Formula 2: Pepe Marti scored a spectacular victory in the sprint

      Before the second stage of the season, the position in the individual standings of the youth series looked somewhat strange, and this was explained by the fact that the main race of the Australian weekend had to be canceled due to extremely adverse weather conditions.

      Because of this, by today the two drivers had an equal number of points: Joshua Durksen, who won the sprint in Melbourne, and Leonardo Fornaroli, who took second place at the time, but won pole in Friday's qualifying at the Bahrain circuit. We remind you that two bonus points are awarded for this in Formula 2.

      But it was Durksen who started the short Saturday race in Sakhir due to a partially reversed starting order: the Paraguayan driver of AIX Racing showed the 10th time yesterday.

      Next to his car in the front row of the sprint starting field was the silver Dallara of Dino Beganovich, a member of the Ferrari Racing Academy, and the Swede, of course, was going to take full advantage of this situation to demonstrate that he was not studying there in vain. Moreover, yesterday Dino held his first training session behind the wheel of Charles Leclair's car, and this was also supposed to raise his morale.

      Durksen started off clearly better than his neighbor on the starting field, but Beganovich, although he hesitated a little, retained second position, but almost immediately incidents began, due to which a safety car drove onto the track on the second lap.

      Firstly, in the first corner, Victor Martin flew off the track, starting from the 9th position, and he ended up on the side of the road, knocking down a foam block on the way, which serves as a guide in the braking zone, against his will. He was pushed out by Alex Dunne, a Rodin Motorsport racer. And he, in turn, had to dodge Megetunif Himself, which was the root cause of the collision.

      Victor got to the pits in a car that was left without a front wing, got a new nose cone and returned to the track, but it must be stated that his streak of bad luck continues.

      Then, on the very first lap, Sebastian Montoya's car turned around, and it stopped on the track, turning 180 degrees. The son of the former Formula 1 driver also failed to avoid contact in the starting rush, and in this case, the culprit of the incident was Amaury Cordil, who subsequently received a 10-second penalty.

      At the restart, the top three retained their positions, but behind the car of Rafael Villagomes, a very sharp rivalry developed between Richard Fershor, the already mentioned Dunne and Jose "Pepe" Marti, who started well from 11th position, but already reached sixth. However, he didn't stay long here either, as he also overtook Dunne.

      Alex didn't like it, and he complained to the team on the radio that the Spanish driver Campos was ahead of him outside the track. The stewards decided to review the incident, but Dunne soon regained his position and no further sanctions were imposed.

      After ten of the 23 laps, the position in the top three did not change, but in the middle of the peloton there was a pretty sharp struggle. But on lap 10, Fershor attacked Villagomes and beat the Mexican on the second attempt at the entrance to Turn 6.

      On lap 11, Beganovic, who had come close to Durksen by that time, realized that it was time to move on to decisive action, and emerged victorious from a short but beautiful fight with the Paraguayan.

      So, the leader changed in the race, but there was still almost half the distance ahead, and Durksen informed the team on the radio that he decided to skip the opponent in order to save the rubber and counterattack closer to the finish.

      On lap 13, Alex Dunne received instructions from the team to add speed and immediately beat Villagomes, taking away 4th position from him.

      Meanwhile, Beganovic was trying to break away from Durksen in order to frustrate the Paraguayan's plan, and he partially succeeded – with 10 laps to go, the interval between their cars was approaching one and a half seconds, and Joshua could not use the DRS.

      On lap 16, yellow flags appeared on the track again, this time due to the car of Max Esterson, the series debutant and Trident driver, stopping on the side of turn 7.

      The safety car pulled out, and although pit stops are not mandatory in the sprint, eight riders turned into the pits for fresh sets of tires. It's hard to say what they were counting on, because they all lost a lot of positions – however, if the race is neutralized again in the remaining laps, they can really gain an advantage.

      Meanwhile, Dino Beganovic continued to lead, with Joshua Durksen in second position, Richard Fershor in third, and Alex Dunne in fourth.

      Durksen had a brilliant restart, attacked Beganovich in the first corners and took the lead! It means that Joshua promised for good reason that he would take his own back, and it turned out that way. Dino was trying to stay close behind the leader's car and was clearly going to attempt a counterattack.

      On the same lap, Dunne, Arvid Lindblad and Luke Browning started an interesting fight, and it was of a power nature. They exchanged positions several times, but Browning remained ahead in 6th position.

      But even more interesting events took place in the leadership group. Beganovich made several attempts to regain his leadership, and it was really bright! But it all ended with Pepe Marti breaking through to the first position! And it was already on the last lap.

      Moreover, Fershor also carried out a successful attack on Durksen and pushed him to third place! In general, the end of the race turned out to be simply amazing, and one can only dream that the fight in tomorrow's Bahrain Grand Prix would be just as incendiary.

      So, Jose "Pepe" Marti won the sprint, taking his second victory in Formula 2, which was made possible by an excellent start, correct tactics and the ability to effectively use the situation on the track, i.e. to overtake rivals when, for one reason or another, it is already difficult for them to resist.

      By the way, one of those who was very pleased with his success was Fernando Alonso, because the 19-year-old Spaniard's career is handled by A14 Management, the company of the two-time world champion.

      Richard Fershor finished second, who also acted very wisely, saved his rubber life and improved in the last laps. And Durksen, although he reached the podium, had to settle for only third place. But he also demonstrated his skill and fighting spirit, and he can also be safely considered one of the contenders for the title. Moreover, so far he continues to lead in the individual competition.

      Sprint results

      Pilot

       Team

       Difference

      

      1. X.Marty

       Campos Racing

       46"24.663

      2. Fershor river

       MP Motorsport

       +0.922

      3. D.Durksen

       AIX Racing

       +1.537

      4. D.Beganovich

       Hitech

       +1.870

      5. O.Goethe

       MP Motorsport

       +1.984

      6. A.Lindblad

       Campos Racing

       +3.028

      7. R.Villagomes

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       +3.134

      8. G.Mini

       Prema Racing

       +3.321

      9. L.Fornaroli

       Invicta Racing

       +3.972

      10. R.Miata

       ART Grand Prix

       +4.205

      11. L.Browning

       Hitech

       +4.498

      

      12. A.Cordil

       Rodin Motorsport

       +4.657

      

      13. D. Crawford

       DAMS

       +7.131

      14. S.Megetunif

       Trident

       +7.956

      15. V.Martin

       ART Grand Prix

       +9.176

      

      16. R.Stanek

       Invicta Racing

       +9.330

      

      17. K.Maini

       DAMS

       +9.439

      18. D.Bennett

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       +10.633

      19. A.Dunne

       Rodin Motorsport

       +12.270

      20. K.Shields

       AIX Racing

       +12.442

      

       – M.Esterson

       Trident

       Gathering

      – S.Montoya

       Prema Racing

       The gathering