Formula 2: John Bennett achieved his first victory

      Sebastian Montoya started from pole in the Saturday sprint, but John Bennett got off the line better and immediately took the lead. However, on the first lap, a safety car had to be deployed as a pile-up occurred at Turn 3, starting with Joshua Durksen bumping into the back of Nikola Zolov's Dallara, and the Bulgarian Campos driver's car blocked the path for those behind him.

      While Zolov managed to continue, the cars of Oliver Goethe, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, and Enzo Fittipaldi were left in that corner and had to be evacuated.

      At the restart, Montoya attempted to attack Bennett, but the British Trident driver managed to fend him off. Rafael Villagomez held third position and was being caught by Rafael Camara.

      When the opportunity to use DRS arose, Montoya resumed his attacks, making several attempts on the seventh lap, but Bennett held onto first position. However, on the next lap, the son of the former Formula 1 driver managed to execute a great overtaking maneuver by braking later at Turn 4, taking the lead of the pack.

      Nikola Zolov, who had dropped back due to the incident on the first lap, gradually made his way back up, reaching 12th place and now pressuring Colton Herta. On the tenth lap, he launched an attack at the same Turn 4 and confidently passed the American on the outside line.

      As half the distance was behind them, Montoya continued to lead, but Bennett was just half a second behind, waiting for Sebastian to make a mistake or for his tires to start giving up.

      A similar gap separated Bennett's and Villagomez's cars, while Camara, despite having the fastest lap, was not yet catching up to the Spaniard. However, Rafael was nearly caught by Alex Dunn, who was clearly preparing to make an attack, which he successfully executed. This was crucial since the British Rodin Motorsport driver was in 4th place in the standings, while Camara was in 3rd, with only two points separating them. If Alex finished ahead of the Brazilian, they would swap places.

      Before this episode, Durksen had pitted and then exited the cockpit – this was already the fourth retirement, and in all cases, it was due to the aftermath of the incident on the first lap.

      Colton Herta continued to lose positions, letting a couple more competitors pass, and on lap 21, he even went off the track and stopped. A virtual safety car was deployed to evacuate the Hitech Motorsport car.

      A lap later, the battle on the track resumed, and shortly after the restart, Gabriele Mini attacked Camara and successfully passed him, moving up to 5th position.

      With three laps to go, Bennett clearly picked up the pace, closing in on Montoya's car almost bumper to bumper, and it was expected that he would take decisive action. On lap 27, John did just that, but Sebastian defended desperately, although it was evident that his tires were struggling for grip. Bennett launched an attack on the short straight between Turns 5 and 6 – this happened on the last lap – and overtook the Prema Racing driver, who could do nothing in response.

      Immediately after that, Montoya sharply lost speed, which Villagomez tried to take advantage of, but Sebastian crossed the finish line a couple of tenths earlier. John Bennett claimed a well-deserved victory, marking the first success for the British Trident driver, who had yet to stand on the podium and had been in second-to-last place in the standings until today.

      Gabriele Mini, the leader of the standings, finished in 5th place and increased his lead over Nikola Zolov to 10 points as the Bulgarian earned nothing today – he finished ninth, and on Saturdays, points are awarded only to the top eight. This means tomorrow will be tougher: in the Sunday race, they will start from the second row – Nikola from third position, Gabriele from second. Overall, it will be interesting.

      Results are being prepared…