Maloney: ‘If I did something wrong, I would have gotten a penalty’

Zane Maloney, who took P2 in the F2 feature race, defended his controversial overtake on Iwasa.

The race win went the way of Victor Martins, despite the ART Grand Prix driver incurring a five second penalty. Martins – for whom this was a maiden F2 victory – managed to open up a seven second gap to Maloney in the final laps of the race.

While Zane Maloney hadn’t been far off Martins at first, the Rodin Carlin driver was forced to spend much of the latter half of the race defending from Arthur Leclerc. Though Leclerc’s pursuit of Maloney was steady, the Barbadian driver did well to defend, managing to retain his second place position.

It was a position hard-fought for, as Maloney had started the race from seventh on the grid. But Maloney’s pursuit of the race lead was, at times, on the limit. His lap 16 overtake on Ayumu Iwasa proved particularly controversial.

Maloney ? Iwasa

One of the biggest talking points of the Feature Race… ?#BritishGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/Dk7zAcciTJ

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 9, 2023

As Zane Maloney dived down the inside of Vale, Ayumu Iwasa was sent wide. The DAMS driver dropped multiple positions as a result, and was quick to voice his discontent over the radio, yelling:

“That’s completely illegal! He pushed me off!”

Despite Iwasa’s protests, the stewards didn’t pick Maloney up on the manoeuvre.

Need to be aggressive

Speaking to accredited members of the press, including FormulaNerds, Maloney defended his position when asked about the incident. The Carlin driver stated that an aggressive approach to racing is often a necessity in Formula 2.

“In this Championship, you need to race aggressively because everyone is doing that,” said Maloney. “If you don’t, then you will lose out.” He added:

“If I did something wrong, I would have gotten a penalty.”

Summing up the incident as “tough racing”, Maloney also said that he could see the situation from the perspective of others. “I agree that maybe if I was in the other situation, I’m not gonna be the happiest driver on the track but they would do the same thing in my position,” said the Barbadian driver. “So I’m just fighting for every position on the track.”

Featured Image Credit: Nation News