Changing of the guard in the rankings
Isaac Hadjar wins his at Silverstone third feature race of the year and takes the lead in the drivers’ standings. A deserved victory that also came thanks to the five-second penalty that Jack Crawfordfirst under the checkered flag, had to pay the price. Good second place for Maloney who repeats the position gained also in the feature race, recovering morale and ranking after an excellent start to the championship followed by a crisis that lasted a few races. These are the words at the end of the race of Hadjar, who complains about the too many overtakings outside the track limits which he says are too frequent in the cadet category:
“The team as always did a great job, we were fantastic on every track and they always gave me the right tools to perform well. The race was hard fought and I had a difficult moment with Martins during the overtaking and it’s a shame that the race was compromised for him. Then Crawford took advantage and it took me a while to find my race pace again. There are now a few too many off-piste events in the race, which for me is not a real competition but this is the situation. I continue to think about pushing lap by lap even if we are leaders of the championship and we will be ready also for the next race in Budapest.”
Disappointing Feature Race for Prema Team who saw Antonelliwinner of yesterday’s sprint race, retired on the first lap, innocent protagonist of a collision suffered by Kush Maini. A decent race instead of Bearman who took home a seventh place, maximising the potential of his Prema at Silverstone.
Heavy weekend for Paul Aron who with a double zero in the two races of the weekend loses the leadership of the standings. The Estonian driver, who started from the center of the group with hard tires, tried to set the race on a wait-and-see strategy that was however compromised by a penalty received for a closure that was not too bad but still deleterious on Durksen who finished the race in the gravel. Now Aron needs to find a win and join the club of the many winners of an F2 race of the season. In two weeks, Formula 2 will be back on track at the Hungaroring, a twisty track that is very different from the medium-fast Silverstone. The fight for the title remains open.
Race report
On the way Martins shoots well with a great flash of Bearman who gains second position. Poleman Hadjar gets off to a bad start and slips to third position. Andra Kimi Antonelli immediately exits the scene due to an exit from the track with consequent engine shutdown, pushed out by Kush Maini who hits him in turn 3. The safety car is forced to enter the track for a couple of laps and at the restart it is Durksen gets stuck and retires after contact with championship leader Paul Aronstruggling with the hard tyres, which closes him slightly in the curve to defend himself from the attack of the AIX Racing driver, a manoeuvre that costs him a ten-second penalty. Aron is forced to return to the pits to replace the right rear damaged in the impact and returns in nineteenth position. Another safety car on the track therefore which consolidates the group and returns on the sixth lap.
Martins maintains the lead without any difficulty at the restart of the race, followed by Bearman, Hadjar, Crawford and Bortoleto. The French driver of the Academy Red Bull has more pace than the Englishman’s Prema and as soon as the use of DRS is allowed he passes him on the hangar straight. Both come into the pits on the same lap to change from soft to hard tyres. On the tenth lap the leader Martins and Bortoleto come in to fit the hard tyres. On the track Hadjar virtually remains in second position behind Martins but has warmer tyres and quickly arrives behind the ART team driver who however does not worry too much thanks to an excellent race pace.
Ahead halfway through the race there remains the group of drivers who started from the centre of the group with the hard tyres, with Colapinto leader of the race followed by Correa and MartìBehind them, Paul Aron, with one more pit stop to make to fit the soft tyres, climbs up to sixth position. Hadjar, who can use the DRS, continues to threaten Martins who ends up wide off the track in defence, losing many positions. Crawford takes advantage of the fight between the French pilots and overtakes Hadjar but However, at that moment he is penalised by 5 seconds for unsafe release in pit lane. In the meantime Colapinto remains in the lead of the race with a margin of just under thirty seconds on the drivers who have already changed their tires and returns to the pits on lap twenty-three for the mandatory pit stop. He returns to the track in difficulty with cold tires in eighth position. On lap twenty-fifth Bortoleto makes his appearance and gains eighth position at the expense of Bearman. Colapinto has finally found the temperature of the soft tires and passes Martins with three laps to go, also setting the fastest lap. The Argentine driver is the fastest on the track with podium ambitions. On the penultimate lap Aron returns to the pits for the mandatory tire change and to serve the penalty. The Estonian driver returns to the track only fourteenth.
Crawford takes the checkered flag first, but slips to third due to the penalty he has accumulated. Hadjar then wins the race ahead of Maloney. A victory that gives him the top spot in the standings. Fourth place for an excellent Colapinto.
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