Isack Hadjar quickest in Formula 2 practice on Friday morning

Campos Racing's Isack Hadjar of Red Bull driver academy, at the Red Bull Ring, was fastest in Formula 2 practice on Friday morning in Austria.

Hadjar was fastest by over two tenths ahead of championship rival Paul Aron of Hitech who was second. DAMS' Jak Crawford was third fastest.

Aron leads the championship over Hadjar by just nine points heading into this round at Austria, which is round seven of the 2024 championship.

How Formula 2 practice unfolded in Austria

Formula 2 would return to action once again for racin action and this time for the round that meets the midway point of the season. The Championship heads to the Red Bull Ring in Austria for round seven of 14 of the 2024 season.

The Red Bull Ring has produced a lot of racing action in the past and was sure to do the same in 2024 with the new generation of Formula 2 machinery.

The first session of the weekend would be the free practice session of 45 minutes, where drivers would be wanting to get used to the circuit and get some important running and data competed to aid the strategy for the feature race.

Green light would be on at the end of the pit lane to signal the start of the session and cars headed out of the pits as the session was underway.

Oliver Bearman would have the fastest pace in the early stages once all drivers had set lap times and completed their installation laps. A 1:17.011 for the Ferrari Academy driver with 10 minutes gone in the session. 

Gabriel Bortoleto of Invicta Racing would soon to beat it to go fastest as he would soon be beaten by Spain sprint race winner Victor Martins and championship leader Paul Aron who would be next to go fastest.

The track was ramping up here so the places were changing a lot with drivers improving enough to make significant gains. One of those would be Jak Crawford who split Aron and Martins to go second fastest. 

Crawford moved up to fourth in the standings with the feature race win last time out in Barcelona.

Issues plagued the feature race for AIX last time out in Barcelona with both cars retiring due to mechanical issues and sadly mechanical issues ruined the session for British rookie Taylor Barnard who pulled up on the start/finish straight with a mechanical issue. The red flag was introduced while the marshals removed the car from the circuit.

With under 25 minutes remaining, the session resumed with the green light at the end of the pit lane. The broken down AIX Racing car had been removed and running could now be completed ahead of the qualifying session.

Isack Hadjar and managed to make use of the time to improve to third. The Campos Red Bull junior driver had been having a very impressive season so far and would have been hoping to shine here at Red Bull's home venue. 

He was doing just that. He would beat championship rival Paul Aron's lap time by just 0.056s. A 1:16.624 from Hadjar with the session really close as there was less than a tenth separating the top three into the final 15 minutes.

Hadjar would soon improve on the lap time and pull two tenths clear of Aron. A 1:16.441 would be the new time to beat for the rest of the field as time was ticking down at the end of the session. 

Fantastic mechanical work from AIX Racing as despite the technical issue, Taylor Barnard managed to get back out on track to get some running done late on around the Red Bull Ring ahead of the day's later qualifying session. A fantastic job from the mechanics.

Lots more running would be completed towards the end of the session and as the chequered flag was brought out to signal the end of the session, no one could dislodge the time of Campos' Isack Hadjar.

His teammate Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti would end up coming to a stop on circuit at the exit of turn 3 with an apparent mechanical issue. He had ended the session parked up and in 12th place overall.

Hadjar's lap time of 1:16.624 was the fastest time and was over two tenths clear of second place Paul Aron, who leads the championship. Feature race winner from Spain Jak Crawford was third for DAMS.

Dennis Hauger was fourth for MP Motorsport, while Spain sprint race winner Victor Martins was fifth fastest for ART. 

Gabriel Bortoleto was sixth for Invicta Racing and Enzo Fittipaldi was seventh overall for Van Amersfoort Racing. Joshua Durksen, Oliver Bearman and Roman Stanek completed the top 10.

Action returns on Friday afternoon for qualifying which will determine the grid order for the races to come on Saturday and Sunday.

2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 7 - Austria free practice result

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

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal