It was almost a perfect race for Isack Hadjar who came across the finish line after leading every lap, managing a collision at the start, and two safety car resets to take the win but its not F2 without some post race penalties to the race winner and few other drivers on the grid.

With an early time for European viewers its a Race you would want to see the highlights with a collision even commentators quoting they have never seen an accident like that before.

_{Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.}

As it Happened

With Roman Stanek and F3 2023 Champion Bortoleto locking out the front row, and Enzo Fittipaldi having the start from the pit lane, when lights went out Hadjar was able to make a move to take first but not without some consequences. Hadjar’s move pinched his teammate Josep ‘Pepe’ Marti causing Marti to be clipped and spin hitting Bortoleto and both going into the wall at the start of the pit lane in front of Fittipaldi.

This caused a Safety Car by the first half of the course, biggest mover before the safety car was Victor Martins who has not had the best second year for the top rookie in 2023; He was able to move from P21 to P13 in half of a lap.

5 Laps behind the safety car green flag is shown

Lap 7 allowed drivers to back to Racing, current F2 champion leader Zane Maloney had a poor start on the restart dropping from fifth to tenth and going into the gravel. Shortly after his teammate Ritomo Miyata overtook the Bajan driver.

_{Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.}

Up ahead of the grid it was 5 car battle for second place between Stanek, Kimi Antonelli, and Richard Verschoor to name a few. On lap 10 going into Turn 12 Antonelli spun which made contact to Verschoor’s car also causing the Dutch driver to spin and Paul Aron who was caught in the accident sustain damage to his front wing. This caused a safety car to be deployed again due to the debris on the racing line from both the Prema and Trident car. Once again Martin was able to made good moves of other drivers misfortune moving up another 3 places on the grid.

Two thirds of the race completed

Racing went green on lap 15 out of 23, Hadjar while out front was able to get the jump on Stanek on the restart, to gain a comfortable lead. with 7 laps left he was 3 seconds ahead of second place. Stanek was defending hard against Kush Maini and MP teammates of Dennis Hauger and rookie Franco Colapinto.

Down on the grid Martins still on the attack to show that he’s back in contention for racing was able to overtake his teammate Zak O’Sullivan for seventh with a late move into Turn 11 on Lap 19

On the penultimate lap Hauger was able to get around the Invicta car of Maini to take third.

But way ahead of the grid Hadjar was able to cross the finish line ahead by over 6 seconds, the restart after the final safety car secured his top spot and first F2 race win.

Stanek received his highest ever finish coming across second, Hauger P3, Mani P4, followed by Colapinto, Miyata, biggest mover Martins in P7 and Ollie Bearman back from missing out Round 2 to drive a Ferrari rounding out the last of the points.

3 Drivers hit with penalties, new race winner and changes to the top 8

As mentioned Hadjar crossed the line first but due to the accident at the start of the race, which caused his teammate and Invicta racing drivers both to retire he was handed a 10 second time penalty this means he dropped down the 6th but still in the points but mean Stanek takes his first ever F2 win, Hauger P2 and Maini onto the podium.

Also last point spot finishing 8th Ollie Bearman was also given a 10 second time penalty for forcing PHM AIX Racing Joshua Duerksen off the track, this mean he drops out of the points and finishes 15th (He is still one of the few drivers not to secure any points in the championship so far) and Zak O’Sullivan inherited the last point spot.

Finally, Jak Crawford has been handed a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s Feature Race after the Stewards found that he did not have the correct number of tyres to comply with the Sporting Regulations in relation to the Feature Race.

_{Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.}

What’s next for Formula 2?

F2 is back racing for the full points on Sunday, for the 33 lap feature race. As mention Jak Crawford is starting 5 spots down however he was one of the two drivers that didn’t complete a time so will ask the stewards if he can race.

On pole Dennis Hauger is joined by rookie Kimi Antonelli. Zane Maloney while not scoring points in the sprint, currently leads to the championship with 47 points followed by Hauger with 39.

The post Penalties, Safety Cars and a first time race winner for Roman Stanek appeared first on EverythingF1 - Formula 1 News and Updates.