Disappointment all round

Since Ollie Bearman confirmed he’s definitely going to F1 next year we’re now officially off “will Bearman actually score any points in F2 this season!?” watch, so I guess we’ll have to focus on some of the other drivers…

Practice: Disappointment for Martí

The practice session started in an undramatic fashion with a Virtual Safety Car test and some casual laps. Fifteen minutes later and it was time for the real thing, as the VSC was deployed while Pepe Martí spun himself into the wall at turn 11, courtesy of a gusty tailwind. It took just a couple of minutes for him to be wheeled away before things got going again.

From then on T11 and its pesky tailwind continued to bring the most drama, catching out Amaury Cordeel, Franco Colapinto, Joshua Dürksen, Amaury Cordeel again, Richard Verschoor, Taylor Barnard, Zak O’Sullivan and Amaury Cordeel one more time.

The session ended with a random yellow flag, Zane Maloney fastest, Jak Crawford second and Enzo Fittipaldi third.

Qualifying: The same disappointment for Martí

The start of Qualifying was slightly delayed due to whatever F3 chaos happened earlier, however the session was soon going strong, along with the T11 tailwind. Equally challenging as the tailwind was apparently the traffic, with Fittipaldi fighting his way out of the pit lane and Crawford struggling to get a clear lap. The biggest struggle of all was however reserved for Martí who once more found himself in the wall at good old T11, screaming “Noooooo, not again!!!!”. The red flag was out while they cleared away his car.

Once Qualifying resumed, traffic complaints, excursions off track and Crawford’s struggles continued, with Crawford having his one decent lap deleted for exceeding track limits at the dastardly T11, dropping him to last place. Meanwhile, despite driving about with the tape from his pit box stuck to his tyre, Paul Aron went quickest, taking pole position, while Fittipaldi ended the session in second and Isack Hadjar third.

Sprint Race: Familiar disappointment for Verschoor

Reverse-grid for the Sprint Race meant Verschoor was on pole with Kush Maini second and Zane Maloney third, although Maloney stalled on the formation lap and was rolled into the pit lane while screaming, “What the hell!?”. Let’s just blame the T11 tailwind.

Verschoor had a good start, managing to keep his lead, while Kimi Antonelli took advantage of Maloney’s downfall, flew past Maini and was soon right behind Verschoor, battling for first place. Weirdly for the Sprint Race, not everyone had made the same tyre choice and Antonelli on the soft, faster tyres soon had no problem making his way past Verschoor on the hard, slower tyres, despite Verschoor’s aggressive defence. Antonelli quickly pulled put a two-second lead before getting to work trying to save his tyres as much as possible, with a long race ahead and Verschoor with his more durable tyres not far behind.

The rest of the field was pretty much a copy/paste of the upfront action, with the drivers on soft tyres passing as many of those on the hard tyres as they could. Special shout out to my fav Ritomo Miyata who overtook two drivers at once, albeit for 17th place.

As the race reached its half way point(ish), those on the soft tyres were starting to struggle and the hard tyres were having their time to shine. With Antonelli’s tyres looking particularly worn, Verschoor was now bearing down on him, ready to retake the lead, with Maini right behind him also eyeing up the top podium spot. A couple of laps later and Verschoor made his move, diving up the inside of Antonelli, who proceeded to lock up his tyres and let everyone past him. Verschoor was leading the race, with Maini second and Victor Martins now third. Antonelli was off to the pits to get some new tyres, along with the others who had been unsuccessful at preserving their soft tyres, including Fittipaldi who locked up so badly he got a puncture. Also not in with a chance of winning was Cordeel, who had a ten-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

The last few laps of the race were some kind of chaos, everyone driving round three wide while trying to overtake each other and Antonelli exclaiming “mate, Maloney is an idiot,” as they all got in each other’s way. Luckily the race finished just as rain drops started to appear, with Verschoor crossing the line first ahead of Maini and Martins. Verschoor’s engineer sounded happier about his win than he did, while Maini apologised to his team for not winning. Martins, presumably, was just relieved to be scoring some points.

