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Zane Maloney came from eighth on the grid to win the first Sprint Race of the 2024 Formula 2 season ahead of Jak Crawford and Pepe Marti.
How it happened
Reverse grid polesitter Jak Crawford got a good start off the line to retain the lead, while second-placed Taylor Barnard lost spots to Zak O’Sullivan and Enzo Fittipaldi at Turn 1.
A first-lap incident between Amaury Cordeel and Raphael Villagomez brought out the Virtual Safety Car when the two made contact which resulted in a puncture for Villagomez and Cordeel out of the race.
By the time the Virtual Safety car came out, Barnard had already dropped down to tenth place in a tough debut for the rookie. Meanwhile, ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins battled with DAMS’ Crawford for the lead, the American driver managing to stay ahead.
Everyone stayed close in the top positions, Maloney coming up through the field to take fourth from Enzo Fittipaldi and then close in on O’Sullivan in third.
Maloney was on a charge, grabbing the fastest lap and taking third place from a slowing O’Sullivan on Lap 6, then passing Martins for second place.
Farther down the field, MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto took a ten-second penalty for being out of place at the start (as a result of Joshua Durksen having to start from the pit lane and leaving an empty slot in the middle of the grid).
On Lap 11, Maloney got close enough to overtake Crawford, coming up from eighth place to take the lead halfway through. Crawford stayed in second ahead of Martins, with Isack Hadjar and Paul Aron completing the top five.
Closing stages
The fight for the final points positions was starting to heat up and Hauger and O’Sullivan battled for eighth place, Hauger winning out on Lap 12.
Meanwhile, PREMA’s Oliver Bearman, down in 19th place after a tough qualifying session yesterday, set the fastest lap of the race with a lap time of 1:45.841 after pitting for fresh soft tyres.
Martins, running in third, started to slow down with a potential issue, losing out to Hadjar, Marti, and slowly dropping out of the points.
Speaking of Hadjar and Marti, with Martins out of the way the Campos teammates were free to have a tense battle for third place, in which Marti eventually triumphed.
The top five drivers solidified their positions, while chaos reigned from sixth place downward. Gabriel Bortoleto was on a late charge to jump up three places on the final two laps and finish the race in sixth place.
O’Sullivan fought with Hauger and even dropped out of the top eight at one point, but made his way back up to finish seventh with Hauger close behind.
But up in front it was Maloney, the boy from Barbados, taking his maiden Formula 2 win in the inaugural race of the season.
Full results can be found here.
Feature Image Credit: Joe Portlock – Getty Images