AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen withstood two safety car restarts to take a lights-flag in Formula 2’s season-opening sprint race at Albert Park
Duerksen took his third F2 triumph by finishing 2.1 seconds clear of reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli who scored his first F2 podium, as did Hitech GP’s Luke Browning by coming third.
The grid order for the sprint race was determined by the reverse of the top-10 from Friday’s qualifying, which was topped by Prema’s Gabriele Mini who was subsequently demoted three places to 13th on the grid for Saturday’s contest for impeding DAMS’ Jak Crawford. Several other drivers served grid penalties for technical infringements in pre-season testing.
By setting the 10th quickest time in qualifying, Invicta Racing’s Fornaroli lined up from pole ahead of Duerksen, but it was the latter who made the better start to lead into turn one, while Browning slotted into third.
Martins, meanwhile, tumbled down the corner after being forced off the road in a three-way scrap at the first corner. As he tried to recover ground he then got sideways and slid into the wall on lap two before pulling off the circuit with suspension damage.
That resulted in a brief virtual safety car period, and Fornaroli was slow to react when green-flag running resumed, leaving him under pressure from Browning and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor.
Duerksen built a slender 0.8s lead before the safety car was deployed on lap six due to Trident’s Max Esterson spinning into retirement at turn six.
It wasn’t until lap 11 that racing resumed, and Duerksen pulled 2.2s clear over the next four laps before the safety car was required once more after Esterson’s team-mate Sami Meguetounif spun into the gravel at turn 10 while battling with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez.
The safety was withdrawn with seven laps to go, and Duerksen again pulled away and remained ahead until the finish. Fornaroli resisted pressure from Browning to finish second, the pair separated by 0.8s at the chequered flag, with Verschoor coming home a further 1s behind.
Fornaroli’s team-mate Roman Stanek prevailed in battles with Prema’s Sebastian Montoya and Hitech’s Dino Beganovic to finish fifth. Beganovic eventually tumbled down the order to 14th after spinning through turns nine and 10 while being challenged by Stanek.
Montoya held off his Prema team-mate Gabriele Mini for seventh, with Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti eighth.
Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne and Campos driver Arvid Lindblad finished just outside of the points on their debuts in ninth and 10th. MP’s Oliver Goethe was 11th ahead of ART’s Ritomo Miyata who lost places with two spins during the race.
DAMS driver Kush Maini was another spinner, and he eventually came home in 16th. His team-mate Crawford retired early on with a technical issue.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
