F2 | Austria: Bearman returns to winning ways, first triumph for Bortoleto

The Austrian round of Formula 2 provided two races that probably won’t go down in history for the emotions on the track, but are still significant for the standings. The sprint race was won by Oliver Bearman, finally back in the top positions after a disappointing start to the season, both due to personal errors and bad luck and technical problems.

In the Feature Race, however, a great success for Gabriel Bortoleto, with the reigning Formula 3 champion achieving his first category success in Formula 2 with a series of fast laps in the most critical moment of the race.

From a championship perspective, Paul Aron is still at the top of the standings, ahead of Isack Hadjar, whose engine literally went up in smoke in the sprint race, before reaching the podium in Sunday’s race. In third position we find Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Zane Maloney, for whom a period lacking in great satisfaction continues. Difficult weekend also for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the second in a row without points, also due to the problems at the start which kept him stuck on the grid.

Sprint race: Bearman returns to success

Oliver Bearman took his first F2 win of the season, returning to success since last year’s Monza GP, finishing ahead of polesitter Kush Maini (Invicta) at the start and leading all 28 laps.

While the Prema driver made good use of the start, Maini struggled in the sprint, slipping to third place, with Pepe Marti (Campos) taking advantage of the opportunity by overtaking him. Isack Hadjar, another of the title contenders, also had a difficult start, with a mistake on the first lap which dropped him from fourth to twelfth position, without actually managing to move up the grid.

Throughout the race, Maini attempted to keep the group behind him, but teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, championship leader Paul Aron (Hitech), Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) and Jack Crawford (DAMS) eventually found ways to pass him, dropping him out of the top five as well.

Marti did well to fend off Aron’s late attacks for second place, with the latter thus also achieving a podium this weekend, even if he has not yet climbed to the top step. In a race that was not full of events, there was only one incident to report on the last lap, when the two MP Motorsport drivers touched each other exiting turn 3.

Oliver Bearman, Prema Racin

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Fighting for fifth position, Franco Colapinto attempted a DRS-assisted lunge on Hauger, but took his teammate off the track and over the bollards, before losing the rear of his car in an attempt to get back on the accelerator to launch himself into the sprint that leads to turn 4. The Argentine thus spun, before restarting and finishing in eleventh place.

After freeing himself from DRS in the early stages, Bearman was able to manage the gap at the front even when Marti tried to close in in the closing stages, taking Prema’s first podium of the season.

Feature Race: Bortoleto finally

Success has finally arrived for Gabriel Bortoleto, in his first season in Formula 2 in which he is certainly not disfiguring. The Brazilian, who started from third position on the grid, but what really made the difference was a series of fast laps after his pitstop with which he caught up with Campos driver Pepe Marti, who had stopped during a brief virtual safety car period, saving thus several seconds at the moment of the stop.

Taking a step back, the start of the race was uncertain and full of episodes: four drivers broke down during the formation lap. Among them was Dennis Hauger, MP Motorsport driver in pole position, who was then forced to start from the pits, but also Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Jushua Durksen (AIX) took advantage of the de facto inherited pole position to lead the first laps, before Bortoleto managed to take the lead in the fourth lap also taking advantage of the help of the DRS, a key aspect on this track.

The difficult period continues for Zane Maloney, who not only stalled at the start of the race on the starting grid, but was then forced to retire a few laps later, causing the intervention of the virtual Safety Car.

While the race was neutralised, it was Martì who took advantage of the situation and made a pit stop. The stop, however, ended after the race under the scrutiny of the stewards, since the drivers cannot enter the pits for the mandatory stop foreseen by the VSC, but the stop can be completed if they are already inside at the moment in which the entry of the team is declared virtual safety car. It is no coincidence that, in fact, the Campos driver was then penalized with a 30 second penalty for not having completed the mandatory pit stop, causing him to slip to fifteenth place.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Invicta Racing

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

However, the Spaniard had not yet been penalized in the race and so Marti had gained a clear advantage of five seconds. However, Bortoleto pushed on, closing the gap, with the winning move coming on the twentieth lap at turn 3.

With the alternative strategy, Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport) spent a period in the lead, while Oliver Bearman was the other driver who tried to gain by playing long distances. For the Prema representative, however, hopes were dashed when a reliability problem forced him to retire halfway through the twentieth lap of the race. Problems which, certainly, do not please the Briton, who has already encountered several technical problems during this championship.

For Colapinto, the strategy paid off: he pitted with eight laps to go, dropping to eighth, before using the softer tyre to move up the grid, eventually crossing the line in second place with late passes on the Campos duo of Marti and Isack Hadjar.

Tension grew for Campos after Marti was slow to let Hadjar, fighting for the championship, pass to chase Bortoleto. But the tension grew further when Hadjar, who was unable to demonstrate the pace he had claimed to have, failed to return the favor in the closing stages, instead keeping the final podium position for himself, with Marti in fourth position.

Championship leader Paul Aron (Hitech) crossed the line in fifth, but dropped one place to Enzo Fittipaldi after being given a five-second penalty for moving under braking during a duel with Hadjar. The Estonian recovered a place to fifth thanks to Martì’s penalty.