Who will crash into Martins today?
F2 moved on from the processional track of Monaco to the definitely never processional track of Barcelona (if you read this in an upbeat and positive tone please go back and reread in a more sarcastic tone).
Practice: Dunne crashes into Martins
The circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is familiar to both new and less-new drivers alike thanks to the DAYS of testing hosted by the track each year. The result is that the practice session is basically redundant and we’re lucky if anyone bothers to drive around at all. As it was, it took only 15 minutes before some drivers decided to humour us and go out on track, with some even doing proper fast laps. Well done them.
The main action was however happening in the pit lane, where Alex Dunne decided he hadn’t made himself a big enough nemesis out of Victor Martins during the last race and so rammed straight into the back of Martins as they both entered the pit lane. The stewards were as unimpressed with this lack of judgement as they were in Monaco and gave him a three-place grid penalty for both the Sprint and Feature Race to add to his ten-place Sprint Race penalty he already had carried over from the Monaco incident.
As the stewards did their work, the mechanics also did theirs, with Dunne’s team rushing out with a new front wing, while Martins’ team brought him some duct tape.
With less than ten minutes of Practice to go, Amaury Cordeel was rallying through the gravel trap, while the others were putting some fast laps in, but ultimately it was Arvid Lindblad, followed by Dunne and Gabriele Minì who were the top three fastest.
Qualifying: No one crashes into Martins!
Surprisingly at least four drivers decided they weren’t going to stay in the pits for most of the session and there was actually something to watch. Soon half the field was out on track before they went back in the pits and the other half came out, as if no one had told them group qualifying was just a Monaco thing.
Lindblad once more set the early pace and, despite everyone’s best efforts, he set the late pace too, finishing the session as the youngest ever F2 pole sitter, with Sebastián Montoya second and Kush Maini third.
Sprint Race: The gravel crashes into Martins
Leonardo Fornaroli was on pole for the Sprint Race, hoping to finally break his weird four-year run of not winning any races despite being incredibly successful. “Of course I will try my best to win,” he said, already sounding somewhat resigned to his fate. Behind was the solidly more optimistic duo of Joshua Dürksen (starting second) and Luke Browning (starting third).
In classic F2 fashion, they went three-wide at the start but Browning drove straight down the middle, taking the lead of the race. Somehow Jak Crawford (who started fourth) managed to follow Browning through, jumping up to second ahead of Fornaroli in third and Dürksen now fourth.
After the first lap, Max Esterson and John Bennett were in the pits and Martins was in the gravel. They all seemed to recover from whatever had befallen them and they were soon racing around at the back together.
At the front, Crawford and Browning were battling over first place and, despite a robust and slightly bashy defence from Browning, Crawford ultimately won, making it through into the lead. Browning’s engineer, like an F2 Jedi master, advised “think of the long game Luke” and then nothing happened for a bit (apart from Bennett disappearing into the pits to retire) as no on one wanted to wear out their tyres too quickly.
In yet more F2 fashion, we hit unlucky-for-some lap number 13 and everything suddenly happened at once. Fourth-place Dürksen’s car gave up, leaving him dropping down the order before heading for retirement in the pits, while Richard Verschoor and Lindblad were battling hard until they weren’t and Lindblad had spun. “Mate, he just crashed into the side of me!” complained Lindblad, while Verschoor opted for another classic racing driver complaint of “Mate, he moved under braking!”
After the flurry of activity the rest of the racing action also picked up. While Browning was looking for any sign of weakness in Crawford (“I think he’s starting to struggle!”), teammates Montoya and Minì were fighting hard over a midfield position. So hard that Montoya eventually crashed into Minì. Montoya was able to get going again but Minì’s race was over. “Oh my god, what a teammate, amazing,” he proclaimed as the Safety Car was deployed. Montoya later received a five-second penalty for his troubles.
