F2 – RND 8 Round-Up

Day 1-
Practice-

Joshua Duerksen set the pace on the wet weather tyres in free practice, ending the session quickest of all for AIX Racing.
The Paraguayan set a 1:58.064 to finish the session on top, with Josep Maria Marti second for Campos and teammate Taylor Barnard in third.

Championship leader, Paul Aron was the first underneath the two-minute mark, setting a 1:59.526 on the wet tyres to go fastest in the opening 10 minutes.

Zak O’Sullivan and DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford then set identical times, though the ART Grand Prix driver recorded his 1:59.884 first to claim P2, with the American third.

With just over 15 minutes remaining of the session, Andrea Kimi Antonelli went to the top briefly before teammate Oliver Bearman took over, going quickest after setting a 1:59.474 leaving the top three separated by just 0.052s.

Franco Colapinto prompted plenty of drivers to return to the track on slick hard tyres, though they all struggled with the surface still damp around most of the circuit.

All that tried the white-walled tyre struggled to find the necessary grip, with late yellow flags courtesy of O’Sullivan running through the gravel at Stowe before rejoining the track, with Marti repeating the off just moments later.

Qualifying-

Isack Hadjar took a hugely important pole position at Silverstone, as the Campos Racing driver led the pack on a 1:39.368, capitalising on an error by title rival and championship leader Paul Aron that left the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver down in 12th following a spin.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins making it an all-French front row , while Dennis Hauger found a late improvement to secure P3 with his final lap.

Home favourite Oliver Bearman, recorded the initial time to beat, 1:40.918 putting him a tenth clear of Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini in the early running, until Aron split the pair to go P2, 0.040s down on the PREMA.

Hauger was next go quickest, 1:40.554 but that was beaten twice over. Zane Maloney slotted into P2 just behind Maini who moved up to first on his next lap.
Aron then found time to go fastest on a 1:40.181 with 20 minutes remaining.

Getting his first lap on the second set of tyres underway, Aron suffered a spin at Turn 1 which left him with major flatspots as everyone else improved.
Title rival Hadjar leapt up to provisional pole with a 1:39.368 in the Campos car.

Having been inside the top 10, Maloney lost a time for track limits to leave Aron in P10, but an improvement from Ritomo Miyata in the Rodin Motorsport car bumped the Championship leader out of the top 10.

Hadjar peeled into the pitlane with a minute and a half to go while the majority continued on their way for a final attempt.
Maloney put himself back into the top 10 on his final attempt, going ninth-fastest for Rodin, though he was one of the only improvements in the final minute.

The full top 10 are- P1: Hadjar, P2: Martins, P3: Hauger, P4: Colapinto, P5: Bearman, P6: Bortoleto, P7: Crawford, P8: Maini, P9: Maloney and P10: Antonelli.

Day 2-

After a formation lap behind the Safety Car, racing got underway with a rolling start with heavier rain closing in quickly. Antonelli retained his lead but teammate Oliver Bearman was battling Gabriel Bortoleto in the opening corners and the pair made slight contact, leaving the Brit with a broken front wing.

Bortoleto was undeterred and rounded Jak Crawford on the outside of Copse and into Maggots with a brave move for P4.
Torrential rain arrived to close out the first lap as Antonelli built up a 2.5s lead over Maloney in second.

With damage to his front wing, Bearman dropped down the order, losing places to Franco Colapinto, Dennis Hauger and Victor Martins in the space of half a lap.
A virtual safety car was then deployed on lap 3 to recover the endplate of Bearman.

As racing resumed, Paul Aron caught his title rival napping to secure P10 from Isack Hadjar on the approach to Maggotts and Becketts.
Zak O’Sullivan relegated the Frenchman to 12th into Abbey at the end of the lap, before Hadjar then ran off the road at Turn 1.

After a brief pause in action to allow the rain to ease off, racing resumed entering lap 7, with another rolling start and once again, Antonelli kept hold of the lead.

