The Formula 2 season continues to offer one element above all: uncertainty. Even during this weekend, new winners have arrived during this championship and are added to the list, demonstrating how difficult it is to draw a clear line on the progress of the season. There are some elements that show some consistency, but certainly not at the top position, where over the course of this different weekend we have reached the tenth different winner.
In the first race of the sprint race the victory went to Victor Martins, his first podium of the season after a not particularly lucky start to the season, while in the longest race on Sunday the victory went to Jak Crawford, good at playing strategy to pass the championship leader with an undercut.
At the top of the standings is Paul Aron, who has extended his lead over Isack Hadjar to nine points, while it hasn’t been a weekend to remember for Zane Maloney, who has now slipped to a good twenty-five points behind the Estonian Hitech. Although it is true that we have not even reached the halfway point of the season, the ranking is now starting to lengthen: for those who want to aspire to the title, it will be fundamental to try to recover points in the next two events between Austria and Great Britain.
Jak Crawford, DAMS
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Sprint race: Martins wins again
The start of the season did not smile for Victor Martins, but in the Spanish Grand Prix, at least in the sprint race, given that he was forced to retire in the feature race on Sunday, something changed. For the Frenchman it is the eighth podium in the category and the second success, in a sprint race he effectively dominated.
The day was less positive for Rodin driver Ritomo Miyata, who after his adventure in the 24h of Le Mans last week, crossed the finish line in second place in the F2 sprint race, before dropping to eighth place due to a pair of five-second penalties for exceeding track limits.
The Japanese was not the only one to violate track limits, as other riders suffered the same fate, including Roman Stanek (Trident) and Zane Maloney (Rodin). After a bad start from pole, Kush Maini (Invicta) slipped to fifth place, but managed to quickly climb back up to get Miyata behind him.
![](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6O1kBbJ2/s1000/victor-martins-art-grand-prix-.jpg)
Behind Martins, who also achieved his first podium this season, in reality he should have finished Juan Manuel Correa in second place after overtaking Gabriel Bortoleto on the penultimate lap, whose tires were now at their wit’s end.
However, the DAMS driver was deprived of his first F2 podium of the season after stewards imposed a series of post-race penalties for exceeding track limits. Correa had initially crossed the finish line in fourth place but, like Kush Maini (Invicta), had benefited from the penalties awarded to Miyata to gain the podium. In the final order, after the sanctions, Correa slipped to eighth place, one position behind Miyata, who had suffered the same penalty, however assigned already in the race. This promoted Paul Aron (Hitech) to the podium.
It was also a day to forget for Prema: both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman struggled, with the former originally finishing in tenth place, while the Englishman slipped to the back of the group also due to some technical problems. In reality, after the race Antonelli was sanctioned with a five-second penalty for track limit, thus finishing fifteenth.
![Victor Martins, Grand Prix ART](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6O1kBbJ2/s1000/victor-martins-art-grand-prix-.jpg)
Victor Martins, Grand Prix ART
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Feature Race: Tenth different winner
Jack Crawford became the tenth different winner of the F2 season after executing an undercut strategy on championship leader Paul Aron to claim his first championship win.
At the start, polesitter Aron had in fact maintained the lead of the race, preceding Crawford and Colapinto at the first corner, but accidents immediately occurred behind him which required the entry of the Safety Car: the winner of Saturday’s sprint race, Victor Martins , came into contact with Dennis Hauger, causing the safety car to intervene promptly during the first lap.
Hauger, who started on the softer tyre, had an excellent start, at least before losing control of his car on the curb at turn two, causing his car to bounce against Martins’ ART.
However, this was not the only noteworthy episode of the first rounds. While behind the Safety Car, Roman Stanek (Trident) reported that Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) was leaking dry ice from the car which had somehow ended up right against the Trident driver’s helmet. The pair were on track together after both being forced to start from the pitlane, as Antonelli was unable to start from the grid for the formation lap after qualifying in fifth position.
![Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/6xEk8a10/s1000/andrea-kimi-antonelli-prema-ra.jpg)
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Given the high degradation in Barcelona, after just a few laps the difference in compound began to be noticed: for example, AIX driver Joshua Durksen began to move up the rankings on the hard tyre, passing Isack Hadjar for sixth placed in the eighth lap. Right around the end of this lap, riders on the softer tire started to pit to switch to the harder tire, such as Cradwford attempting to undercut Aron.
The first two, Aron and Colapinto, stopped on lap 11, with both drivers having to stay in the pits longer than expected due to a slow stop. When the two returned to the track after the pit, Crawford found himself between the two but, with the tires already warm, he quickly found a gap to gain the lead.
After starting to put pressure on Crawford to get back into the lead, Aron’s chances of victory definitively disintegrated during the fifteenth lap, when an oversteer coming out of the last corner caused him to lose control and end up in the gravel. His return to the track was immediately put under investigation by the stewards, as he partially cut off Zak O’Sullivan, but it was then decided not to take further action.
However, there was no shortage of other episodes. During the seventeenth lap a problem occurred for Durksen, who at that moment was leading the race on the hard tire but had not yet stopped, but it seemed he could finish in the top five.
![Jak Crawford, Dams](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YXRPVxK0/s1000/jak-crawford-dams.jpg)
Jak Crawford, Dams
Photo by: Dutch Photo Agency
Meanwhile, Aron made his way past O’Sullivan, while Bortoleto managed to pass Colapinto for a place on the podium, before swapping places again a couple of times. With 10 laps to go, leader Juan Manuel Correra (DAMS) stopped to get rid of the hard tires he had started the race with and put on soft ones, dropping to sixth position. Aron continued to recover, until he overtook Bortoleto with the DRS, thus recovering a position on the podium.
From behind, however, Correa began to push significantly with the softer tyres, catching up on both Bortoleto and Aron. The concern about his pace was such that Colapinto, six seconds behind, was asked by the pits to accelerate to eliminate the danger.
On lap 33, with five to go, Correa made his move on a completely defenseless Aron at Turn 1, thus climbing into a viable podium position, that result eluded Saturday due to a post-race penalty. At the start of the last lap, another episode changed the fate of the race, namely the collision between teammates Bortoleto and Kush Maini in turn 1, although both managed to reach the checkered flag in sixth and seventh position , albeit with their respective vehicles damaged.
Crawford took the win with a 1.4 second lead over Colapinto, while Correa’s comeback saw him cross the finish line in third place.
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