Credit: Formula 2
Formula 2 heads to the notorious Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for its sixth round of the season. An intense battle for pole on Friday afternoon saw Aron victorious, cruising to his first pole position with a 1:24.766, earning a crucial point in his pursuit of the championship.
The front three were separated by just 0.008s with Jak Crawford and Franco Colapinto rounding out the top three for Sunday’s feature race.
The top ten gets reversed for Saturday’s sprint, meaning Kush Maini starts on pole with Victor Martins and Juan Manuel Correa slotting in behind the Indian.
A thrilling 26 laps await around Barcelona, with nine different victors already, could another be crowned or will a familiar face be on the top step once again?
As it happened
Track temperatures were hitting 40 degrees as the 22 cars lined up to their starting positions. When the five lights went out, Martins had an excellent launch catching Maini off guard and leading the pack into the first corner.
Maini had a difficult start dropping down to fourth, running alongside his teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto, just mere inches away from each other.
After a difficult session for Hadjar on Friday, the Frenchman bounced back, snatched positions, and pushed to maximise his points.
Ritomo Miyata who has previous Formula 2 experience at this track was excelling, using his experience to his advantage and fighting up in second on the third lap.
Championship leader, Aron was running in sixth on lap 6 after starting from 10th. Hadjar just three points away from the Estonian was running in eighth, an interesting battle brewing.
Down the field, Oliver Bearman was running in 17th. A tough qualifying session saw the Briton start the feature race in 15th.
Problems kept persisting for the PREMA driver who was dropping positions and on his final warning of track limits on lap 10. Bearman limped back to the pits to retire from the race. A weekend to forget for the youngster.
The front of the pack remained quiet as the race started to settle down, Martins beginning to build a gap of 1.3 seconds as Martins was cruising around the track.
With 15 laps to go, Hadjar completes the move on Antonelli and moves up into seventh, after a couple of failed attempts the Frenchman breezes by with Crawford following suit and overtaking the Italian.
Joshua Dürksen was the next to receive a black-and-white flag for track limits, leaving the AIX driver on his last warning before a penalty. With 10 laps remaining, Roman Stanêk was the first to be penalised with a five-second penalty.
This wouldn’t be the last of the penalties, Miyata was the next to be handed a penalty, the Rodin racer running in second would be dropping down to fifth with his penalty. Miyata was looking to keep in podium contention and set the fastest lap of the race, unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.
Correa was running alongside Bortoleto, getting his elbows out to make the pass past the Brazilian. The Invicta Racing driver was fighting hard to keep his position, whilst the pair were scraping it out, Aron joined in the fight, lurking a tenth of a second behind Correa.
Miyata was handed a further penalty, crushing any hopes of the driver landing on the podium; it ended in disappointment after a great performance in the race. This meant it was now a three-way fight for the final place on the podium.
Correa makes the move on Bortoleto, securing his spot on the podium. Credits: Formula 2
With the laps dwindling, Correa was running out of time to make the move. Bortoleto locked up for the third time, paving the way for the American to gain and overtake the Brazilian.
Aron was next to past Bortoleto, snatching fifth out from the Invicta Racing car, Crawford followed suit and the Brazilian dropped down to seventh.
Martins who led the whole race, crossed the line over two seconds ahead of anyone else, an incredible race for the Frenchman. Maini and Correa rounded out the top three.
Post-race penalties were handed to several drivers, one of which included Correa, after an emotional result for the American and securing his first podium in five years, a five-second penalty was handed to him for track limits.
This meant Aron was promoted to the podium, furthering his statistic of having a podium at every Formula 2 race. Antonelli, Villagómez, Colapinto and Hauger were all handed penalties.
The top 10
Credits: Formula 2
1 - Victor Martins
2 - Kush Maini
3 - Paul Aron
4 - Jak Crawford
5 - Gabriel Bortoleto
6 - Isack Hadjar
7 - Ritomo Miyata
8 - Juan Manuel Correa
9 - Zak O’Sullivan
10 - Joshua Dürksen
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