Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto put in a masterful display on his way to taking his first ever Formula 2 victory at Sunday’s Spielberg Feature Race.
The McLaren Development driver took the lead from AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen on Lap 4 before losing out during the mandatory pit stop phase to Campos Racing’s Josep María Martí.
F2: Bearman holds off Martí to take victory in the Spielberg Sprint Race
However, Bortoleto was showing great pace and eventually overtook the Spaniard before extending his lead out front, while also managing his tyres, on his way to taking the win.
Williams Academy driver Franco Colapinto put in a strong performance on the alternative strategy as after pitting for the Supersoft tyres with nine laps to go, he came back out in P8. The MP Motorsport rookie then charged through the field late on to finish second.
There was a bit of quarrelling over the Campos radio as Isack Hadjar and Martí battled for position on track. But in the end the former took the final spot on the podium, closing in to within nine points of Championship leader Paul Aron.
However, Martí was given a 30-second time penalty post-race which dropped him from fourth to 15th, promoting Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi to P4 and Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Aron to fifth.
This also means Duerksen moved up to sixth ahead of the second Hitech car of Amaury Cordeel and his AIX teammate Taylor Barnard. Zak O’Sullivan is now ninth for ART Grand Prix as Jak Crawford rounds out the points in P10 for DAMS Lucas Oil.
F3: Browning takes second win of 2024 with Spielberg Feature victory
It was a difficult day though for pole-sitter Dennis Hauger who stalled at the start of the Formation Lap, meaning he started the race from the pit lane before finishing in P12.
That brings an end to this weekend’s action from the Red Bull Ring, but the drivers will be back out on track for Round 8 at Silverstone next week from July 05-07.
But for an in-depth report of the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race from Spielberg visit the official website here.
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