Formula 2: Bortoleto wins debut

Saturday’s Formula 2 sprint at the Red Bull Ring was quite fun and it was good to expect that the main race of the Austrian weekend would also have a combative character.

It was the end of the first half of the season and the battle for leadership in the youth series was quite intense, some were luckier, some less so, but thanks to the ability to consistently earn points, Estonian driver Pola Aron was in the lead, albeit with a relatively small advantage.

The surprises started before the start, as pole sitter Dennis Hauger, the American Jack Crawford and Zane Maloney from Barbados did not make it to the formation lap. All three cars simply stopped, the marshals rolled them into the pit lane, but only Hauger and Crawford were able to start from there.

This is how Joshua Duerksen inherited the first position. The Paraguayan AIX Racing driver got off to a great start and retained the lead, although he was just 0.7 seconds ahead of the chasing Gabriel Bortoleto at the end of the first lap.

Franco Colapinto was running third and was already under full pressure from Aron, who in turn had to hold off the attack of Isaac Hajjar, his main rival for championship leadership.

On the third lap, an interesting duel unfolded between Durksen and Bortoleto, by the way, a McLaren youth program driver. The Brazilian went on the attack, but Joshua fought back, but he did not manage to hold the first position for so long: on the next lap the Invicta Raicing pilot took the lead.

On lap 5 Hadjar made a determined attack on Aron, but he was quite aggressive in defence of 4th position, and the French Campos rider complained on the radio that Paul was constantly pushing him off the track.

The stewards became interested in this episode and after some time it became known that they decided to punish the Estonian by adding 5 penalty seconds to him for repeated movements in the braking zones.

At the end of the 7th lap the first pit stops started, especially Bortoleto and Durksen went for new tires, so Franco Colapinto took the lead, Aron was second, Oliver Berman, the winner of yesterday’s sprint, was third. After a few laps however Aron also turned into the pits and returned to the track as 14th, behind Durksen.

Kimi Antonelli, Berman’s partner at Prema Racing, was unlucky again: the young Italian’s car stopped in the pits and the mechanics were unable to start it immediately. As a result, he rolled back to the last position.

After the first twelve laps, Bortoleto was leading, Berman was second, Zach O’Sullivan third, but the top three had not yet pitted, nor had six other drivers who occupied positions 4 through 9.

The fastest lap of this stage of the race was set by Gabriel Bortoleto, who tried to overtake Campos rider Jose “Pepe” Marti, who was running tenth. The Spaniard was one of the first to change the tires, allowing him to stay ahead of the others who made the mandatory pit stop after him.

On lap 18 there was an incident involving Rafael Villagomez and Roman Stanek: they started to fight for position, there was contact between the cars and the Mexican ended up off the track. Carbon debris flew around and Crawford took advantage of this situation, ahead of Stanek and climbed to 4th position.

On the 20th lap, Bortoleto still overtook and Marty got ahead – this was already a bid for victory, because now the Brazilian had to take the lead when those who were not yet there went to the pits.

On the same lap some technical problems occurred with Berman’s car, he slowly returned to the pits and got out of the cockpit – generally Oliver continued to be dogged by bad luck.

The stewards announced their verdict: Roman Stanek was found guilty of the incident with Villagomez and given a 10-second penalty.

On lap 23, a duel broke out between Martí and Hadjar, two Red Bull youth program drivers and Campos teammates. Isaac attacked actively, Pepe defended no less actively and so far he managed to maintain 6th position. At the same time, Hadjar was literally shouting over the radio to the team, trying to convince them to give instructions to Marty so that he would let him pass.

Campos hesitated for a moment, but then asked the Spaniard to move up, and on lap 28 the Frenchman moved up to 6th position, which by a lucky coincidence should have been 2nd at the finish.

At the same time, Paul Aron was still 8th and Marty was also overtaking, but he received a fine, making it difficult to predict where he would end up.

Ten laps from the finish the top four drivers were still not in the pits, which did not stop Crawford and O’Sullivan from enthusiastically battling for third place, although they had already been overtaken by Bortoleto, who was in the pits, and on lap 31 ahead of the Briton.

At the same time it was announced that a fine had been imposed by the stewards on Marty for a specific infringement, which was not televised.

On the 34th lap everyone was finally in the pits and it was very logical that Bortoleto was now in the lead. Hadjar was more than two seconds behind him, followed by Marty, who gradually overtook Aron. The Estonian would ideally have increased his lead over his nearest pursuer to five seconds to maintain his position even after the penalty was applied.

Behind him, however, was Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian MP Motorsport driver, who was one of the last to change tires, and thanks to the new tires he was able to maintain an excellent speed, easily overtaking Aron and quickly overtaking Marty.

On the penultimate lap Colapinto passed the Spaniard Campos in a magnificent way and it was clear that Hadjar could not resist either. A few corners before the finish Franco finished the job and moved up to second position, which he managed to achieve thanks to the aggressive tactic of a very late pit stop.

And Gabriel Bortoleto, last year’s F3 champion, took his debut victory in Formula 2, and did so with confidence and in good style.

Apparently he justifies McLaren’s confidence, and we will hear more about him. In any case, Andrea Stella, the head of the famous British Formula 1 team, was also seen on the first row of the podium. The trophy for the victory was handed to Gabriel by none other than his compatriot Emerson Fittipaldi and two-time world champion, a legend of Brazilian and world motorsport.

Next to Bortoleto on the podium were Franco Colapinto and Isaac Hadjar, and the latter was clearly not happy: after the finish he criticized the team on the radio for thinking too long before asking his teammate, José “Pepe” Marti, to help him let through. Hadjar was confident that if this had been done earlier, he would have taken 2nd place.

Hajjar has at least reduced the gap with Paul Aron in the individual rankings to 9 points, although the Estonian, classified sixth after a penalty, is still in the lead. And thanks to today’s victory, Gabriel Bortoleto rose to third place, he is 19 points behind Hadjar, but if he continues to be successful, he will soon become one of the main contenders for the title.

Race results