The F2 Feature Race in Qatar saw some incredible action and several Safety Cars that resulted in a very close championship battle.Â?
Formula 2 returned this weekend for racing in Qatar. It has been a month since the last F2 race in Baku and the grid has changed slightly with some rookies joining the F2 ranks.
But it was Paul Aron who achieved pole position in Qualifying on Friday. The Estonian driver is a championship contender, along with Isack Hadjar and the current leader, Gabriel Bortoleto, and he has just been confirmed as the Alpine Reserve for 2025.
However, in the Sprint, it was 2025-Haas driver, Oliver Bearman, who took victory ahead of Jak Crawford and Richard Verschoor. For the Feature Race today, though, Aron lined up in P1 ahead of Bortoleto and Victor Martins.
Once the race was finished, it was Paul Aron who crossed the finish line first, taking the victory. And the championship grew even closer with just half a point between the top two.
Let’s get into what happened during the F2 Feature Race in Qatar.
Lights Out
The Feature Race had very different conditions compared to the Sprint yesterday, providing a different challenge for the F2 drivers. And the start of the race was delayed due to barrier repairs, which had caused the F1 Academy Race Two to be cancelled earlier today.
For the Feature Race, running on the hard tyres were: Joshua Duerksen, Ritomo Miyata, Luke Browning, Max Esterson, Pepe Martí, Bearman and Kush Maini. Everyone else started on the medium tyres.
When the lights went out, Bortoleto had a great start, getting into P1 ahead of Aron, who was forced to defend as Martins and Dino Beganovic joined him three-wide going into Turn 1.
Aron managed to keep ahead of Martins and Beganovic, whilst further back, Hadjar dropped down the order. Bearman and Kimi Antonelli both overtook Maini before the pit stops started after lap six.
Crawford was the first driver to pit for hard tyres. Lots of other drivers came in as well, including Aron, who was on the back of Bortoleto. However, Bortoleto was told to push and then come into the pits.
Unfortunately, wen Antonelli came into the pits along with Verschoor, the two made contact. Verschoor was released unsafely into the path of Antonelli.
The PREMA driver came out of the pits but due to the contact with Verschoor, his steering was broken. Antonelli ended up in the gravel and was out of the race.
A Virtual Safety Car was deployed, just as Bortoleto was about to come into the pits. However, he pulled out of the pit entry and aborted his pit stop as pitting under the VSC wouldn’t count as his mandatory pit stop.�This resulted in a five-second time penalty.
Race Control changed their issuing and deployed a full Safety Car. Bortoleto stopped under the Safety Car.
LAP 8 / 32
Richard Verschoor and Antonelli make contact in the pit lane! ?
The Prema driver is forced to retire
? Virtual Safety Car#F2 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/8uWodoMxRz
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) December 1, 2024
Safety Car Restart
When the Safety Car came in, it was Bearman who was in the lead on hard tyres. The British driver kept the leads on the restart whilst Bortoleto fell back through the field by a position.
Consequently, Bortoleto, Aron and Hadjar – the three title contenders – were next to each other in seventh, eighth and ninth.
Green racing didn’t last long though. Crawford and Villagomez made contact with the DAMs driver being spun around on track and the Van Amersfoort driver being out of the race.
Crawford came into the pits for a change of front wing whilst a second Safety Car was deployed. However, there was more damage to his car and he retired from the race.
Meanwhile, Verschoor received a 10-second time penalty for an unsafe release. The MP Motorsport driver was also picked up for a Safety Car infringement, which will be investigated after the race.
Second Restart
Hadjar radioed that Aron needed to stop brake testing as the Safety Car was coming in whilst Duerksen was on the back of Bearman. The PREMA driver lost the lead to the AIX Racing driver as Maini joined the fight.
However, because Duerksen overtook Bearman before the line, he was forced to give the place back. This allowed both Maini and Browning to get into the top three.
LAP 17 / 32
Drama at the restart!
Bearman runs wide at the final corner which allows Duerksen through, but he allows the Prema driver back through due to overtaking him before the line
However, he also allows Maini and Luke Browning through! #F2 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/ZnFJpyj2ZT
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) December 1, 2024
Bortoleto had a better restart this time getting up to sixth position, but Aron and Hadjar followed their rival, overtaking Esterson. The Brazilian driver was on a charge as he overtook Martí next.
Yellow Flags were brought out once again as Zane Maloney spun on track. He did, however, get going again without too much disruption.
Martí started descending down the order. The replay saw him travel over the gravel. Martins came into the pits after contact with Esterson. The ART driver was forced to retire from the race.
Bearman still lead the pack ahead of Maini, but those behind were getting closer.
After Duerksen had overtaken Maini, the two Invicta teammates were in third and fourth. Bortoleto, the championship leader, asked if they could swap positions and the team issued the orders.
With 10 minutes to go, Maini came into the pits, letting Bortoleto move up to the final podium position.
Bearman and Duerksen were the top two cars, but they still needed to complete their mandatory pit stops. Aron was within DRS range of Bortoleto, but Hadjar, who was behind Aron, started to fall back slightly.
Bortoleto made a late lunge on Duerksen to get into P2 down the main straight. He was giving it everything to find as much as pace as possible to create a five-second gap to Aron.
The clock hit two minutes and Bortoleto was now leading the race after Bearman came into the pits. He couldn’t quite get five seconds ahead of his championship rivals, meaning that there is half a point between Bortoleto and Hadjar in the championship standings.
Results
The F2 Feature Race in Qatar saw Bortoleto cross the finish line first, but with his five-second penalty, Aron took his first win of the season. Bortoleto fell back to third, behind Hadjar
1 – Paul Aron
2 – Isack Hadjar
3 – Gabriel Bortoleto
4 – Oliver Goethe
5 – Dino Beganovic
6 – Christian Mansell
7 – Amaury Cordeel
8 – John Bennett
9 – Ritomo Miyata
10 – Zane Maloney
Headline image: X @Formula2