Roundup of the sixth round of 2023 F2 season in Barcelona, Spain.
PREMA’s Frederik Vesti entered this round as the championship leader ahead of ART GP’s Theo Pourchaire by just five points, whilst Ayumu Iwasa headed the chasing pack on a weekend where F2 hit the halfway mark of the season.
This weekend however saw one team dominate proceedings even despite rain hitting the Sprint Race, so here is a roundup of all the action in Spain.
Practice
Ralph Boschung was first out on track for Campos at the team’s home event ahead of everyone else with everyone on hard tyres, but the entire field opted to pit at the end of their installation laps.
Boschung and teammate – Kush Maini however were straight back out after some tweaks with Boschung setting the initial benchmark time of 1m 43.595 in the seventh minute, although Maini quickly bettered that time by 0.175 seconds.
The season-opening Sprint Race winner however hit back with 1m 37.365 then 1m 28.936 in the next few minutes, until Virtuosi’s Amaury Cordeel posted 1m 28.522 to go top in the 13th minute which Boschung quickly beat by 0.571s.
Cordeel hit back a minute later with 1m 27.712 to go fastest before Boschung responded a further three minutes later with 1m 27.621 to return to the summit just as everyone else ventured out onto the track for their opening fliers.
MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger then Jehan Daruvala went quickest and the Indian soon led with 1m 27.084 as the red flags came out in the 21st minute, after ART GP’s Victor Martins spun on the exit of Turn 10 and knocked over an advertising banner.
The session resumed ten minutes later with Vesti posting a session-topping 1m 26.722 in the 35th minute, ahead of his PREMA teammate, Oliver Bearman by 0.126s as Daruvala was demoted to third after he failed to improve on his previous best lap.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 1m 26.722 |
| 2 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | + 0.126 |
| 3 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | + 0.362 |
| 4 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 0.450 |
| 5 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | + 0.472 |
| 6 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | + 0.652 |
| 7 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.671 |
| 8 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | + 0.677 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | + 0.733 |
| 10 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | + 0.761 |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | + 0.845 |
| 12 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.899 |
| 13 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | + 0.990 |
| 14 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | + 1.049 |
| 15 | Roman Stanek | Trident | + 1.085 |
| 16 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 1.179 |
| 17 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | + 1.210 |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | + 1.430 |
| 19 | Brad Benavides | PHM Racing | + 1.728 |
| 20 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 1.733 |
| 21 | Kush Maini | Campos | + 1.755 |
| 22 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 31.850 |
Qualifying
Martins and Pourchaire were first out on track once the pit exit light turned green and Martins proceeded to set the initial benchmark time of 1m 25.565 in the sixth minute, but several drivers swiftly displaced him as Jack Doohan a minute later went top on 1m 24.078 ahead of Iwasa and Fittipaldi.
Verschoor meanwhile found himself on provisional pole at the end of opening runs, in which Vesti and Bearman opted not to conduct their first runs at the same time as everyone else – instead venturing out as everyone else pitted.
Once the pair completed their opening runs, Vesti found himself seventh in the order whilst Bearman went fourth-fastest.
MP Motorsport meanwhile gambled on an early second run for Hauger and Daruvala at the same time as Vesti and Bearman’s opening runs, which saw Hauger post 1m 23.923 to go fastest whilst Daruvala slotted into third.
Neither driver improved on their next fliers during which Hauger was impeded through Turn 3 by Pourchaire in the 16th minute.
Pourchaire meanwhile went fastest with 1m 23.744 in the 20th minute but Fittipaldi went 0.121s quicker with 1m 23.623, as almost everyone bar Hauger, Daruvala, Bearman, Doohan and Vesti opted to run the first flier of their second runs at the same time.
Bearman’s gamble to wait until everyone had completed their final proper flying laps paid off as he posted 1m 23.546 to snatch his second F2 Feature Race pole position, ahead of Fittipaldi much to Carlin’s fury who believed that Bearman had exceeded track limits at the final corner.
Doohan and Iwasa qualified on the second row in third and fourth respectively, ahead of Pourchaire, Hauger, Martins, Vesti, Crawford and Cordeel, as the Belgian claimed reverse-pole for the Sprint by qualifying tenth.
