Formula 2: First victory of the season for Victor Martin

In Barcelona, ​​during Saturday’s Formula 2 sprint, Kush Maini started from pole, after showing 10th in yesterday’s qualifying. But next to him from the front row Victor Martin started the race, who really wanted to improve his unenviable position, because the start of the season for the ART driver was very unsuccessful.

Before the start he warned that he would try to take every opportunity to get ahead, and he succeeded very well. Partly because Maini got off to a bad start and Victor entered the first corner as the leader. But the Indian Invicta Racing driver immediately lost five positions and it looked like it would be extremely difficult to win back.

Ritomo Miata moved up to second position and immediately tried to chase Martin down. Maini gained a few places back in the second round, ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Gabriele Bortoleto, and moved up to third place.

The leader of the personal competition, Paul Aron, put pressure on Bortoleto. On the 4th lap, Miata tried to attack the leader, and Isaac Hajjar tried to attack Kimi Antonelli, who was in 7th place, but in neither case was it possible to regain positions.

After five of the 26 laps of the first race of the weekend, Victor Martin remained in the lead, the Miata was less than a second behind him and Maini was already one and a half seconds behind the Japanese driver. Hadjar continued to follow Antonelli closely, but complained to the team on the radio that the Italian was moving into the braking zone.

Soon, however, Martin improved, or the Miata’s car tires were already failing, but he began to lag behind. Antonelli continued to fend off Hajar’s attacks, but his Prema teammate Oliver Berman fell back to last position. At the same time he started 15th, but on the 11th lap everyone who started the race behind him managed to stay ahead of him.

When the radio team advised Berman to stay within the track’s limits to avoid a fine, he simply snapped and said he didn’t have time for it because the car refused to turn at all.

In the 12th round, Hadjar put the finishing touches to Antonelli after a wonderful duel, but even then Jack Crawford was ahead of the Italian. Overall, things did not go well for Prema from the start of the season, and they did not improve during the Spanish leg.

By the 15th lap, Maini had almost caught up with the Miata and began to gradually put pressure on it, but the point of attack had not yet been reached.

In the next lap the first penalty was announced: Roman Stanek received 5 penalty seconds for exceeding the track limits.

10 laps before the finish, Antonelli, who had already fallen outside the top eight and receives points based on the result of the sprint, had to fend off Dennis Hauger’s attacks.

Ritomo Miata also received a 5-second penalty for the same sin: the Japanese driver did not respect the limits of the circuit. Because Maini was about a second and a half behind him and Bortoleto behind the Indian rider, Ritomo risked not making the podium.

With five laps to go, Crawford managed to overtake Hajjar and Hauger was eventually able to pass Antonelli. At the same time, it was clear that the tires on Kimi’s car were extremely worn and it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to stay on the track. In one of the corners he was even outside, because the car just slid across the track.

Three laps before the finish, Crawford started pushing Aron in an attempt to take sixth position from the Estonian. Paul resisted, although it was clear that the tires on his Dallara were far from in the best condition. In an attempt to ‘get the American off his tail’, Aron accelerated and even tried to attack Correa, who was in front, but he too did not wait for the Estonian to take active action and moved ahead of Bortoleto. And then not only Aron, but also Crawford passed him.

They crossed the finish line in this order. Victor Martin, who had never been on the podium this year, took his first victory of the season. On the track, Ritomo Miata finished the race in second, but a penalty immediately dropped him to 8th position, although this still gives him one bonus point.

As a result, Kush Maini took 2nd place and Juan Manuel Correa also reached the podium. Paul Aron received 5 points for 4th place, which allowed him to strengthen his leadership in the championship as everyone who finished earlier in the individual competition is below him. Closest to him is Isaac Hadjar, who finished seventh today and got two points. But on Sunday it will be the Estonian who will start from pole, while Hadjar only showed the 11th fastest time yesterday, giving Aron every chance to increase his lead.

Sprint results on Saturday