Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti survived chaos at the Red Bull Ring to record his second sprint race victory of the season while several title contenders failed to finish
The race will be remembered for two big pileups, with the first of those causing a lengthy red flag period.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett started from pole for the first time in the partially-reversed-grid contest by setting the 10th quickest time in Friday’s qualifying, but he quickly tumbled to fifth after compounding a poor getaway by running wide at turn one.
AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen grabbed the early lead, while Marti moved up to second ahead of Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek and Rodin Motorsport’s Amaury Cordeel.
The latter’s team-mate Alex Dunne dropped two places to sixth and then lost further spots to his main championship rivals Richard Verschoor and Leonardo Fornaroli on lap one after running wide while trying to pass Bennett.
A difficult qualifying left title contenders Arvid Lindblad (Campos) and Luke Browning (Hitech GP) battling well down the order during the first two laps, and they were both caught up in a spectacular crash on the next tour which immediately halted the race.
Trident’s Sami Megatounif made contact with Lindblad after diving up the inside into turn three and rolled, landing on top of Browning’s car and eventually coming to rest upside down in the middle of the circuit. All three drivers avoided injury, and the race resumed 40 minutes later once the track had been cleared.
There was another collision at turn three almost immediately, with Browning’s team-mate Dino Beganovic left stranded in the middle of the road after being tagged around by MP’s Oliver Goethe and then stalling.
Duerksen remained ahead for 10 laps once the track returned to green once more, before a thrilling lead squabble ensued. After coming under increasing pressure from Marti, Duerksen outbraked himself into turn three and then lost out to the Red Bull junior at the next corner. Duerksen immediately wrestled back first place by diving back past into turn six, but he was dispatched again by Marti on the next tour.
Marti controlled the remaining 10 laps to take victory, while Duerksen fended off a late challenge from Stanek to finish second. Cordeel tried to join the duo’s battle on the final lap but spun at turn three and was collected by Marti, Bennett and Fornaroli, putting all four cars out.
Verschoor avoided the melee to finish fourth ahead of Prema’s Sebastian Montoya. Dunne had slipped down to 10th in the closing stages but profited from the final-lap chaos to finish sixth – maintaining the points lead in the process.
ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins and Ritomo Miyata were the final two points-scorers in seventh and eighth. DAMS’s Jak Crawford suffered a blow to his title hopes after a car issue prevented him from taking the start, and his team-mate Kush Maini finished two laps down after also encountering car gremlins during the red flag.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