Post-race, Pourchaire was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Hauger which meant that he started the Sprint Race from ninth rather than sixth, with Iwasa, Doohan and Fittipaldi all promoted a position on the grid.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 1m 23.546 |
| 2 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | + 0.077 |
| 3 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | + 0.110 |
| 4 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | + 0.193 |
| 5 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.198 |
| 6 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | + 0.377 |
| 7 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.432 |
| 8 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | + 0.463 |
| 9 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.523 |
| 10 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | + 0.541 |
| 11 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | + 0.560 |
| 12 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | + 0.564 |
| 13 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | + 0.682 |
| 14 | Kush Maini | Campos | + 0.698 |
| 15 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | + 0.710 |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | + 0.810 |
| 17 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.951 |
| 18 | Roman Stanek | Trident | + 0.954 |
| 19 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.986 |
| 20 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | + 1.020 |
| 21 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | + 1.115 |
| 22 | Brad Benavides | PHM Racing | + 1.257 |
Sprint Race
Heavy showers between the end of F1’s FP3 session and the start of F2’s Sprint Race meant that the formation lap began behind the Safety Car, before Cordeel led a rolling start as Vesti immediately swept round the outside of Turn 1 to take second from Crawford.
Vesti however made contact with Crawford’s Hitech which ended the American’s race whilst Vesti cut across the corner and rejoined to the correct side of the bollard at Turn 3.
Iwasa meanwhile lost three positions at Turn 5 after he got squeezed wide by Pourchaire, which dropped the Japanese driver to tenth as Bearman made a strong start to climb from 10th to 7th in the order.
Up front, Cordeel ran wide at Turn 10 on Lap 2 which allowed Vesti to breeze past on the inside line to take the lead, whilst Martins followed through two laps later to demote the Belgian driver to third.
Iwasa meanwhile reported that the track was drying by Lap 8 as he cleared Fittipaldi for ninth on the inside of Turn 4.
Doohan meanwhile struggled for pace as the track dried and lost fifth to Pourchaire on Lap 10 before the pair plus fourth-placed Hauger were promoted a position each on Lap 12, as Cordeel ran wide at Turn 6 and slipped to sixth.
The track eventually reached the changeover point between wet and slick tyres on Lap 17 with Daruvala, Maini and Maloney the first to pit on that very lap, which led five cars to follow suit in the next two laps as everyone opted for the soft tyre.
One of those drivers who took the gamble was Correa but he spun out at Turn 2 on Lap 20, which triggered a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) as everyone else opted to pit at the end of that lap as the Safety Car was deployed.
Vesti and Martins retained the lead ahead of Hauger, Pourchaire and Doohan as Verschoor benefitted from pitting a lap earlier, which allowed the Dutchman to leapfrog Bearman for seventh as the Brit leapfrogged Cordeel for seventh in the pits.
Maini meanwhile made a second gamble as he changed to the hard tyre at the end of Lap 20, which ultimately failed to pay off for the Campos driver as he finished last on the road after Daruvala and Nissany made contact at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap and ended up in the gravel trap.
Stewards adjudged Nissany responsible for the collision and handed him a five-place grid penalty, which means he starts the Feature Race from 21st on the grid.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 23 with Vesti retaining his lead as Pourchaire swiftly cleared Hauger and Martins at Turns 1 and 4 respectively for second.
Pourchaire though was unable to prevent his title rival, Vesti from taking victory and opening up a six-point lead in the championship standings.
Martins settled for third ahead of Hauger, Doohan, Verschoor, Bearman and Iwasa who completed the top eight, due to a five-second time penalty for Cordeel due to exceeding track limits on multiple occasions.
Stewards however adjudged that Cordeel failed to serve his time penalty during his pit stop so added a further 10s which dropped the Belgian from 14th to 17th in the classification.
