2024 F2 Season Roundup: Round Eight – Great Britain

Roundup of the eighth round of the 2024 F2 season as the title lead changed hands at Silverstone.

Hitech GP’s Paul Aron arrived at Silverstone as the championship leader but a round packed with drama and unpredictable weather saw the title lead change hands, whilst an outsider reignited their title bid with a strong weekend.

 

Practice

MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto was first out on track and set a benchmark 2m 02.326 in damp conditions, which was bettered by several drivers as Paul Aron went fastest in the eighth minute with 1m 59.526 and wasn’t beaten by the half-way mark of the session.

PREMA’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli then Oliver Bearman went quickest followed by Marti as the track began to briefly dry to a minimal extent, which eventually saw AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen top the session with 1m 58.064 in the 36th minute.

Marti settled for second ahead of Barnard who were the only two drivers to get within one second of Durksen’s lap time.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	1m 58.064
2	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 0.629
3	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	+ 0.856
4	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 1.410
5	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 1.420
6	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	+ 1.462
7	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	+ 1.820
8	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 1.820
9	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 1.857
10	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 1.938
11	Richard Verschoor	Trident	+ 2.360
12	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 2.760
13	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 2.778
14	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 2.803
15	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 2.857
16	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 3.383
17	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 3.397
18	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 3.634
19	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 3.672
20	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+ 4.262
21	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	+ 5.081
22	Isack Hadjar	Campos	+ 45.789

 

Qualifying

Hauger and Colapinto were first on track and the Norwegian set 1m 41.153 amidst reports of rain in the seventh minute, but it was Bearman sat top after the opening laps with 1m 40.918 from Aron and Maini.

Aron and Maini however responded on their next flier as the Estonian went top with 1m 40.181 in the 12th minute, with O’Sullivan sat third at the halfway mark.

Aron however spun on the opening lap of his final run to cost himself a shot at pole as Hauger went quickest in thee 25th minute, but his time was quickly eclipsed by Hadjar who posted 1m 39.368 to take his first F2 pole ahead of Martins who claimed second on the grid.

Hauger found himself third in a MP Motorsport second-row lockout alongside Colapinto ahead of Bearman, Bortoleto, Crawford, Maini, Maloney and Antonelli who took reverse-pole for the Sprint.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Isack Hadjar	Campos	1m 39.368
2	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.251
3	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 0.320
4	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+ 0.343
5	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	+ 0.358
6	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 0.433
7	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.458
8	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 0.488
9	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 0.663
10	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 0.801
11	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 0.808
12	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	+ 0.813
13	Richard Verschoor	Trident	+ 0.919
14	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	+ 1.069
15	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 1.119
16	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 1.163
17	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 1.231
18	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 1.245
19	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 1.324
20	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	+ 1.337
21	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	+ 1.358
22	Roman Stanek	Trident	+ 2.258

 

Sprint Race

Due to heavy rain pre-race leaving the circuit damp, stewards started the formation lap behind the safety car but Antonelli led the field racing at the end of that lap.

Whilst Antonelli sprinted away on the opening lap from Maloney and Maini, Crawford proved to be the cork in the bottle in fourth as he held up Bortoleto, who got wobbly out of the Loop and clipped Bearman’s front wing which caused the Brit to drop to ninth on Lap 2 due to the damage.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed briefly on Lap 3 so Bearman’s front-left end plate could be removed but the rain had steadily returned, which forced the safety car to come out on the next lap rapidly followed by a red flag as the clouds darkened amidst heavier rain.

Racing resumed 13 minutes later with two laps behind the safety car before racing recommenced on Lap 7 with Martins clearing Hauger then Colapinto for sixth.

The safety car however was deployed on the next lap after Aron tried to pass O’Sullivan around the Loop but suddenly slowed on the exit of the corner, and was unluckily slammed into by Marti who had no time to react to avoid a collision.

Marti meanwhile spun out at Copse to cap a disastrous race for Campos with both the Frenchman and Marti out on the same lap.

Racing recommenced on Lap 12 with Bearman demoting Hauger to ninth into the Loop with O’Sullivan following through at Brooklands.

Bearman however slid off at Copse and dropped down the order but recovered to 15th when an engine failure forced him to stop on the Hangar Straight.

Up front, O’Sullivan had found himself sixth by the start of Lap 16 and attempted a bold inside lunge on his ART GP teammate, Martins which ended both of their races with the VSC deployed for one lap.

