Melbourne 2024 F2: Sprint Race

Saturday's Events

Saturday’s Sprint Race proved to be one of the most exciting events of the weekend. The race started with the drivers lining up in descending order based on their qualifying results. Roman Stanek was in pole position with Dennis Hauger in 10th position. Much to Enzo Fittipaldi’s dismay, he started the sprint race in the pit lane due to him crashing into the barrier in qualifying.

Once all the drivers were in position, the green flag was given and the lights went out. The race was underway…For only about 3 seconds. Isack Hadjar, Josep María Martí, and Gabriel Bortoletto all made contact with each other resulting in Gabriel Bortoletto being punted into the pit lane/wall, and Josep María Martí spinning into the barrier. Isack Hadjar made it out of the carnage unscathed after he bumped into the tire of Martí and amazingly darted to first position.

(Left to right: Enzo Fittipaldi (in pit lane), Gabriel Bortoletto (Invicta car), Josep María Martí (Campos), Isack Hadjar (Campos) - Image Source - Formula Scout)

A red flag was not flown, but instead, the safety car was called out while track marshalls hurried to clean up the mess Bortoletto and Martí’s car made. Although there was a lot of debris, the drivers were unharmed and walked away from the accident. The motorists followed behind the safety car for about 6 laps before the race was allowed to continue.

Hadjar impressively kept Roman Stanek behind him, coming into turn 1. However, Zane Maloney was not as lucky when he lost control of his rear end at turn 6, going from 4th place down to 10th.

Roman Stanek who was in 2nd place was massively under pressure by Paul Aron who was desperately fighting for the 2nd place spot. Roman Stanek suppressed Aron’s ambitions and created a few-second lead between the “Hitech” driver and himself.

By the 10th lap, a skirmish for 13th and 14th place happened between the Prema driver, Oliver Bearman, and the PHM AIX driver, Joshua Dürksen. Oliver Bearman forced Joshua Dürksen to go wide into turn 1, effectively nudging Dürksen off the track. Dürksen could be heard on the radio saying “Bearman pushed me off”. Officials noted the incident.

At the 12th turn of lap 10, Kush Maini zoomed in front of Paul Aron securing the 3rd place position. Immediately after Maini makes his maneuver, Paul Aron, Andrea Antonelli, and Richard Verschoor have an incident on the track.

Andrea Antonelli loses the rear of his car coming into turn 12, making him drift into the gravel pit before he finally stops near the barrier. Richard Verschoor was near Antonelli and seemed to have an overreaction to seeing Antonelli lose his rear-end, sending Verschoor flying into the gravel pit. Paul Aron had nowhere to go but forward and clipped his vehicle’s nose on Richard Vershoor’s spinning car. Although Paul Aron landed in the gravel pit, he had enough momentum to catapult himself out of the gravel and get back on course, albeit, with a broken (vehicle) nose.

(Andrea Antonelli (Sideways car), Richard Verschoor (Car on the right), and Paul Aron (Last vehicle) - Image Source F1 TV Screenshot)

Another safety car comes out while clean-up crews are coming to take the car away and remove any debris from the track. Richard Vershoor and Andrea Antonelli were unharmed, but understandably upset about no longer being in the race. Following behind the safety car were Isack Hadjar, Roman Stanek, Kush Maini, Dennis Hauger, and Franco Colapinto for the top 5 positions.

Before the safety car was called, Dennis Hauger fought his way through the field from 10th place, all the way up to 4th place. Similarly, Victor Martins got into the point-scoring position by the skin of his teeth when he squirmed his way from last place to 8th place. Kush Maini also moved up the ranks from 4th place to 3rd, by overtaking Paul Aron before Aron’s unfortunate accident with Andrea Antonelli and Richard Verschoor.

The safety car is called back, and the green flag is given at lap 14 out of 23. Isack Hadjar defends his P1 position, as does Roman Stanek for his P2 position. Towards the middle of the field, teammates Juan Correa and Jak Crawford battle each other for 12th place. Correa makes a defensive move, pushing Crawford off the track in a similar move that Oliver Bearman pulled on Joshua Dürksen earlier in the race. Crawford can be heard on the radio saying “Juan drove into the side of me”. Crawford and Correa both got back on course with little repercussions to their lap times or positions.

By lap 17, Hauger gets the fastest lap of the race, exhibiting his hunger to overtake Maini who was right ahead of him in 3rd place. Maini, however, was in a battle for 2nd place with Roman Stanek, with all drivers displaying their offensive and defensive techniques. Meanwhile, at the midfield, Dürksen spins off the track into the gravel at turn 10. Luckily, he kept his vehicle from stalling and got back on course but moved to 17th position.

With only 5 laps left, Victor Martins expertly stole P7 from teammate, Zak O’Sullivan. Hauger was right on Maini’s tail, while Maini was pressuring Stanek for P2. Isack Hadjar created a slight gap of 3.3 seconds for P1. Sometime later, on lap 22 out of 23, Hauger rockets to the outside of Maini and manages to snatch the 3rd place position from Kush Maini.

The race has a tight finish with the top 5 result being:

1. Isack Hadjar

2. Roman Stanek

3. Dennis Hauger

4. Kush Maini

5. Franco Colapinto

Isack Hadjar and Roman Stanek were very dominant, and once they got their positions they kept their positions for the entire duration of the race.

At the end of the race, penalties were given out to Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman, and Jak Crawford. Isack Hadjar received a 10-second time penalty, knocking him to 6th place, after the race Stewards found him at fault for the crash between himself, Josep María Martí, and Gabriel Bortoletto. Oliver Bearman was also given a 10-second penalty after the stewards found him at fault for accidentally barging Joshua Dürksen off the track on lap 10 of the race. Bearman drops from P8 to P15, taking him outside of the points.

The last driver to receive a penalty was Jak Crawford who received a 5-place grid place demotion in the featured race the following day (today). He received this demotion due to not having the correct number of tires, as per regulation.

Sources:

https://formulascout.com/hadjar-penalty-hands-stanek-maiden-f2-win-in-melbourne-sprint-race/117101