Practice-
Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Paul Aron was the fastest of all during the Imola Free Practice session, setting a time of 1:28.852 to top the timesheets.
He finished ahead of Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney.
It was a busy start to the session as Trident’s Roman Stanek set the early pace, competing a lap of 1:30.784 to lead Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar by just 0.028s.
The Frenchman then lowered the time to beat to a 1:29.805, edging out his nearest rival in Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini by just 0.040s.
The fastest time continued to change hands and Dennis Hauger was the next driver to top the leaderboard. His lap of 1:29.539 put him clear of Championship leader Maloney by 0.088s.
As the session entered its final stages, Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron eclipsed Bortoleto’s time by 0.071s to take the top spot, before Maloeny crossed the line to go up third.
There was a late red flag waved after PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman crashed into the barrier at the exit of Turn 4, and with little time remaining the session was not restarted.
Qualifying-
Gabriel Bortoleto earned pole position in an action-packed Imola Qualifying, a session impacted by track limits violations.
The Invicta Racing driver completed a lap of 1:27.056 to take the top spot ahead of PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman and Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar.
With tyre preparation done, the early times started to filter through, and it was Bortoleto that led the way thanks to a alp of 1:28.044 edging out Hadjar by just 0.026s.
The Invicta Racing driver then lowered the time to beat on his next flying effort, completing a 1:27.739 on this occasion.
Also improving was Zane Maloney, with the Rodin Motorsport driver moving up to second, albeit 0.271 off the leading time.
After returning to the pitlane for a new set of the Pirelli Supersoft tyres, the drivers returned to the track with 12 minutes left and this time it was Bearman who rocketed to the top of the timesheets.
The PREMA driver’s 1:27.111 put him on top briefly pushing his teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli down to second. Hadjar split the pair moments later as he went back up to P2.
But then came Bortoleto on his final flying lap, and the Invicta rookie set a time of 1:27.056 to snatch pole position.
Bearman and Antonelli did have their final laps provisionally deleted track limits, although the Stewards reinstated their times, along with several others, following the conclusion of the session.
The full top 10 are- P1: Bortoleto, P2: Bearman, P3: Hadjar, P4: Antonelli, P5: Durksen, P6: Maloney, P7: Stanek, P8: Aron, P9: Colapinto and P10: Cordeel.
Day 2-
Aron made a fast start from P3, getting ahead of Colapinto and teammate Amaury Cordeel to take the lead into Turn 3. But the Safety Car was immediately required following contact between Roman Stanek and Isack Hadjar that led to several other incidents.
We were back to racing on lap 6 as Aron extended his lead over his teammate Cordeel. A lap later, the Belgian went wide at the penultimate corner giving Colapinto the chance to overtake him for P2 down the main straight.
By lap 9, Colapinto was beginning to close the gap to Aron while Cordeel, having dropped back from the top two, was coming under pressure from Zane Maloney, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.
On lap 12, Colapinto was now within DRS range of Aron, while Maloney was beginning to attack Cordeel. However, both Hitech’s were proving difficult to pass.
After biding his time behind the Hitech car, Maloney finally made his move past Cordeel around the outside at Turn 3 on lap 22, putting him on course for his fourth podium of the year.
On the penultimate lap and having dropped back from the leader, Colapinto closed on Aron once more before making a last lap move past his fellow rookie around at the outside at Tamburello.
The move earned the MP driver his first victory in Formula 2, while Aron took second place ahead of Maloney.
The full top 10 are- P1: Colapinto, P2: Aron, P3: Maloney, P4: Cordeel, P5: Bearman, P6: Bortoleto, P7: Verschoor, P8: Maini, P9: O’Sullivan and P10: Antonelli.
Day 3-
Pole-sitter Bortoleto suffered a slow getaway and dropped down to fourth at the start giving Oliver Bearman the lead of the line. This promoted Hadjar up to second, while Duerksen went to P3 from fifth on the grid.
The conclusion of lap 6 brought the first pit stops, with Hadjar and Duerksen swapping their supersofts for the Mediums. Also coming into the pitlane was Zane Maloney and Roman Stanek, the latter jumping ahead of the Rodin Motorsport driver during the exchange.
Bearman then led a gaggle of cars including Bortoleto, Colapinto and Aron into the pitlane on the next lap. The Prema driver stalled twice as he tried to pull away, handing Hadjar the effective race lead.
Back in the battle for the effective race lead, Bortoleto was closing the gap to Hadjar. The Campos driver’s two second lead now just 1.3s by the end of lap 16.
Further back, there was frustration for Maloney, who was being held up by Stanek and on lap 17, the Championship leader could see Jak Crawford, Richard Verschoor and Dennis Hauger closing in on his wing mirrors.
Maloney was beginning to struggle and after giving the Bajan driver the hurry up on the radio Crawford made the move past him at the exit of Turn 7.
By lap 30, the drivers on the alternative strategy were beginning to pit, but it was two bad stops for Cordeel and Marti, as both drivers had tyres come off their cars as they looked to come back out on track, ruling them out of the race.
Back on track, Bortoleto had closed right up to Hadjar, but the Frenchman was proving tough in defence.
The Red Bull Junior did just enough in the end to take his second feature race victory in F2, with Bortoleto settling for second, while Duerksen ran a strong race to finish third and making him the first driver from Paraguay on the podium in F2.
The full top 10 are- P1: Hadjar, P2: Bortoleto, P3: Duerksen, P4: Antonelli, P5: Colapinto, P6: Aron, P7: Crawford, P8: Correa, P9: Martins and P10: Verschoor.
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