Official F1 Journal Formula 2 Feature Race Round Up- Bahrain

After a brilliant season opening Sprint race the whole world could see the the FIA had got it right with the next generation of Formula 2 car and Redbull had maybe got it wrong dropping Maloney from their driver development programme at the end of 2023. Zane stats the race from 3rd position and was hopeful to convert it into a second win in as many days. 
Lets have a look at al the action............

Feature Race 

 What a start from Maloney!!! Bortoleto didnt have a great start from pole and quickly dropped back as Maloney came from 3rd and just took off like a rocket. 20 metres from the line his nose was ahead of Hadjar and he went up the inside of turn 1 and into the lead, as Hadjar was tapped from behind by a struggling Bortaleto, making him spin and get stranded in the middle of turn 1 as the whole pack came around him, almost everyone made it past him except Fittipaldi who crashed into the the stranded Campos. 
O'Sullivan was up into 2nd by turn 4 and Marti also passed Bortoleto at the same corner. Aron and Colapinto both gained 6 places on the first lap as a Safety car was brought out to recover the cars of Hadjar and Fittipaldi. Bearman was forced to pit with a car issue but came back out and carried on seemingly problem free. 

Lap 5 the track went green and Maloney began to disappear in to the distance, Marti & Crawford passed Bortoleto who was struggling again on the restart. Marti was straight on the back of Hauger beginning a rapid decent down the pack for Hauger, Crawford was next to over take him with Bortoleto finding his speed finally and also passing Hauger on lap 8. Marti continued his push forward passing O'Sullivan for 2nd and Bortoleto got passed Hauger into turn 1 for 5th, quickly making a gap to Hauger and the line of cars forming behind him.
Lap 10 Martins despite making gains from the start was stuck in 11th behind Aron as we saw Mercedes academy driver Antonelli pass Stanek for 13th in his Prema, with Barnard next up the road.

Lap 11 Victor Martins was the first man to pit while Verschoor was trying everything to get past Hauger in 6th but before he could get past Miyata was done waiting behind them both and got past Verschoor into turn 1, Verschoor tried to come back at turn 4 but the move was done and Miyata went on to pass Hauger on the next lap as Barnard radioed that during his pitstop his tyre had not been fitted properly and after a slow 1st stop was forced to pit again to rectifying the issue.  
Lap 15 The rest of the field started to pit Bearman stopped for the 2nd time almost coming together with Cordeel as they entered the pits. O'Sullivan pit from 3rd, the first of the front runners to do so at exactly half race distance. Crawford made his stop on lap 17 and unfortunately for him never rejoined the race​, it was a slow stop with the car stalling as he tried to pull way and the team never manage to recover the engine, ending his race.  

Rodin did a stella job when Maloney pit on  lap 19 sending him back out still in the provisional lead after all the cars had made their stops as yellow flags were being flown for Victor Martins who despite making the most of his early stop by putting in some rapid laps, sadly lost all drive into turn 4 unable to get the car into any gear bringing out a Safety car to recover the ART. Hauger got past Verschoor on track just as the Safety car was called pushing him up to 4th. 
2 Drivers who felt the benefit of the Safety car were the 2 struggling Prema cars who found themselves in 9th(BEA) & 10th(ANT), with fellow team mates Maini & Bortaleto right behind them on far fresher rubber. 

Lap 22 the track went green and Maloney was far enough ahead of O'Sullivan by turn 1 he was safe from attack, Bearman, Antonelli, Maini and Bortoleto all passed Miyata very quickly, beginning some great inter team back and forth between both Prema and Invicta cars who swapped position back and forth for the next couple of laps before the 2 Invicta cars got past Bearman who continued to tumble down the times. Antonelli was doing a valiant job in his flawed Prema car, over taking Verschoor (for 7th), followed by Maini and Bortoleto, as further forward Aron got past Hauger into 4th. 
Lap 25 Maloney had a 2.2 second lead over O'Sullivan who was being hunted down by Marti in 3rd. The 2 Invicta cars caught and passed Antonelli with 7 laps to go continuing their push forward together making the most of their team mate relationship. 
Lap 27 Marti made a mega move on O'Sullivan up the inside of turn 1 and unfortunately for O'Sullivan the same thing would happen on the next lap with Paul Aron pushing him down to 4th. 

Hauger and Colapinto had a great battle in the closing laps before Colapinto ultimately passed Hauger for 5th place. 
With 3 laps to go Bortoleto was done waiting behind his team mate as the 2 approached the rear of Hauger, Bortoleto attempted a move at turn 4, it didn't pay off, but just 2 corners later Maini went deep on the brakes allowing Bortoleto through into 6th to attack Hauger. Which he did just 1 lap later pushing him up to 6th with Colapinto next in the Brazilians sights( Maini followed Bortoleto through). It did not take him long and on the last lap he caught and passed Colapinto, almost passing O'Sullivan on the start finish line with a photo finish. Congratulations to  Antonelli who scored a point on his Feature race debut, which was made only more impressive by the challenges facing the Prema car so far in 2024.  

1 MAL                   2 JMA +4.621
3 ARO +11.781     4 OSU +12.523
5 BOR +12.591     6 COL + 13.609
7 MAI +14.719       8 HAU +16.002
9 MIY +13.27       10 ANT +20.405
11 DUR +24.035  12 VIL + 29.532
13 STA +31.193   14 VER +33.702
15 BEA +51.135   16 BAR +58.999
17 MAR DNF        18 CRA DNF
19 JCO DNF         20 COR DNF
​21 HAD DNF         22 FIT DNF

What a race!!! Maloney took the 2nd win of 2024 and his 2nd win in F2 just the day after getting his 1st in the Sprint race. He really showed his skills off the line, racing and managing the race from the front. This writer wonders if Redbull are regretting their decision to drop Zane from their academy at the end of 2023. 1 thing i can tell you is Sauber are not unhappy with their choice to take him into their driver development programme. Rodin Motorsport clearly have a brilliant new generation car. Last season the driver and team who dominated the 1st weekend of the year went on to win both Championships, could this be the beginning of an amazing come back for both Zane Maloney and Rodin Motorsport? We will see, but already it seems the FIA achieved their objectives when they designed the new chassis for Formula 2, top drivers in a brilliant car so far in 2024 is making for top notch racing.

Joanna Blackmore
Writer f1journal.co.uk