In a very un-Sprint Race like event, about half the field decided to use the Safety Car period as an opportunity to change to softer, faster tyres in the hope of doing an even more sprinty Sprint. The front runners however chose to hold their positions and stay out on track, with Browning’s focus remaining firmly on Crawford, with his team telling him he simply must get past at the restart. He did not.
While Crawford and Browning were concentrating on their battle for the lead, everyone else was looking at Verschoor and Dunne, who both had new tyres and were screaming through the field. A couple of laps later and they were right behind the leaders and on the attack. It didn’t take long for Verschoor to fly by Browning. Dunne tried to do the same but Browning was less prepared to let two people through and tried shoving Dunne wide, but it did little to help and Dunne was soon also past.
The next lap and it was the same for Crawford. Verschoor streaming by, followed by Dunne.
The last couple of laps consisted of Dunne desperately chasing Verschoor, but to no avail. Verschoor was victorious, with Dunne second and what you would expect to have been a disheartened Crawford in third, except Rafael Villagómez took that away from him in the closing laps to secure his first F2 podium. The result was a a Dutch team, another Dutch team with a Dutch driver, and a McLaren junior driver making for the surely the most orange podium in F2 history.
Feature Race: Bennett crashes into Martins
Lindblad was set to start the Feature Race from pole, with Montoya second and Maini in third. Lindblad’s plan was to get a good start and it worked well, with him easily keeping the lead and Montoya falling in behind. Maini, however, did not get a good start and was inexplicably overtaken by everyone until he was suddenly down to ninth place. Also experiencing starting drama was Fornaroli, who got a ten-second stop/go penalty for a starting infringement, despite protesting his innocence: “I did everything right mate!”, and Bennett who, at some point, clipped the back of Martins (as is becoming the fashion) and lost a bit of his front wing.
As they left the starting chaos behind and settled into racing, Lindblad worked on getting the most out of his tyres and pulled out more than two and half seconds ahead of Montoya and Verschoor, by which time it was the start of the first round of pit stops. While the pit stops went mostly drama free, the same couldn’t be said for Dürksen and Browning’s on-track battle, which was looking less than friendly. Browning ultimately came out on top when the stewards deemed that Dürksen went off track and gained an advantage, handing him a five-second time penalty.
Next up it was Ritomo Miyata’s turn to try and pass Browning. Browning’s robust defence soon turned into Browning shoving Miyata off the track. As Miyata rallied sideways through the gravel, Browning headed to the pits for a new front wing and the stewards dished out a ten-second penalty for Browning.
Elsewhere there was plenty of other random action going on, with Oliver Goethe getting a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits, Dürksen almost losing it as Crawford squeezed by, and Villagómez suddenly in the wall, but clearing his own car away by rolling it backwards towards a gap in the fence.
Once all the pitstops were completed and the randomness had ceased, Lindblad remained comfortably in the lead, with Montoya and Verschoor keeping second and third, although Verschoor looked less comfortable in his position as he had Crawford breathing down his neck and threatening to overtake at any moment. Also looking less comfortable was Fornaroli, who seemed to have some issue after his pitstop and was stopped in the gravel.
Just as Crawford looked imminently close to passing Verschoor, the Safety Car was called to recover Fornaroli’s car, once again screwing over Crawford’s chances and really taking back what it gave him in Monaco.
With so few laps left, the Safety Car ended just in time to allow Lindblad to cross the victory line, with Montoya finishing second and Verschoor third.
Championship standings crash into Martins
A disappointing weekend for Browning sees him drop from championship leader to a lowly fifth place, with 73 points. Taking over his crown for now is Dunne (87 points), while Verschoor’s resurgence means he gets a boost back up to second (84 points). Lindblad’s victory jumps him up to third (79 points), while Crawford is currently fourth (also 73 points). Somehow Martins has managed to scrape together some points through his misfortune, but is currently languishing in eighth place (with 41 points) and has some way to go if he wants to catch back up. It could go either way at Austria, up next!