F2 sprint race: Taylor Barnard wins, Victor Martins retires

Barnard starts from pole position for the F2 sprint race, followed by Bortoleto and Hauger. The French drivers Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins are in 8th and 9th place respectively. The lights go out and Barnard takes off, followed by a very tight pack. Bortoleto is alongside him and they go through the first corner in their respective order. But Victor Martins hits the barriers at the first corner and leaves debris on the track, triggering the deployment of the safety car. He had collided with Jak Crawford’s DAMS Lucas Oil, sending him into the wall. The French driver has to retire from the race.

Hauger shows himself to be very fast and goes hunting for Bortoleto. The latter is instructed on the radio not to leave the door open for him. In the meantime, Marti hits the wall coming out of the Swimming Pool after hitting the curb very hard coming out of the chicane, which brings out the safety car. The safety car comes in on lap 9 and Barnard still leads, followed by Hauger, Antonelli, and Colapinto. But the latter locks up at the Nouvelle Chicane and falls behind the first four. There is still a large piece of debris, which triggers a virtual safety car, while Verschoor informs his team that his car is damaged at the front. He comes into the pits to replace his front wing.

On his side, Antonelli is getting closer to Hauger to try to take back the third position and hope to get on the podium. In the meantime, Oliver Bearman is also reporting damage to his team. Up front, Barnard has cause for concern as Bortoleto is quickly closing in as we pass the halfway point of the race. But Dennis Hauger is himself getting closer to Bortoleto, within 0.7 seconds with 10 laps to go.

Red flag a few laps from the end

Bad news for Joshua Duerksen, who receives a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Verschoor. It is because of him that the Dutch driver damaged his front wing. Bearman loses time at Portier and drops from 11th to 14th place. Hauger complains on the radio about Bortoleto’s behavior missing a chicane. He says he is trying to push him into making a mistake by increasing the pace.

On a replay that shows Maloney touching the back of O’Sullivan, which sent pieces of his front wing onto the track. The incident is noted by the stewards and will be investigated after the race… But it doesn’t stop there for Maloney, as he spins after contact with Maini, triggering a virtual safety car. Both cars are a bit in the middle of the track while others try to go around them. The red flag is eventually shown, Maloney’s car being completely stationary while the stewards push Maini’s car to the pit lane, where the other drivers are now gathering. This opportunity is used to change Bearman’s front wing.

After this break, the drivers set off in a rolling start. Many drivers have opted for the super soft tires for this restart, and Barnard immediately takes a comfortable lead of more than 3 seconds at the end of the sprint race. Hadjar locks his wheels at turn 10 while Bearman is the victim of a slight rear tap from Correa. Antonelli, on the other hand, sets the fastest lap two laps from the end. The sprint race concludes with the same top three drivers as at the start: Taylor Barnard takes the victory, followed by Bortoleto, while Hauger finishes third on the podium. Hadjar finishes 8th, between Aron and Fittipaldi.