Post-race, Manuel Correa was handed a three-place grid penalty for the Feature Race after he spun Stanek on Lap 15 by clipping the Trident driver’s right-rear tyre as Stanek tried to pass around the outside line.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 26 | 47m 22.796 |
| 2 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 26 | + 1.101 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 26 | + 4.626 |
| 4 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 26 | + 5.184 |
| 5 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 26 | + 5.661 |
| 6 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | 26 | + 7.020 |
| 7 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 26 | + 7.486 |
| 8 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 26 | + 9.864 |
| 9 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | 26 | + 10.215 |
| 10 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | 26 | + 12.387 |
| 11 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 26 | + 12.821 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 26 | + 13.951 |
| 13 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 26 | + 14.329 |
| 14 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | 26 | + 16.056 |
| 15 | Brad Benavides | PHM Racing | 26 | + 16.922 |
| 16 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 26 | + 20.832 |
| 17 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | 26 | + 24.657 |
| 18 | Kush Maini | Campos | 26 | + 60.844 |
| 19 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | 25 | + 1 Lap |
| 20 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | 25 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | 19 | Spin |
| RET | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 1 | Collision |
Feature Race
At lights out, Bearman made a clean start to lead Fittipaldi despite the Brazilian cutting Turn 1 as Pourchaire leapt up to third ahead of Iwasa who too overtook Doohan at the start as the Australian dropped to fifth.
Further back, Hadjar and Novalak collided with the former needing a front wing change, whilst Novalak suffered a puncture which ruined their races.
Martins and Vesti meanwhile headed those who opted for the alternate strategy of hard tyres in their opening stint in seventh and ninth respectively at the end of the opening lap, although Vesti cleared Crawford on Lap 6 on the inside of Turn 1 for eighth position.
Boschung was the first driver on the prime strategy to pit a lap later but the frontrunners stayed out until Pourchaire pitted at the end of Lap 9, which led Fittipaldi to follow suit a lap later but he kept second whilst Doohan was jumped as he exited the pits by Iwasa for a net fourth place.
Bearman however stayed out until the end of Lap 13 and rejoined on hard tyres in 12th position but with Fittipaldi just 0.4 seconds behind him with his hard tyres up to temperature.
The Brit however was able to fend Fittipaldi off and passed Benavides plus Maini on Lap 16 as he quickly built a gap to his Brazilian rival, which he controlled whilst clearing the traffic consisting of those on the alternate strategy.
Martins meanwhile kept Vesti at around two seconds behind him up front until the Dane pitted at the end of Lap 24 and rejoined in ninth, whilst Bearman was now 19.7s off the lead which he inherited again when Martins pitted a lap later and rejoined fifth after an excellent pit stop.
On the same lap as Martins exited the pits, Vesti made a double overtake round the outside of Maloney and Hauger to take seventh, before he cleared Pourchaire a lap later.
Martins meanwhile cleared Doohan on Lap 28 into Turn 1 before eventually he eventually denied Iwasa third place with an inside move into Turn 1 on Lap 35, although the Japanese drive eventually fought off Vesti to take fourth after the Dane had cleared Doohan on the same lap as Martins did.
Doohan settled for sixth ahead of Pourchaire, Hauger, Leclerc and Verschoor who rounded out the top ten, as Bearman cruised home ahead of Fittipaldi to take his third win in F2 this season.
In the driver standings, Vesti extended his lead over Pourchaire to 11 points with Iwasa a further 17 points back in third place.
Bearman meanwhile climbed to fourth in the standings and is now just 40 points off his teammate, Vesti with seven rounds left of the season.
F2 now heads to Spielberg, Austria across weekend of 30 June – 2 July for the seventh round of the 13-round season.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Oliver Bearman | PREMA | 37 | 56m 56.729 |
| 2 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | 37 | + 2.844 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 37 | + 3.478 |
| 4 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 37 | + 9.023 |
| 5 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 37 | + 9.615 |
| 6 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi | 37 | + 17.091 |
| 7 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 37 | + 20.415 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 21.283 |
| 9 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | 37 | + 21.883 |
| 10 | Richard Verschoor | VAR | 37 | + 34.613 |
| 11 | Juan Manuel Correa | VAR | 37 | + 42.034 |
| 12 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 37 | + 42.887 |
| 13 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 37 | + 43.492 |
| 14 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 45.552 |
| 15 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | 37 | + 58.287 |
| 16 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | 37 | + 60.653 |
| 17 | Kush Maini | Campos | 37 | + 62.686 |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | PHM Racing | 37 | + 64.283 |
| 19 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi | 37 | + 81.096 |
| 20 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 36 | + 1 Lap |
| 21 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 36 | + 1 Lap |
| 22 | Brad Benavides | PHM Racing | 36 | + 1 Lap |