On lap 8, contact between Marti and Championship leader Aron left both out of the race, while in a separate incident, Hadjar found himself in the gravel following a spin at Copse. This then brought out another Safety Car.

Racing got back underway on lap 13 with Antonelli leading comfortably once more while Bearman made a pass on Hauger at Turn 4 to secure eighth.
Colapinto then moved ahead of Hauger into Brooklands and cleared Bearman after the Briton ran through the gravel at Copse dropping him to 18th.

O’Sullivan was on the move next on lap 14, rounding Colapinto on the outside of Copse for seventh position to continued his charge through the pack.
Onto lap 16, and the Brit was attacking his teammate but contact between the pair at the loop left Martins spinning O’Sullivan with damage, putting them both out of the race.

Back to racing conditions again and Roman Stanek had been had been hustling Miyata for eighth and the Trident driver secured P8 from the Rodin driver with three laps to go.

Heading into the penultimate lap, Colapinto looked to have cleared Crawford for fifth around the outside of Stowe, but the DAMS Lucas Oil driver fought back into Abbey to retake the spot.

Onto the final lap and the all-Invicta battle for the last spot on the podium could hardly be split, the pair almost colliding several times on a frantic final tour.

Up ahead though, Antonelli was uncatchable and the Italian won his first F2 race by over eight second to Zane Maloney in second.

The full top 10 are- P1: Antonelli, P2: Maloney, P3: Bortoleto, P4: Maini, P5: Colapinto, P6: Crawford, P7: Hauger, P8: Stanek, P9: Barnard and P10: Miyata.

Day 3-

Wheelspin for Hadjar allowed ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins to take the lead while Oliver Bearman got a perfect launch in his PREMA car to rise up to second from fifth on the grid.
Both MP Motorsport drivers fell back however, dropping from third and fourth to eighth and ninth, Franco Colapinto leading Dennis Hauger.

Crawford profited to take those two spots for P4, as Gabriel Bortoleto took fifth around the outside of Maloney at Copse corner.
That move came just before a lap 1 safety car for the stranded Andrea Kimi Antonelli, stationary at Turn 3 after a spin in the opening exchanges following contact with Kush Maini.

Racing then resumed on Lap 3, but the Safety Car was back out almost immediately after a spin for Joshua Duerksen coming through Woodcote.

Fighting Championship leader Paul Aron for position, the AIX Racing driver got onto the grass that left him spinning into the gravel, but he tagged the right rear of the Hitech en route, which left the Estonian with a puncture and forced to pit.

Hadjar had been close to Bearman’s rear wing, and he got the move done for second place with DRS down the Hangar straight on lap 8. Both pitted at the end of the lap for their switch to the hard tyres.

After a flurry of pitstops, Hadjar closed down compatriot Martins and the ART driver was under serious threat from the Campos behind him.
With DRS on lap 12, Hadjar almost pulled off a pass around the outside of Stowe but had to concede the place after running wide over track limits.

Ending lap 18, Hadjar went side-by-side with Martins through the Vale chicane in an attempt to pass but couldn’t get the move done.
The Alpine Academy Junior ran wide at the final corner to re-open the door and then went off at Turn 1 to allow Hadjar through.

The ART driver then lost places to Crawford and Maloney in the process as he rejoined at Turn 3, while the American profited from their battle to take the lead of the race from Hadjar entering the Wellington Straight.

Onto Lap 25, Bortoleto was able to clear Bearman into Stowe for eighth position as the fight for the points continued.

Colpainto was back ahead of Martins and into sixth with five laps remaining but his progress stalled out with three to go as those ahead pushed on in pursuit of Crawford.

Despite his best efforts, the American couldn’t pull the gap to Hadjar, who claimed his third victory in 2024 and the lead of the Drivers’ Championship with it.

The full top 10 are- P1: Hadjar, P2: Maloney, P3: Crawford, P4: Colapinto, P5: Martins, P6: Bortoleto, P7: Bearman, P8: Fittipaldi, P9: Hauger and P10: Marti.

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