2024 F2 Season Roundup: Round Six – Spain

Roundup of the sixth round of the 2024 F2 season as the title fight took centre stage.

Rookie, Paul Aron entered this round looking to extend his title lead over Isack Hadjar on a weekend which saw closely-fought Practice and Qualifying sessions, followed by two entertaining races as one driver returned to the F2 podium after a five-year gap.

Now, here is a full roundup of all the action in Barcelona, Spain.

 

Practice

Trident’s Richard Verschoor was first out on track but it was AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen who set a benchmark 1m 28.149 to go fastest, but was beaten in the 14th minute as Rodin’s Ritomo Miyata posted 1m 27.639 to go top by 0.103 seconds just moments after Durksen lowered his time.

Several drivers however only did a formation lap in the opening minutes before pitting, but PREMA’s Oliver Bearman was the first to post a representative lap time out of the late runners with 1m 27.416 in the 21st minute.

Championship leader, Aron two minutes later set the quickest lap time of the session with 1m 26.922 ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi and Franco Colapinto.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	1m 26.922
2	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	+ 0.136
3	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+ 0.180
4	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.328
5	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 0.341
6	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	+ 0.382
7	Isaack Hadjar	Campos	+ 0.398
8	Richard Verschoor	Trident	+ 0.433
9	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 0.445
10	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.457
11	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 0.494
12	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 0.513
13	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 0.601
14	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 0.712
15	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 0.717
16	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 0.820
17	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 0.896
18	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 0.943
19	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 0.992
20	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 1.072
21	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 1.202
22	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	+ 1.392

 

Qualifying

Stanek was first out on track with 11 more drivers whilst others opted to stay in the pit lane, which soon proved a wise decision as the red flags came out in the seventh minute after Barnard crashed at Turn 9 whilst Aron sat top with benchmark 1m 25.385 set a minute earlier.

The action resumed after a seven minute delay and once everyone completed their opening runs, Hadjar headed the order with 1m 25.205 from Antonelli and Aron.

Aron however extracted the most performance on his first lap of the final runs to take his maiden pole and extend his title lead by four points, albeit by just 0.002s from Crawford with Colapinto a further 0.004s back in third.

Bortoleto, Antonelli, Miyata, Durksen, Manuel Correa, Martins and Maini rounded out the top ten, with Maini inheriting reverse pole for the Sprint.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	1m 24.766
2	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.002
3	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+ 0.006
4	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 0.055
5	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 0.105
6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 0.182
7	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 0.222
8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 0.246
9	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.405
10	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 0.433
11	Isack Hadjar	Campos	+ 0.439
12	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	+ 0.459
13	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 0.483
14	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 0.519
15	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 0.555
16	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	+ 0.576
17	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 0.578
18	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 0.646
19	Richard	Trident	+ 0.804
20	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 1.019
21	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 1.449
22	Taylor Barnard	Aix Racing	+ 18.701

 

Sprint Race

As the sprint commenced, Maini got a slow getaway which allowed Martins to scurry away into the lead from Miyata who improved from fifth to second ahead of Manuel Correa, as Bortoleto slotted into fifth ahead of Aron in sixth.

Maini however reclaimed third from Manuel Correa with an inside move at Turn 1 a lap later as the top two settled into a pattern for much of the opening 11 laps, whilst Bearman fell from 15th to the back by the end of Lap 10 with performance issues.

Up front, Antonelli fought off Hadjar until Lap 12 for seventh when the Campos driver made an inside move into Turn 1, with Hauger eventually following through on Lap 20 at Turn 1.

Up front, Martins cruised to his first win and podium finish of the season whilst Miyata picked up a time limit which eventually dropped him to eighth in the classification for the final point.

Maini therefore claimed second whilst Manuel Correa got his first F2 podium in five years after he cleared Bortoleto on the penultimate lap, and the Brazilian eventually finished sixth after Aron and Crawford passed him on the final lap as Hadjar finished seventh.

Stewards post-race handed out further five-second time penalties for track limits breaches which saw Manuel Correa drop to eighth with Aron, Crawford, Bortoleto, Hadjar and Miyata each promoted one position.

