Austria 2024, Feature race: Bortoleto wins, Aron remains leader – Results

Bortoleto’s first victory in F2

Gabriel Bortoleto takes a solid win in the Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring. The Brazilian driver benefited from the start problem suffered by the poleman Piles who failed to start from the grid, but still showed great pace and did not make the slightest mistake throughout the entire forty laps of the race. The outgoing Formula 3 champion and McLaren academy driver thus conquered his first victory in Formula 2 which allows him to move up to third place in the general drivers’ classification.
These are the words of the Brazilian as soon as he got out of the car:

“We had more opportunities this year to win but there were some mistakes that denied me the victory. Today the car was perfect and we didn’t make any mistakes. However, it takes a bit of time to get used to the transition from F3 to F2. I thank the Senna family for supporting me so far. For this reason I kept the helmet with the colors dedicated to Ayrton.”

Behind him is the Argentine placed second Colapinto thanks to a good pit stop strategy by the MP Motorsport team which put them in a position to have fresh tyres and a very fast car in the final stages. Third was the Frenchman Hadjar protagonist of a fight with his teammate Martì. There was no shortage of vitriolic team radio exchanges between the two and their pit wall, with mutual accusations being exchanged for not having given up positions to the faster driver.

The team’s race was very negative According towinner with Bearman of Saturday’s Sprint Race. The English driver had to retire halfway through the race due to an engine problem while he was solidly in the points. Mistake instead by Kimi Antonelli who ruins everything by turning off the engine after restarting from the first pit stop. The Bolognese started at the back of the group and then finished fourteenth.

Race report

The first shot takes place right at the start of the formation lap, with the poleman Piles which turns off the engine by releasing the clutch. same problem for Crawford is Hands. All three therefore start from the pit lane while Durksen effectively becomes poleman e snaps in the head without problems followed by Bortoleto. On the fourth lap the Brazilian manages to take the lead of the race by overtaking Durksen without too much difficulty. The AIX racing driver does not seem to have a great pace so much so that Colapinto also overtakes him on the fifth lap, and on the seventh he already returns to the pits to change tires. Meanwhile at Prema Kimi Antonelli, author of a good start, is tenth while Bearman overtakes Martì and climbs to sixth position. The Bolognese driver though compromises his race when on the ninth lap he turns off the engine while restarting from the pit stop for changing tires. He comes in last.
On lap ten, a first series of pit stops begins, with Bortoleto and Martì coming back to change tyres, while Colapinto chooses to stay on the track as provisional leader.
On the seventeenth lap the stewards assign 5 second penalty to championship leader Aron for having changed direction several times while braking while fighting with Hadjar, a decision that seems to be a bit harsh.
The first twist occurred halfway through the race, Bearman retireswinner of the Sprint Race yesterday, due to a technical problem with the engine.
Meanwhile Bortoleto, fifth in the standings but with one more stop than the leading group, is the author of a good progression that takes him into the lead after Colapinto’s stop. Behind him Hadjar, who claims to have the pace to win, overtakes his teammate Martì only thanks to an intervention from their wall. The radio teams between the two of them, who continue the race very close, and their pit wall are full of mutual accusations.
Behind them, also thanks to the skirmishes between the two, Colapinto makes a furious comeback who overtakes Martì first and Hadjar on the last lap and is the author of the fastest lap of the race. The Argentine driver then finishes in second place behind the winner Bortoleto. Third Hadjar. Bortoleto, driver of the McLaren F1 academy, thus goes on to win his first race in Formula 2 under the eyes of Andrea Star who applauds him from under the podium.

F2 Austria, Feature Race: Finishing Order