Gabriel Bortoleto takes maiden Formula 2 victory in Spielberg

McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto took victory for Invicta Racing in the Formula 2 feature race on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Bortoleto has taken his first ever Formula 2 victory after graduating from Formula 3 championship glory last year. The Brazilian driver had to make moves at a critical point in the race and fully earned his victory.

The McLaren junior finished ahead of the rapid Argentinian MP Motorsport driver Franco Colapinto, who was second with Isack Hadjar holding off his teammate Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti to take third.

Championship leader Paul Aron finished sixth after being demoted due to a time penalty.

How the Formula 2 feature race unfolded in Austria.

Time for Feature race Sunday as the Formula 2 feature race was to follow the morning's earlier Formula 3 feature race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, on Grand Prix Sunday.

It was a great Saturday sprint race for Oliver Bearman who took his first win and podium of the 2024 Formula 2 season, as well as Prema Racing's first podium. Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti would finish second and Paul Aron would claim third to make it seven podiums in seven rounds in 2024.

The feature race grid would see Dennis Hauger set to start on pole position for MP Motorsport after a great lap from the Norwegian driver, who's time was eight thousandths of a second faster than Joshua Durksen's time who was second.

It was set to be a great race with fantastic action already being produced across the weekend and the great commentary duo of Chris McCarthy and Alex Brundle.

Drama at the start on the formation lap with three cars failing to get away as they had stalled on the grid. One of them being the pole sitter Dennis Hauger. The MP Motorsport driver was joined by the Invicta of Kush Maini and the DAMS of Jak Crawford. All three of them would be made to start from the pit lane.

This would mean that Joshua Durksen would be on his own at the front row. As the lights went out Durksen would get away well and maintain the lead from Gabriel Bortoleto who was now in second and Franco Colapinto the top three.

At the start, championship leader, Paul Aron would be put under pressure by Isack Hadjar and would have to maintain this with the first few laps. The championship protagonists would be going at it for a few laps with Aron putting up a physical and robust defence.

Hadjar would complain and moving under braking would be noted by race control and would be under investigation by the Stewards.

Lap 3 and a move for the lead from Bortoleto took the lead from Durksen with a lovely move into turn 4. Durksen had such a lack of grip on the supersoft tyres and would be an easy target.

Durksen would soon be overtaken by Franco Colapinto and would be down to third. A nightmare for the AIX driver.

The Virtual Safety Car would be deployed as Zane Maloney who stalled as the lights went out but would then stop with a mechanical issue on the run to turn 4. A nightmare weekend for the boy from Barbados and not one that he would like to look back on.

Josep Maria Marti, who finished second in the sprint race, had pulled a bold strategic move as he dived into the pit lane, just before the Virtual Safety car was deployed, so this would count as a mandatory pit stop. It would not have counted had he pitted after the VSC was deployed.

Could it turn out to be a brilliant move of strategy from Campos and Marti and had he managed to get into the pits before the VSC was deployed

Once the VSC had been withdrawn with many cars in a couple of laps coming into the pit lane  including the race leader Bortoleto. Hadjar, Durksen, Aron and Andrea Kimi Antonelli who stalled exiting his pit box. It had been a nightmare of a weekend for Antonelli and one of learning.

Franco Colapinto would have the race lead for the time being. 

An incident would occur between Roman Stanek and Rafael Villagomez. Stanek under-steered into the side of the Van Amersfoort of Villagomez and the Mexican driver went into the gravel. Villagomez was less than impressed with the Trident driver on the team radio.

Ritomo Miyata was slow down the pit straight and looked to have an issue. Luckily he was able to get back going but his race was completely ruined. A nightmare for Rodin at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.

A five second time penalty would be awarded to the championship leader for the moving under braking and this would be added to his race time when he crossed the line at the end of lap 40.

An issue for Bearman, the Prema car was slow. After winning the sprint race on Saturday he had a mechanical issue and was forced to retire the car. The Trident of Richard Verschoor would also be forced to retire due to a mechanical issue. A nightmare for both

Josep Maria Marti was in seventh and Gabriel Bortoleto had closed right up to the back of the Red Bull junior. Bortoleto had the pace at this stage and made a move into turn 3 and Marti would make no attempts at re-overtaking.

