Formula 2: The Saturday sprint was won by Pepe Marti.
At Saturday’s sprint, John Bennett, a British rookie for the Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing, started from pole, but there was little doubt he would not stay in the lead for long. Lining up alongside him were much more experienced drivers Joshua Duerksen and Alex Dunne—the current leader in the junior series—along with several other fast drivers.
Competitors in the short race had to complete 28 laps of the Red Bull Ring, a track that’s not as easy as it seems; while it only boasts ten turns, they are deceivingly challenging.
After yesterday’s qualifying, two drivers, Arvid Lindblad and Pepe Martí, were penalized and lost several grid places for impeding rivals. As a result, the Spaniard started fifth, and Lindblad started fifteenth.
As expected, many drivers got off the line better than Bennett, with Duerksen moving into the lead. Martí quickly made his way up to second, Roman Stanek—who started fourth—was running third, and Bennett immediately dropped to fifth.
But already at the beginning of lap two, a multi-car crash occurred at Turn 3 involving at least three cars, so the race was immediately stopped with red flags. Sami Meguetounif was eliminated, his car ending up upside down on track, along with Luke Browning and the aforementioned Lindblad.
Luckily, no drivers were hurt, but removing the wrecked cars took some time, and the remaining cars returned to the pitlane.
When the directors replayed the crash, it became clear this was no routine racing incident. It appeared that Meguetounif, on the inside line, misjudged his braking and collided with Lindblad’s car; Sami’s Dallara was sent airborne, rolled several times, essentially riding over both Lindblad’s and Browning’s cars, and landed upside down on the track.
The red flag period dragged on, but eventually race control announced the event would restart in ten minutes’ time. It seemed that Jack Crawford might benefit from this, as he was allowed to participate after his car initially failed to start due to a technical issue. Since the red flag was shown only on lap two, the DAMS driver was permitted to rejoin the pack, albeit from last place.
The race was restarted behind the safety car. At the very last moment, it turned out that Crawford still couldn’t start—his team couldn’t get his Dallara going. Meanwhile, the second DAMS car, driven by Kush Maini, also stalled.
On the restart, Duerksen held the lead, with Martí pursuing and Stanek in third. But immediately, the safety car had to return to the track as Dino Beganovic’s car stopped at Turn 3 after contact with Oliver Goethe.
Around the same time, stewards announced a five-second penalty for Alex Dunne for a false start. At the time, he was in ninth position.
On lap seven, the race was underway once again, and Duerksen pulled out a lead of over a second. Martí tried to catch up and pull away from Stanek, but because all the cars were separated by less than a second, everyone could use DRS and positions remained unchanged.
On lap thirteen, Dunne attacked Victor Martins and nearly took tenth, but the Frenchman defended. Dunne persisted, and for several corners they ran side by side, but Martins held onto his spot—at least for now. On lap fifteen, Dunne completed the move, though he did so by forcing his rival off the track, an incident stewards were bound to review.
By lap sixteen, Martí had closed the gap to Duerksen to half a second; the next lap, he went for a decisive attack at Turn 4 and took the lead, but Duerksen immediately reclaimed it at the following corner. Martí stayed close and on lap nineteen attacked again at Turn 3, this time successfully moving into the lead.
On lap twenty, the top six were: Martí in front, followed by Duerksen, Stanek, Cordeel, and Bennett, who was being pressured by Richard Verschoor. The gaps between cars ranged from 0.8 to 0.3 seconds, and the experienced Dutch driver was clearly eager to overtake Bennett at the first opportunity.
With five minutes remaining, Duerksen closed in on Martí but didn’t attack, likely struggling with tire degradation. On lap twenty-four, Verschoor finally passed Bennett, though the rookie didn’t yield easily; nonetheless, Richard moved up to fifth.
Bennett was then attacked by Gabriele Minì, who also got by. The final lap began with Duerksen nearly three seconds adrift of Martí and seemingly resigned to his fate. Roman Stanek closed in during the last turns, forcing Duerksen to defend, but ultimately the Paraguayan crossed the line in second. Pepe Martí—a Campos driver in the Red Bull Junior Program—claimed his second win of the season.
No account of Saturday’s sprint would be complete without mentioning the dramatic four-car crash on the final lap. It began when Amaury Cordeel made a mistake at Turn 3, his car spinning 180 degrees and stopping on the outside. A whole group of drivers were right behind, each focused on their own battles, and in the heat of the action, they couldn’t react to the sudden obstacle.
Minì smashed into Cordeel’s car, then fellow Italian Fornaroli plowed into Minì, and Bennett couldn’t avoid the yellow Dallara of Leonardo. The incident was as spectacular as it was unfortunate. On the plus side, this chaos allowed Alex Dunne to climb to sixth place, keeping him among the leaders in the championship.
However, Richard Verschoor is just a single point behind, so the standings are bound to change after tomorrow’s race. That said, they might change even sooner if Dunne is penalized for overly aggressive moves against Victor Martins, though the stewards’ verdict hasn’t yet been announced.
Sprint Results
Driver
Team
Time/Difference
1. P. Martí
Campos Racing
1:11'03.819
2. J. Duerksen
AIX Racing
+2.983
3. R. Stanek
Invicta Racing
+3.247
4. R. Verschoor
MP Motorsport
+7.265
5. S. Montoya
Prema
+8.392
6. A. Dunne
Rodin Motorsport
+14.230
7. V. Martins
ART Grand Prix
+14.371
8. R. Miyata
ART Grand Prix
+14.579
9. R. Villagómez
Van Amersfoort Racing
+18.936
10. M. Esterson
Trident
+19.964
11. O. Goethe
MP Motorsport
+21.445
12. K. Shields
AIX Racing
+23.930
13. A. Cordeel
Rodin Motorsport
+1 lap
14. G. Minì
Prema
+1 lap
15. J. Bennett
Van Amersfoort Racing
+1 lap
16. L. Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
+1 lap
17. K. Maini
DAMS
+2 laps
– D. Beganovic
Hitech GP
retired
– L. Browning
Hitech GP
retired
– A. Lindblad
Campos Racing
retired
– S. Meguetounif
Trident
retired
– J. Crawford
DAMS
retired
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