Prema’s Ollie Bearman came from behind to take his third victory of the season in Formula 2’s sprint race at the Losail circuit
The Ferrari Academy snatched the lead with three laps to go from Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar, who spun moments to later to lose both second place and a chance to take the championship lead. DAMS driver Jak Crawford and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor profited from Hadjar’s error to finish second and third respectively.
Bearman lined up from pole for the 23-lap contest with Hadjar – one of five drivers opting for the medium tyre – starting alongside him. Using the hard tyres, Bearman kept Hadjar at bay when the lights went out, but quickly came under pressure from the Red Bull junior.
Hadjar snatched the lead on lap two before building a 3.5-second lap lead but, after just eight laps, his tyres started to fade. Bearman halved the gap over the next four laps, and edged his way into DRS range with eight laps to go.
Bearman couldn’t quite get close enough intially to contemplate a move, but with three laps to go he lunged up the inside into turn one and grabbed the lead. Remaining close behind, Hadjar then spun three corners later and slipped to fourth.
ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins was another to choose the medium tyres, and he made a lightning start from seventh on the grid to climb to third into the first corner. Having not been able to match the pace of the front two, the Alpine junior also started to struggle with his tyres from lap eight onwards and eventually headed a 10-car train for the final podium position.
Leading the pursuit behind him was Crawford, who grew increasingly frustrated by Martins’s determined defence, with Crawford feeling he was forced off the road at one stage. Martins resistance was finally broken with seven laps to go, losing out to Crawford and was then gradually shuffled back to 10th.
With three laps to go, Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli made a move on Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini for 11th, but caught out by the ailing Martins in front of him, the Mercedes Formula 1-bound driver ended up colliding with Maini, resulted in the pair retiring from the race.
That resulted in the final two laps being run behind the safety car, with Bearman cruising to victory ahead of Crawford, while Verschoor completed the podium in his first race since switching from Trident to MP.
Second for Hadjar would have been enough to reclaim the points lead, but instead he had to settle for fourth. Fellow title contender Paul Aron, who is due to start from pole in Sunday’s feature race, came home fifth for Hitech after resisting a late challenge from championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto. The Invicta driver went off the road at one stage during the squabble, but held on to sixth.
DAMS driver Dino Beganovic ran behind Bortoleto but was the rear-ended into a spin by Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata and eventually finshed his first F2 race in 11th. Miyata avoided damage in the clash and finished seventh ahead of his team-mate Zane Maloney.
Three other drivers made their F2 debuts, with John Bennett (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Max Esterson (Trident) 13th and 14th respectively, and Cian Shields 18th for AIX Racing. MP’s Oliver Goethe retired early on with an engine failure while running in the points.
Featured image credit: Formula 2 on X
