MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto passed Paul Aron on the final lap to score a maiden Formula 2 victory during a dramatic sprint race at Imola
Williams F1 Academy member Colapinto lined up from second on the reversed grid but made a slow start and lost one position, while Aron made a great launch from third to take the lead away from his Hitech GP team-mate Amaury Cordeel into the Tamburello chicane before a huge five-car pileup caused a lengthy safety car period.
As cars bunched up behind Colapinto on the run to Tamburello, Trident’s Romanek Stanek collided with Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar who spun across the circuit, triggering a further collision between Enzo Fittipaldi (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Joshua Durksen (AIX Racing), the latter briefly becoming airborne on his own wheel after sustaining suspension damage.
Stanek, Hadjar, Fittipaldi and Durksen were all out on the spot, with debris covering the circuit, while MP’s Dennis Hauger also retired with rear damage after being caught up in the melee.
The race resumed on lap six, with Aron quickly building a two-second lead while Cordeel ran wide at the final corner and dropped to third behind Colapinto, who then started to reduce the lead deficit before Aron responded with two fastest laps in a row to maintain a 1.7-second advantage.
The gap was then slimmed to 1.1s by the halfway stage, and after moving to within DRS range Colapinto closed to within 0.5s with 10 laps remaining. Aron withstood pressure from the Argentinian racer until just over one lap to go before getting sideways exiting the final corner.
That allowed Colapinto to get a run into Tamburello for the final time, with the two cars going side by side. Colapinto bounced over the kerbs on the outside of the first part of the chicane before squeezing ahead into the next right-hander, with Aron conceding after running wide onto the grass and then coming home 1.7s behind.
Cordeel fell away from the front two during the race was eventually caught by points leader Zane Maloney, who grabbed the final podium spot for Rodin Motorsport with an overtake into Tamburello with three laps to go.
Prema’s Ollie Bearman came home a further three seconds behind Cordeel in fifth, having withstood race-long pressure from Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who narrowly avoided the opening-lap carnage to gain four places from 10th.
AIX’s Taylor Barnard was close behind in seventh, having made up five spots on lap one. Trident’s Richard Verschoor climbed from 15th to score the final point in eighth, while Invicta’s Kush Maini and ART Grand Prix’s Zak O’Sullivan both made up eight positions to finish in ninth and 10th respectively.
Campos driver Pepe Marti initially ran ahead of O’Sullivan, but a 10-second stop/go penalty for a start infringement left the Spaniard as the final finisher in 17th.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
