Day 2-
Pole sitter Bearman covered off Hadjar at light out as the Championship challenger settled into P2 ahead of compatriot Victor Martins, who launched his way into the top three from seventh on the grid.
With the medium compound fitted, Hadjar was hustling Bearman around the opening two laps and he seized the lead at Turn 10 to take top spot on the second lap.
The Campos driver set off into the distance, leading by 3.5s over Bearman by Lap 5 while Martins followed a further two seconds adrift on the Brit and with a DRS train in his mirrors.
Gabriel Bortoleto moved himself up to seventh with a pass on Oliver Goethe just before the MP driver was forced into retirement with an issue.
With his car stationary in the second sector, a Virtual Safety Car was called upon to recover the stricken MP.
The VSC was withdrawn on lap 7, and the battle for third was incredibly close. With Martins also running the Medium tyres, he came under pressure from Crawford as the yellow marked rubber began to fade.
Bearman took four tenths out of Hadjar on Lap 9 as the race leader also began to struggle with his tyres despite running in clear air.
Behind them, Martins and Crawford’s fight for third continued and the American looked to have the move done, but the ART driver defended hard and held onto the place.
Their squabbling allowed Richard Verschoor, Paul Aron, Gabriel Bortoleto and Dino Beganovic to join their fight in the points positions.
Bearman continued to work away at Hadjar’s advantage and broke into DRS range on lap 17 while Crawford finally got a move done on Martins.
Verschoor was through on the ART car to take fourth place, while Bortoleto attempted to round Aron at Turn 1, but he ran out of road and had to run through the gravel.
After getting to within half a second in the final sector, Bearman had the sliptsream he needed to attempt a pass and he dived to the inside of Hadjar to take the lead on Lap 21.
The Frenchman’s night was made worse immediately, as he dropped to fourth with a spin at Turn 4.
Contact between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Kush Maini brought out a late race Safety Car as both were left stricken on the side of the track.
The full top 10 are- P1: Bearman, P2: Crawford, P3: Verschoor, P4: Hadjar, P5: Bortoleto, P6: Maloney, P7: Aron, P8: Durksen, P9: Martins and P10: Beganovic.
Day 3-
It was a great start from Bortoleto who got ahead of pole-sitter Aron off the line, while debutant Dino Beganovic came out on top in the Turn 1 battle for third with Victor Martins.
The race settled down early on until Kush Maini had a difficult start to Lap 4, dropping from P7 to P11 in the space of a few corners.
Back at the front the top two were separated by 1.2s at the start of Lap 6. They had created a gap of over three seconds to Beganovic in third.
But Beganovic’s teammate Jak Crawford was the first of the option tyre runners to pit from sixth. The Swede followed him in a lap later as did Aron, Martins, Verschoor and Antonelli.
However, a VSC was soon deployed with Antonelli in the gravel in the first sector. The Italian driver complained of a broken steering wheel after having collided with Verschoor in the pitlane.
With his car stranded, a full Safety Car was deployed, allowing Bortoleto to pit and retain the net race lead on Lap 9, but was soon given a five second penalty for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions relating to crossing the line at pit entry.
Racing returned on Lap 13 of 32, as Duerksen challenged Bearman for the lead, although the Brit was able to keep the position.
However, the Safety Car was back out after Crawford and Rafael Villagomez collided at Turn 6. The former was forced to retire with a suspension issue, while the latter was stationary on track.
The drama resumed on lap 17 as Bearman went wide at the final corner to give Duerksen the lead. The PREMA driver managed to stay within track limits, making Duerksen’s overtake before the start/finish line against the rules.
After the Safety Car interventions, the race was run to time, and with less than 13 minutes to go, Bearman was now over four second clear out in front.
Duerksen was now back up to second ahead of Maini, who pitted at the end of the lap, allowing Bortoleto to move up to third on the road.
The Brazilian then got ahead of Duerksen after a multi-lap battle with just over five minutes left in the race, as Aron followed him through a lap later and Hadjar closed in.
With under three minutes to go, Bearman and Duerksen pitted, giving Bortoleto the lead on track with four seconds separating him and his closest title rival Hadjar in third,
Despite pushing on the last lap, Bortoleto could not create the gap needed across the line, giving Aron the victory and Hadjar second as the Brazilian dropped third.
The full top 10 are- P1: Aron, P2: Hadjar, P3: Bortoleto, P4: Goethe, P5: Beganovic, P6: Mansell, P7: Cordeel, P8: Bennett, P9: Maloney and P10: Miyata.
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