It would not be long until Bortoleto caught Stanek up and into turn 4 made the pass. Stanek would soon be hounded by Marti, who could not afford to lose time to the Trident. He would find it difficult but Marti finally delivered a pass.

Stanek would be handed a five-second penalty for the collision with Villagomez

Hadjar had closed up to Marti and frustration was building for the Frenchman as Marti was defending him hard. After a bit of team instruction from the engineer, Hadjar comfortably got through and was now able to set his sights on Bortoleto.

Colapinto had done an amazing job on his stint and finally came into the pit lane for the supersoft tyres. He had changed his tyres and would have great pace to take to the end of the race.

It took him no time at all to get ahead of Joshua Durksen and Enzo Fittipaldi and was up into sixth. He had lightning pace on the brand new tyres and was chasing after Hadjar, Marti and Aron in the hunt for a podium. Aron with that penalty. 

The feud at Campos was ongoing on the team radio with Marti wanting to be allowed to go by Hadjar, who had been allowed to go by him earlier in the race.

Colapinto had caught Aron and managed to pass his fellow rookie with a great overtake on lap 38 to take fourth place. A huge overtake and now he was right on the tail of the two Red Bull juniors of Campos.

On the run into turn four on the penultimate tour, the Argentinian MP Motorsport driver got ahead of Marti and the Williams Academy driver was heaping pressure on Isack Hadjar for second. 

The final lap would be the opportunity for Colapinto to get ahead of Hadjar on the final lap to take second place in a fantastic drive from the Williams backed driver. He had maximised the strategy and would go onto take a result.

Out front, Gabriel Bortoleto would be too far ahead for Colapinto. He had driven a fantastic race at the Red Bull Ring showing great pace and making overtakes at critical points in the race. He would cross the line first to take the victory and his maiden victory in Formula 2.

Colapinto would come across the line in second behind the McLaren junior driver Bortoleto. The South American pair would be followed by the two Campos drivers with Hadjar taking third ahead of Marti.

Aron would drop to sixth with the penalty as Enzo Fittipaldi would just be within five seconds of the championship leader and jump up to fifth. Joshua Durksen would finish seventh despite having the front row at the start all to himself.

Amaury Cordeel, Taylor Barnard and Zak O'Sullivan would complete the top 10 and points scorers.

At the end of the seventh round, it would be a tight fight at the top of the standings with Aron's lead being cut after yesterday to nine points. Although nine points was the gap coming into the round from Spain.

Bortoleto with his great race result has brought himself into contention for the championship as an outside contender. It was the McLaren junior who shone in the feature race and was rewarded by being handed the trophy by former McLaren and Brazilian world champion Emerson Fittipaldi.

A brilliant day for the reigning Formula 3 champion and a day he will remember and he can potentially use for a championship charge in the next few rounds.

Action will return in a week's time when the series heads to Silverstone on support for the British Grand Prix weekend.
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2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 7 - Austria feature race provisional result

1. Gabriel Bortoleto (Brazil, Invicta Racing)
2. Franco Colapinto (Argentina, MP Motorsport)
3. Isack Hadjar (France, Campos Racing)
4. Josep Maria Marti (Spain, Campos Racing)
5. Enzo Fittipaldi (Brazil, Van Amersfoort Racing)
6. Paul Aron (Estonia, Hitech-Pulse Eight)
7. Joshua Durksen (Paraguay, AIX Racing)
8. Amaury Cordeel (Belgium, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
9. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, AIX Racing)
10. Zak O'Sullivan (Great Britain, ART Grand Prix)
11. Jak Crawford (United States, DAMS Lucas Oil)
12. Victor Martins (France, ART Grand Prix)
13. Dennis Hauger (Norway, MP Motorsport)
14. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Italy, Prema Racing)
15. Juan Manuel Correa (United States, DAMS Lucas Oil)
16. Rafael Villagomez (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
17. Kush Maini (India, Invicta Racing)
18. Roman Stanek (Czech Republic, Trident)
19. Ritomo Miyata (Japan, Rodin Motorsport)
20. Richard Verschoor (Netherlands, Trident) DNF
21. Oliver Bearman (Great Britain, Prema Racing) DNF
22. Zane Maloney (Barbados, Rodin Motorsport) DNF

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal