Resilient Kush Maini takes second place in Sprint race

Barcelona, 22 June 2024: Vicor Martins was a comfortable Sprint Race winner in Barcelona, putting in a measured performance to earn his first victory of the 2024 season. The ART Grand Prix driver seized the lead at lights out and escaped into the distance for the win.

Kush Maini rebounded from a tough opening lap to secure second for Invicta Racing, while Juan Manuel Correa returned to the Formula 2 podium for the first time since 2019, taking third for DAMS Lucas Oil.

AS IT HAPPENED

Maini suffered wheelspin off the line from Pole and dropped to fourth while Martins profited to take the lead on the run to the first corner. Ritomo Miyata swept around the outside at Turn 1 to go from fourth to second, ahead of Correa and Maini.

Onto Lap 2 and Maini made a late dive to the inside of Correa at the opening corner to recover one position. Teammate Gabriel Bortoleto followed him through at Turn 4, going around the outside of the DAMS driver for fourth.

In the battle for seventh, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar fought hard early on, though the Campos Racing driver was unable to find a route through on the PREMA Racing talent.

By Lap 10, Martins was able to escape from DRS range of Miyata behind and led by 1.5s, while the Japanese driver held a 1.1s advantage over Maini in the podium places.

Antonelli had dropped out of DRS range to Paul Aron ahead and after a long time of trying, Hadjar finally cleared the PREMA driver into Turn 1 on Lap 12. Jak Crawford was opportunistic and capitalised, squeezing his way by into Turn 4 to take the final points-paying position in eighth from the Italian.

With 10 laps to go, track limits became a problem for Miyata, and the Rodin driver was assigned a five-second time penalty for one too many breaches. He earned a second time penalty in his struggle to remain ahead of Maini to bring that total up to 10-seconds with five laps remaining.

Further back, Hadjar lost seventh to Crawford as both DAMS cars looked to be taking better care of the tyres than those ahead. Correa was pressuring Bortoleto for the final podium place, but the Brazilian was able to fend him off to maintain position.

Onto the penultimate lap and a sizeable lock-up into Turn 5 was evidence of how hard Bortoleto was pushing to keep Correa behind. However, it gave the American a run into Turn 10 and after diving to the inside, he claimed fourth on the road.

Aron was next to clear Bortoleto, rounding the Invicta driver at Turn 3 on the final lap to take P5, as two corners later Crawford followed through to take sixth from him.

Martins though was untroubled in front to take his first F2 victory since Silverstone in 2023. Maini moved up to second and Correa was third with Miyata’s time penalties.

Aron was fourth ahead of Crawford, Bortoleto, Hadjar and Miyata, who was eighth in the end after his 10-seconds worth of penalties were applied, though he added the fastest lap point to his scoring result.

KEY QUOTE – Victor Martins, ART Grand Prix

“Today’s a win. A bit of a relief after the start of the season. I’m so happy for the ART team, they gave me a really good car today. We’ll keep working, we did everything right today but we’ll go back to work because tomorrow there are other opportunities in front of us, but this feels good. We need to appreciate this moment and work even harder to repeat this moment and get a few more.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Paul Aron remains in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, adding five points to his tally to move onto 85 in first. Isack Hadjar is second, moving up onto 80 points with P7 in the Sprint. Zane Maloney remains in third on 69 with Dennis Hauger fourth on 56 points, and Gabriel Bortoleto rounds out the top five on 53 points.

In the Teams’ Standings Campos Racing have a six-point lead on 106 over Hitech Pulse-Eight in P2. Invicta Racing are third on 95 points, just one ahead of MP Motorsport in fourth. Rodin Motorsport round out the top five on 87 points.

UP NEXT

The FIA Formula 2 Feature Race is set to get underway around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at 11:35 local time with Paul Aron going from Pole Position.