Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: F2 Feature Race results

The Formula 2 Feature Race at Imola featured hard racing, pit stop drama, and a nail-biting finish.

Isack Hadjar came up from third to win the race, followed closely by Gabriel Bortoleto and Joshua Durksen, the two latter drivers taking their maiden podiums in the category at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Clean start

Friday’s polesitter, Bortoleto, didn’t get off the line as quickly as second-placed Oliver Bearman, and the British driver took the lead ahead of Turn 1. Bortoleto dropped down, not just one place but several as both third-placed Hadjar and fourth-placed Durksen got past him in the first few corners.

But all 22 drivers avoided major incident in the first few corners. On Lap 2, MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger went off track and into the gravel briefly before coming back onto the track and bumping into Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata. Miyata took his own trip into the gravel and consequently dropped down the order to the back of the pack.

Hadjar, running in second place, took the fastest lap as DRS was enabled and drivers settled into an order, though not for long as the drivers on the primary strategy got ready to pit early on to switch from soft to hard tyres.

Pit stop drama

All but six drivers opted for the soft-to-hard strategy, and the first of those on the primary strategy began to pit at the end of Lap 6. Hadjar, Durksen, Zane Maloney, and Roman Stanek were the first to make their mandatory stop, all four of them dropping to the back.

A much larger group of drivers pit on the following lap, among them the race leader. But Bearman, who had an up and down weekend up to this point (crashing in practice, taking part in Formula 1 FP1 for Haas, losing a lap time in qualifying but having it re-instated after the fact, making up ground to finish fifth in the Sprint Race), stalled in the pits, coming back out at the back of the pack and bringing a premature end to his chance at a race win.

PREMA Racing’s Kimi Antonelli inherited the lead once Bearman pit, but came in just one lap later. By the time the drivers on the primary strategy had all made their stop, Hadjar was in the net lead sitting in seventh, while Amaury Cordeel, Pepe Marti, and Juan Manuel Correa headed up the six drivers on the alternate strategy.

Overtaking difficulty

The drivers all settled into their new order as they started to try making up ground on their rivals. But at a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult, they struggled to do so.

A prime example of this phenomenon was Roman Stanek and Zane Maloney, the pair running 13th and 14th and locked in a race-long battle that saw Maloney with use of DRS and Stanek without. Even with the advantage, Maloney tried time and time again but was unable to get the move done on the Czech driver.

A driver with slightly more success was DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford. The American driver, taking advantage of the battle between Stanek and Maloney after much ado, got past Maloney on Lap 20. Five laps later he overtook Stanek as well, jumping up to 13th in the order.

Pit stop drama part 2

With just five laps to go, the six drivers yet to make a pit stop began to do just that. Correa was the first to go, coming out in 13th behind his teammate Crawford once he switched to the soft tyre.

On the following lap, pandemonium broke forth in the pitlane as Cordeel came in from the lead and had a slow stop that resulted in one of his tyres coming loose right after he got going again. The tyre, running wild, hit one of the mechanics who was working on changing Marti’s tyres. As a result, one of Marti’s tyres also came off his car as he tried to leave the pits.

Cordeel and Marti both retired from the race as Hadjar retook the lead of the race ahead of Bortoleto and Durksen. Bortoleto was close enough to make a bid for the race win, but didn’t quite manage as the final few laps ticked down.

So in the end it was Hadjar who took his second consecutive Feature Race win, as rookies Bortoleto and Durksen took their first podiums in the category. Antonelli and yesterday’s race winner Franco Colapinto rounded out the top five.

Behind them was Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron, followed by the DAMS pairing of Crawford and Correa, scoring points after starting 21st and 20th respectively. Victor Martins and Richard Verschoor were the final points scorers in the Feature Race in Emilia-Romagna.

Full results can be found here.

Feature Image Credit: Joe Portlock – Getty Images