2 debutant and current F3 champion will achieve this.

And the American Jack Crawford, who plays for the French team DAMS this season, started from the first position in the sprint today. Last year he was a Hitech racer and although he couldn’t boast consistent results, he made it onto the podium several times and even won the sprint in Austria.

Taylor Barnard, a 19-year-old Briton, debutant for the PHM AIX Racing team, started the short race next to him from the front row and he was probably offended: yesterday, at the end of qualifying, he showed the 10th result, which, however, gave him pole position in the sprint. Due to the aforementioned disqualification, Maini lost his position.

But Victor Martin, one of the season’s favorites, started the race third, and it was of course important for him to really stake his claim to the title from the very first stage.

For some, the difficulties started before the start: Joshua Duerksen was unable to complete the warm-up lap, so the season debutant’s car was pushed into the pit lane. That’s where the PHM mechanics started it, and the Paraguayan rider obviously started last.

When the starting lights went out, Crawford got off to a good start and retained the lead, but Martin, as expected, broke through to 2nd position. However, after just one lap, yellow flags appeared on the track, after which the virtual safety car mode was introduced. This happened because Amaury Cordil’s car stopped on the side of the road, but after a lap the battle resumed on track.

After the restart, Martin tried to attack the leader, but Crawford retained the first position, but for third place there was a fierce battle between Zach O’Sullivan and Zane Maloney, from which the driver from the island of Barbados emerged victorious. Furthermore, O’Sullivan was immediately pushed into 6th position by Enzo Fittipaldi and Isaac Hajjar, but Maloney seemed to get the hang of it, with a dashing maneuver ahead of Martin and into 2nd place!

Crawford remained in the lead, but Maloney almost overtook him – by the way, he started from 8th position and made such noticeable progress in just a few laps. On lap 8, Daan took the lead, and although his opponent attempted a counterattack, nothing came of it.

It was then that the stewards’ decision was announced, with Franco Colapinto being given a 10-second Stop&Go penalty – it turned out that the Argentinian MP Motorsport driver made a mistake by taking the wrong position on the grid.

In the 10th of the 23 laps, Martin Crawford began to actively push, clearly aiming to take over the American’s second position. Their cars were only about five-tenths apart, but there was no decisive attack and the interval again grew to more than a second.

About halfway through the race, the Prema team decided to call their riders for pit stops, although there is no need to change tires during the sprint at all. This left Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Berman at the back of the pack – it seems that things are clearly not going well for them in the first phase of the season.

After two-thirds of the distance, the top three looked like this: Maloney was in the lead with an advantage of almost three seconds, followed by Crawford, followed by Martin, but had already given up the battle for second place – it seemed that he had problems with the car. The video replay showed that at one point he missed the next corner and ended up off the track. Isaac Hadjar quickly took advantage of this and overtook without any problems and moved up to 3rd position.

At the same time, Jose Maria Marti, a debutant for the Campos team, began to attack Martin, and on the 18th lap he was able to move forward. The Frenchman’s car gradually lost speed – it became clear that he had the same problems as Hadjar, who complained to the team over the radio that his front tires were already completely worn out. Isaac was still in 3rd position, but Marty was already right behind him.

In the 20th round, an interesting duel unfolded between them, which ultimately ended in victory for the Spanish debutant, although Hadjar resisted to the last.

With three laps to go, Maloney had built his lead to almost five seconds, with Crawford in second and unchallenged as Marty was more than three seconds behind. Hajjar began to fall behind Spanish debutant Campos, and Estonian Paul Aron, another F2 newcomer, completed the top five.

But Gabriel Bortoleto pushed him to the finish, and it looked like he would take fifth position from the Hitech driver, but Paul was able to hold on, even though their cars crossed the finish line almost simultaneously.

The Bahrain circuit is probably particularly good for Zane Maloney: last year he achieved the podium here during his debut weekend in Formula 2, and today he took his first victory, which he was very happy with. You can imagine how proud Barbados are of their young compatriot! It is no coincidence that the name of this island state is written in large white letters on his overalls. By the way, Maloney is part of the Sauber racing academy.

Jack Crawford finished second, third was Jose Maria Marti, who is often called “Pepe” in the paddock and is a member of the Red Bull youth program. Azey Hadjar took fourth place, Paul Aron fifth place. Thus, already in the very first race of the season, two newcomers reached the top five, and this speaks of their fighting spirit and aggressiveness – which means that an interesting championship awaits us.

Sprint results