Hauger, Antonelli, Villagomez, Colapinto, Maloney and Stanek also fell foul of the post-race time penalties outside of the top eight.

Aron’s fourth-placed finish further extended his title lead to five points over Hadjar once the penalties had all been applied.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Victor Martins	ART GP	26	39m 47.280
2	Kush Maini	Invicta	26	+ 4.411
3	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	26	+ 8.625
4	Jak Crawford	DAMS	26	+ 9.096
5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	26	+ 10.742
6	Isack Hadjar	Campos	26	+ 11.612
7	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	26	+ 12.641
8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	26	+ 12.968
9	Zak O’Sullivan	PREMA	26	+ 25.925
10	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	26	+ 26.814
11	Pepe Marti	Campos	26	+ 27.433
12	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	26	+ 27.834
13	Richard Verschoor	Trident	26	+ 29.362
14	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	26	+ 29.819
15	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	26	+ 29.995
16	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	26	+ 31.765
17	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	26	+ 33.049
18	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	26	+ 35.554
19	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	26	+ 38.349
20	Zane Maloney	Rodin	26	+ 41.445
21	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	26	+ 41.456
22	Roman Stanek	Trident	26	+ 46.518

 

Feature Race

At lights out, Aron got a clean start to lead Crawford, Colapinto and Bortoleto whilst Hadjar on the soft tyre leapt from 11th on the grid to fifth, amidst chaos as Hauger lost control through Turn 2 and took himself plus Martins out to cause a safety car.

Racing resumed on Lap 4 with Aron building a gap to Crawford which led the American to trigger the undercut for soft-tyre runners with a pit stop on Lap 9.

Aron stayed out in front of Colapinto and the pair pitted on Lap 12 but came out with Crawford sandwiching the pair, but he didn’t mess about in clearing Aron at Turn 3 for the net lead.

The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed a lap later after Barnard retired at the final corner then again on Lap 17 for three laps, after Barnard’s teammate – Durksen suffered a power failure in the lead.

Aron meanwhile saw his hopes of victory ended with a moment of oversteer at the final corner on Lap 15 which cost him three positions.

Up front, Correa assumed the lead until he pitted on Lap 28 followed by Cordeel a lap later to hand Crawford the lead and victory from Colapinto who took second with a Lap 23 pass on Bortoleto.

Correa however had timed his late stop to perfection as he roared from ninth to third in five laps, which included overtakes on Hadjar and Bortoleto on Lap 31 then Aron on Lap 33 as the American claimed his first official podium in five years after a post-race penalty denied him in the Sprint.

Aron finished fourth ahead of Hadjar whilst Maini nicked sixth on the final lap from his teammate – Bortoleto as the pair collided at Turn 1, whilst Maloney, Cordeel and Marti rounded out the top ten once time penalties were applied for track limits.

Post-race, Stewards determined that Bortoleto was at fault for his collision with Maini and awarded a 5s time penalty, which dropped the Brazilian to tenth in the classification.

In the drivers’ standings, Aron extended his title lead over Hadjar to nine points but Maloney remained third but 27 points off the championship summit, whilst Crawford’s win lifted him up to fourth in the order.

F2 now head to Austria across weekend of 28-30 June in the second of a triple-header.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Jak Crawford	DAMS	37	59m 46.800
2	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	37	+ 1.400
3	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	37	+ 5.820
4	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	37	+ 11.486
5	Isack Hadjar	Campos	37	+ 14.720
6	Kush Maini	Invicta	37	+ 19.333
7	Zane Maloney	Rodin	37	+ 22.692
8	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	37	+ 24.442
9	Pepe Marti	Campos	37	+ 24.919
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	37	+ 25.400
11	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	37	+ 29.155
12	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	37	+ 35.513
13	Ritomo Miyata	RODIN	37	+ 35.955
14	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	37	+ 37.470
15	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	37	+ 45.073
16	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	37	+ 47.273
17	Roman Stanek	Trident	37	+ 63.092
18	Richard Verschoor	Trident	35	+ 2 Laps
RET	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	16	Power
RET	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	11	Mechanical
RET	Victor Martins	ART GP	0	Collision
RET	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	0	Collision