Then in classic F2 style, just to punish those of us who couldn’t be bothered to read all the FIA decision documents, it was announced, “Oh by the way, Verschoor was disqualified for a technical infringement so Maini won”. Feels like Verschoor is probably just used to that at this point. Martins was therefore promoted to second while Hadjar took third.

Feature Race: Disappointment that keeps on giving for Aron

The grid for the Feature Race was supposed to line up with Aron on pole, Fittipaldi second, Hadjar third, Bortoleto fourth and Martins fifth, but Hadjar’s team, Campos, had forgotten to let him out of the garage on time, so there he was, starting the race from the end of the pit lane, waving his hands about in despair and asking “How, did we make this ******* mistake? Come on!” One French man’s pain was another’s gain however, as Martins had one less person to fight past on his way to taking the lead. Aron did an opposite manoeuvre, going wide at the first corner and dropping down to seventh, leaving Martins out front, with Fittipaldi second and Gabriel Bortoleto third.

While Fittipaldi was desperately trying (and failing) to overtake Martins, Antonelli was barging past Maloney to take fourth place, leaving Maloney vulnerable to Hauger and Aron who also came charing up behind. As Hauger pressured Maloney, trying to go round the outside of him, Aron tucked up behind Maloney and entirely misjudged the situation, ramming into the back of him. Aron and Maloney spun, perfectly in sync with one another like a beautiful F2 ballet, but a sad ballet where both of the ballet dancers are out of the race. Aron sat with his head in his hands until he moved to the edge of the track and stood with his head in his hands. I imagine he also had his head in his hands in the stewards office later when receiving news that he would get a five-place grid drop at the next race for the incident, as well as an additional five-place grid drop for a separate incident at the start of the race where he pushed Bearman off track. One week you’re the championship leader and the next week you’ve crashed out of the race and got a ten-place grid drop for the week after. F2 really is the gift that keeps giving.

Aron and Maloney’s crash meant that the Safety Car was deployed at exactly the right time for everyone who was on soft tyres to make their mandatory pit stop, which included the top three, Martins, Fittipaldi and Bortoleto. Antonelli was on the alternative tyre strategy and so had no choice but to stay out, take the lead of the race and to try to pull as big a gap as he could between himself and Martins before it was time for him to take his pit stop. As the halfway point passed, Antonelli had a five-second lead over second-place Martins and third-place Verschoor, nowhere near the 30 seconds needed to take a pit stop and still come out ahead. Luckily for Antonelli and the others on the alternative strategy, it was their turn for a perfectly timed Safety Car. Less lucky for Cordeel though, who smashed into the barriers. Everyone who was yet to change their tyres dived into the pits. Antonelli came back out in fifth place, behind Martins, Bortoleto, Fittipaldi and Hauger.

The Safety Car ended with ten laps left to go. Antonelli got straight to work, passing Hauger and Fittipaldi before even reaching the third corner. Next he flew by Bortoleto and, after a few minutes, also passed Martins for the lead of the race. Midfield it was all four-wide and overtaking frenzies as everyone on the soft tyres barrelled through. Not least Verschoor who was tenth but had got up to fourth by the last lap. Not content with such a charge, Verschoor went side-by-side with Bortoleto, the pair almost making contact. Somehow Verschoor made it work, taking third place as Antonelli crossed the line to win, with Martins only a distant second. “LET’S GOOO!” shouted Antonelli, delighted with his first F2 Feature Race win. There were words of thanks, congratulations and tears, followed by hugs for everyone who has ever worked at Mercedes or Prema. It was lovely. Getting into the spirit of things was Verschoor’s Trident engineer who enthusiastically cheered “Never give up! Bravo! P3!” only to hear Verschoor’s response, “I’m not going to celebrate mate, forget it.” I’m starting to feel most sorry for Verschoor’s engineer at this point, realistically how long can he continue to maintain such a positive attitude in the face of adversity? Hopefully he got some champagne at least, if there was any left that Antonelli hadn’t either drunk or poured over himself.

Championship standings: Disappointment for anyone who isn’t Hadjar

Despite a lacklustre weekend, Hadjar leads the championship (140 points), mostly thanks to title rival Aron’s (122 points) even more lacklustre weekend. Third place is Bortoleto’s (110 points), while Maloney is down in fourth (101 points) and Colapinto is fifth (96 points).