Saturday’s F2 sprint at Silverstone was quite enjoyable, and after the finish of the first race of the weekend there was a feeling that the results would be revised. And so it was.
Two riders received penalty points and especially the top three changed. The impetuous overtaking action of Kush Maini in the last meters of the distance cost Gabriel Bortoleto a lot. The Brazilian rider of the team Invicta Racing took 3rd place because he was already ahead of his teammate outside the track, which added 5 seconds to his result. As a result, he and Maini swapped positions: the Indian received 6 points for 3rd place and Bortoleto was in 4th place in the official race report.
Zach O’Sullivan was also fined for throwing Victor Martin, one of the big losers of the season and his ART team-mate, off the track. For this, the Briton was stripped of five positions at the start and in the main race of the weekend he started from a distant 19th position.
And Isaac Hajjar, a Campos Racing driver and member of the Red Bull youth program, one of the main contenders for the title, who until today occupied the 2nd place in the individual classification and was only slightly behind the leader, started from pole position. At the same time, he and all his rivals looked worriedly at the sky, as the weather forecast promised rain. Let’s say, looking ahead, that it did not come true.
Hajjar, to be honest, started without success, letting both Martin and Oliver Berman pass, and somewhere in the depths of the peloton an acute situation arose due to the departure of Kimi Antonelli, the winner of yesterday’s sprint. The safety car came out. And the Italian’s car turned around because he was pushed by Kush Maini, who continued, while the young Italian left the race.
On the 3rd lap the race was resumed, at the restart Martin kept the lead, he was chased by Berman, Hadjar was third. But the most interesting duel was between Dennis Hauger and Franco Colapinto: the Norwegian was actively pushing his opponent and would probably have given him the last hand if there had not been another safety car. This time due to the departure from the track of Joshua Duerksen, whose car got stuck in the gravel after contact with the Dallara of Paul Aron, the leader of the individual competition. The Paraguayan driver attacked the Estonian and tried to take eleventh position from him, but he defended himself and pushed his opponent involuntarily or deliberately onto the grass, where the car of the AIX Racing team spun, crossed the track and got stuck on the other side of the road.
Paul Aron was then forced to pit, where Hitech mechanics quickly examined the car, determined there was no major damage and simultaneously changed the tyres. The Estonian had dropped to 19th position and was now forced to run the remaining 23 laps on hard tyres in the hope of scoring points, but the clouds were gathering, both literally and figuratively, as the stewards began investigating his incident with Durksen.
While the safety car remained on track, Richard Ferschor and Enzo Fittipaldi also went to the pits, but their pit stops were planned.
Before the second restart the top five looked like this: Martin – Berman – Hadjar – Crawford – Bortoleto, and this order was maintained when the battle on track resumed.
Martin broke away from Berman by over a second, preventing the Briton from using DRS, while Hajjar, on the other hand, came close to Oliver’s car and was clearly preparing an attack. On lap 8, as soon as it became possible to use DRS, Isaac took decisive action and pulled ahead of Berman, who no longer put up much resistance, as he was called to the pits.
But Hadjar also turned into the pit lane, returning to the track first ahead of Berman – in 17th place. His task was made easier by the fact that Prema mechanics were fiddling with one of the wheels of Oliver’s car during the pit stop.
On the 10th lap, the leader, Victor Martin, also pitted, allowing Hauger to take the first position and, after a mandatory pit stop, to finish 13th. On the next lap, Hauger also went for new tires and the race was temporarily led by Franco Colapinto.
Here the stewards’ verdict on Aron was announced: he was given a 10-second penalty for the fact that his actions caused the accident. At that time Paul was driving in 8th place, but now his chances of earning points have become very small.
On lap 12, a fierce battle broke out between Martin and Hadjar. Isaac attacked his compatriot, but he had no intention of giving up twelfth place and the Red Bull-liveried car ended up on the side of the road, after which Hajjar immediately complained on the radio that he had been forced off the track.
Aron apparently still lost hope of finishing in the top ten, kept attacking his rivals and on the 15th lap he was already 7th after successfully overtaking Rafael Villagomez and Ritomo Miata. On lap 17 he gained another position, ahead of Roman Stanek.
More than half the race was behind us and none of the top five were in a hurry to pit – it was clear that they were planning to wait until the last minute to get new tires at the end and actively attack in the final laps. In the previous stage in Austria this tactic had proven very successful, but what would happen at Silverstone was not yet entirely clear.
On lap 19, Hadjar launched another attack on Martin, and this time Victor ended up off the track and immediately lost several positions. After this, Hajjar tried to attack Jack Crawford, but he resisted and held his position for the time being. But then it was announced that the American would receive a 5-second time penalty for the fact that the DAMS team had unsafely released his car from the pits after a pit stop.
At this point, the top five riders finally decided to swap tires, with Aron taking the lead on lap 23. Franco Colapinto, who had led the race earlier, returned to the track on soft tires in 8th behind Victor Martin and 21 seconds behind Paul. At the same time, there were still five laps to go until the finish.
On lap 25 Gabriel Bortoleto made a great pass on Oliver Berman and moved up to 8th position. Ahead of them Colapinto and Martin were already fighting for 6th place, and the Argentinian on newer tires got ahead of Victor and immediately rushed after Zane Maloney, who was 4th. On the way Franco set the fastest lap of the race.
Three laps from the finish Aron was still in the lead, but it was time for him to pit, where he had to serve a penalty. After being given soft tyres, Paul returned to the track in 14th place.
In the final laps an interesting battle unfolded between Hauger and Jose Marti, which ended in favor of the Norwegian, who climbed to 9th position.
On the last lap Crawford was leading but he was given a five-second penalty and was only three seconds ahead of Hajjar who was second. On the track Jack crossed the finish line first and had penalty seconds added to his time and he only finished third. But I still managed to stay on the podium and that was something to be happy about.
And the victory went to Isaac Hadjar, who started the race badly but then bounced back and ran fighting. After the British stage, it was he who led the personal classification, pushing Paul Aron into second place. French rider Campos reached the top step of the podium for the third time this season and now leads by 16 points.
With the Estonian Hitech rider not earning any points, Gabriel Bortoleto finished sixth and Zane Maloney in second place, allowing the Barbadian rider to move up to third place in the standings. He is also 16 points behind Aron, but the picture could change again in the next stage in Hungary.
The results are being prepared…
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
