After qualifying yesterday, which led our pole sitter to be disqualified, thus moving drivers up the grid, starting from P8 the boy from Barbados Zane Maloney was able to secure the top spot in the Sprint Race in F2.

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The first Race of the 2024 season did not disappoint fans with many overtakes and on track battles to cars going 3 wide at times. If this is a sneak peak of what’s in stored for the 2024 Formula 2 season then we are in for a ride.

As it Happened

With a reverse grid of the top 10 from qualifying on Thursday front row drivers of Jak Crawford in the Dams Lucas Oil and on debut in his rookie season Taylor Barnard who’s qualifying was something for his highlights taking originally the 10th place at the last second on what would be dead tyres to push on. However with original pole sitter Kush Maini disqualified over a technical infringement Barnard was classified P9 ahead of todays Sprint Race.

Barnard’s race was short lived after dropping down to ninth at the start of the race once a virtual safety car was brought in for Amaury Cordeel in the Hitech Pulse Eight; after his collision with rookie driver for Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafel Villagomez.

Green Flag and back to racing

On Lap 3 the virtual safety car ended, and started the battle for the top spot, pole sitter Crawford off the back defending his position ahead of ARTS Victor Martins. During which Zane was able to make pace and overtake his previous season teammate of Enzo Fittipaldi at turn 11. There was a difference in the grid on tyre strategy as some went for softs while others went for the hard tyres to last the race. There is no pit stop required for the sprint race in F2.

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Moving up the grid Zane was able to overtake Zak O’Sullivan for third and then Martins for second position on lap 6. Behind Zane there was battles between O’Sullivan, Fittipaldi, Isack Hadjar, and Josep Pepe Marti. This lead to O’Sullivan dropping to 8th, and Hadjar was able to stick an overtake on Fittipaldi for fourth.

Lap 8 Zane was able to overtake Crawford for the lead at the exit of turn 4, however with a close ART driver behind Crawford he had to defend against Martin to remain second this lead to Zane creating a nearly 2 second gap for his competitors.

Halfway through the sprint

Fittipaldi seemed to struggle halfway through the race losing positions to rookie Paul Aron for Hitech, to give him fifth place, followed by Marti both overtaking Fittipaldi on the main straight with the support of the powerful DRS. It seemed to get worse on lap 14th he then lost more places to O’Sullivan and to Invicta Racing’s and tomorrows pole sitter F3 2023 Champion Gabriel Bortoleto and Rookie Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata.

Marti was able to overtake Aron at turn 1 to take fifth place, at the same time Martin made a mistake which lead Hadjar the opportunity to close in and then overtake on the following lap for take third.

Lap 18 Marti was able to replicate his move again and was able to overtake Martins for fourth, catching close to his teammate and fellow Red Bull Junior of Hadjar for the final podium spot, and was successful on last crucial laps of the race.

In the end

Zane Maloney was able to extend his lead crossing his Stake Sauber Academy livery to take his maiden win and also fastest lap with well over 5 seconds ahead of Jak Crawford. Alongside them was a maiden podium for rookie Marti, Hadjar maintained fourth and Aron rounding out the top 5. Bortoleto took sixth, O’Sullivan seventh, Dennis Hauger eighth rounding out the points for the first sprint race of the season.

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Racing continues tomorrow with the full points feature race where Rookie and Mclaren academy driver F3 2023 champion Gabriel Bortoleto will start from pole alongside Campos Isack Hadjar.

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