Formula 2: Oliver Berman won the sprint in Qatar

Saturday’s sprint in Formula 2 promised some interesting intrigue, especially since at this stage of the season every price point is extremely valuable. Isaac Hajjar, who started from 2nd place, was only 4.5 points behind the leader of the personal classification, Gabriel Bortoleto, but did not perform yesterday’s qualifying in the best way.

To somehow improve his position he first had to stay ahead of Oliver Berman, who started from pole, but the Prema driver acted very clearly and entered the first corner earlier. Naturally, Hajar rushed to overtake him and stayed right behind the Brit.

Already at the beginning of the first lap he tried to make an attack, but Berman kept his position, but Hadjar did not lag behind and still took the lead on the second lap. Isaac was helped by the fact that he started on softer Medium tyres, while Oliver’s Dallara had hard tyres.

Victor Martin was third at this stage of the race – he had a great start from 7th position and immediately broke into the top three, but was two seconds behind Berman.

Meanwhile, Hadjar increased his lead and was already 3.5 seconds ahead of Oliver on the 5th lap. In the middle of the peloton there was an active struggle for positions, Bortoleto and Dino Beganovic were ahead of Oliver Goethe, but this was most likely explained by the fact that the engine of the car of the German MP Motorsport driver began to fail.

Soon it literally exploded, there was a lot of fire and smoke, the car stopped on the side of the road and the virtual safety car mode was introduced.

The restart took place on the 8th lap and Jack Crawford immediately tried to get ahead of Martin, but he fought back.

Paul Aron, the winner of yesterday’s qualifying, was already seventh from 9th at the start and pushed Richard Ferschor with all his might, and the Estonian was in turn attacked by Bortoleto. It’s just not easy to overtake on this circuit, and so far few have succeeded.

Crawford complained to the team on the radio that Martin was defending too aggressively, and this happened after the American DAMS rider went off the track in the heat of an attack. But the stewards believed that everything had gone according to the rules so far. On the 10th lap Jack made another attack, and again Victor fought it off, acting very roughly – it seems there was contact between the cars.

It seemed like Martin was starting to have problems with the tires as Crawford attacked him every lap, but Victor managed to hold on to third position so far.

Meanwhile, Berman was gradually closing the gap with Hadjar – the hard tires allowed him to maintain a high pace, but it was curious whether the Medium in the Frenchman’s car would survive to the finish. There were still ten laps to go and Isaac’s lead had shrunk to just over a second.

The DAMS team probably complained that Maarten was aggressive when the stewards started investigating his defensive actions when he was attacked by Crawford. However, on the 17th lap, Jack was still able to overtake his opponent and take third place from him.

On the same lap the interval between Hadjar and Berman’s cars was reduced to 0.6-0.7 seconds and continued to decrease, already allowing Oliver to use DRS.

Martin continued to lose ground and let Ferschor go, and behind them Bortoleto actively attacked Aron. He held his ground for the time being, but then came very aggressively in front of Martin, after which the Frenchman was passed by Bortoleto and some other riders.

At the end of the 20th lap, Hadjar made a mistake, which Berman immediately took advantage of and made an excellent overtaking move in the 1st corner, regaining the lead. Isaac tried to counterattack, but he overdid it and ended up spinning and going off track. As a result, he lost three positions in one go and was only fourth one lap before the finish.

But that’s not all: Kimi Antonelli, Berman’s teammate, attacked Bortoleto’s teammate Kush Maini on the 21st lap, but there was very hard contact between the cars, causing both to retire. The safety car came onto the track even though there was nothing left until the finish.

The restart took place only on the last lap, or rather, one corner before the end of the race, when nothing could spoil the holiday for Oliver Berman, who won a wonderful victory, acted very thoughtfully and cautiously and was an excellent example of professional behavior demonstrated. maturity. In general, this is not surprising, because he has already become a Formula 1 driver – this is the case if the position requires it.

Also on the podium at the end of the sprint were Jack Crawford and Richard Ferschor, while Hadjar had to settle for 4th place. As Bortoleto finished sixth and earned 3 points, he remained the leader in the individual standings, although his lead was reduced to two and a half points.

But in yesterday’s qualifying Gabriel posted a second fastest time, while Isaac Hajjar will only start ninth in Sunday’s race, and today we saw how overtaking works on this track. In general, Bortoleto clearly has more chances, although perhaps you should not get ahead of events, because a lot can happen tomorrow, including possible surprises.

The results are being prepared…