Up front, Antonelli cruised to victory from Maloney whilst Bortoleto passed Maini through the final two corners to take third, but was demoted behind his Invicta teammate post-race with a 5s time penalty due to overtaking off the track.

Colapinto cleared Crawford on the final lap for fifth and the latter clung on to sixth from Hauger who finished seventh.

Stanek meanwhile started the race from last on the grid but benefitted from the chaos to quietly creep up the order, and he took the final point in eighth place with a Lap 19 overtake on Miyata.

In the drivers’ standings, Aron retained his nine-point lead over Hadjar due to both drivers failing to score points, but third-placed Bortoleto cut his deficit to the Estonian to 27 points.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	21	1h 2m 34.856
2	Zane Maloney	Rodin	21	+ 8.683
3	Kush Maini	Invicta	21	+ 11.257
4	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	21	+ 15.895
5	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	21	+ 18.064
6	Jak Crawford	DAMS	21	+ 18.791
7	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	21	+ 20.191
8	Roman Stanek	Trident	21	+ 20.932
9	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	21	+ 21.367
10	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	21	+ 24.232
11	Richard Verschoor	Trident	21	+ 25.773
12	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	21	+ 28.071
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	21	+ 29.749
14	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	21	+ 32.521
15	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	21	+ 33.104
16	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	21	+ 33.960
RET	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	16	Collision
RET	Victor Martins	ART GP	15	Collision
RET	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	14	Engine
RET	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	7	Spin
RET	Pepe Marti	Campos	7	Collision
RET	Isack Hadjar	Campos	7	Collision

 

Feature Race

At lights out, Hadjar got a slow getaway and was jumped by Martins who seized the lead from Bearman and Hadjar as Crawford improved to fourth, before the safety car came out after Antonelli stalled at Village following a spin caused by contact with Maini.

The race recommenced on Lap 3 but the safety car was swiftly redeployed after Aron punted Durksen into the gravel at Woodcote.

Racing resumed at the end of Lap 6 with Verschoor and Fittipaldi first of the soft-runners to pit whilst Hadjar cleared Bearman for second on Lap 8 before the pair pitted at the end of that lap followed by Martins a lap later along with Crawford and Maloney.

DAMS however released Crawford back out into the path of Maloney as Martins kept the net lead from Hadjar, who proceeded to push his French compatriot hard in the following laps until he squeezed Martins wide at Abbey on Lap 19.

Their squabble allowed Crawford to catch the pair and passed Hadjar for the net lead into Brooklands on that lap, just before he got handed a five-second time penalty for his unsafe release.

Up front, Colapinto built a four-second gap over Manuel Correa until he pitted on Lap 23 and re-joined in a net fifth position with Cordeel following suit a lap later to leave Aron in the lead until he pitted on the penultimate lap.

Once Aron pitted, Crawford assumed the lead and took the checkered flag from Hadjar but his time penalty handed victory to the pole-sitter from Maloney, as the American settled for third in the classification ahead of Colapinto and Martins.

Bortoleto, Bearman, Fittipaldi, Hauger and Marti completed the top ten, as O’Sullivan just missed out on a top-ten finish in 11th place at his home race whilst Barnard finished 14th.

Hadjar’s win and Aron’s failure to score points lifted the Frenchman top with a 16-point lead as Maloney sat third and 32 points off the summit.

F2 now takes a weekend off before heading to Hungary on weekend of 19-21 July for a double-header followed by a trip to Belgium a week later.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Isack Hadjar	Campos	29	54m 48.351
2	Zane Maloney	Rodin	29	+ 1.657
3	Jak Crawford	DAMS	29	+ 1.822
4	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	29	+ 11.991
5	Victor Martins	ART GP	29	+ 12.228
6	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	29	+ 14.510
7	Oliver Bearman	PREMA	29	+ 17.478
8	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	29	+ 17.990
9	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	29	+ 23.192
10	Pepe Marti	Campos	29	+ 26.778
11	Zak O’Sullivan	ART GP	29	+ 32.662
12	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	29	+ 33.270
13	Richard Verschoor	Trident	29	+ 34.951
14	Taylor Barnard	AIX Racing	29	+ 37.294
15	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	29	+ 42.346
16	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	29	+ 45.649
17	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	29	+ 46.539
18	Roman Stanek	Trident	29	+ 50.783
19	Kush Maini	Invicta	29	+ 62.301
20	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	29	+ 92.471
RET	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	2	Collision
RET	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	0	Spin