Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar extended his championship lead with victory in the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, as chief rival Paul Aron hit trouble of the final lap
Hadjar moved ahead of Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto at the start to run directly behind Hitech GP’s Aron, who led from pole.
The early stages were disrupted by two safety car periods. The first was caused by a crash further down the field moments after the start. As he tried to make up places from 14th, Prema’s Ollie Bearman collided with the slow-starting Zane Maloney, and then speared across the track into Hadjar’s team-mate Pepe Marti.
Bearman and Marti were out on the spot after crashing into barriers, white Maloney was able to continue. MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto also ground to a halt on track further around the lap.
After a few laps of racing the race was neutralised again after Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez spun at Les Combes while battling AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard and collected ART’s Victor Martins who had been attempted to rejoin the circuit after going off on his own.
Hadjar reclaimed the lead from Aron shortly after the restart, and the Red Bull junior maintained his advantage after making his mandatory pitstop one lap later than his chief rival.
Aron faded into the clutches of Bortoleto, who swept by on the Kemmel Straight and then took advantage of Hadjar being stuck behind cars that still had to pit to close in. Bortoleto moved to within DRS range, but Hadjar was able to resist the pressure to eventually take victory ahead of the McLaren junior.
After holding off DAMS’ Jack Crawford for a few laps, Aron had looked set to take third after pulling away in the closing stages, but he dramatically slowed on the final lap and tumbled out of the points, with Crawford inheriting the final podium spot.
ART’s Zak O’Sullivan followed up his sprint race triumph on Saturday by finishing fourth, with Trident’s Richard Verschoor fifth and Maloney recovering to sixth ahead of team-mate Ritomo Miyata.
Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel was eighth ahead of Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli and AIX’s Joshua Duerksen.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
