Official F1 Journal Formula 2 Friday Round Up- Australia

Round 3 of 2024 and the grid is at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Olli Bearman is back in his Prema F2 car after his mega Formula 1 debut in Jeddah after Qualifying on Pole in Formula 2 on the Thursday before his rapid call up to the Ferrari seat on Friday. Zane Maloney still leads the Championship by 15 points over Enzo Fittipaldi in 2nd. Antonelli despite a difficult start to the season for the Prema car managed to score in 3 of the 4 races he has participated in and is 10th in the standings.

Practice 

Everyone was straight out on track for just the 2nd time in Australian since the series first raced at Albert Park in 2023 but it wasn't long before we saw the Red flag come out for Amery Cordeel who locked up his inside front tyre at turn1 and found himself beached in the gravel trap needing recovery and stopping the session while the clock continued to count down. 
31 minutes on the clock and the session got going again with all the cars coming straight out to make the most of the rest of the only practice session of the weekend. 
Bearman was straight to the top of the times, before being beaten by his team mate Antonelli and then both being bested by former f3 champion Victor Martins who topped the times. The next to go fastest was current f3 champion Bortoleto as the times continued to drop as the track rubbers in and the drivers dial in. 

Maloney joined the fight at the top by going 2nd fastest before being beaten by Antonelli and Aron who went 2nd and 3rd fastest till Hauger found his speed and went top with a 1'30.936.
21 minutes on the clock Bortoleto fastest over Martins by just 0.008 before Hauger took back the top spot. Bearman was down in 9th, Jeddah Feature race winner Fittipaldi was 14th followed by Jak Crawford in 17th. 
Miyata found the gravel trap in the final chicane spinning and rejoining the track in front of a flying Olli Bearman as Hauger extended his lead over Antonelli in 1st. The Prema seeming to improving again this weekend after a tough 1st couple of  weekends Verschoor found his way up to 4th fastest as we entered the final 15 minutes of the session. 

12 minutes to go most cars returned to the pits to prepare for their final runs and to dial the cars in for Qualifying later this afternoon. 
Fittipaldi and Crawford still found themselves down in 15th & 17th despite their strong weekends in Jeddah.
8 minutes to go Marti was out of the car and would take no further part in the session as Aron in his Hitech car had a very similar incident to his team mate who brought out a Red flag at the beginning of the session by locking up and spinning into the gravel of turn 1 which he unlike his team mate managed to escape. 
Hadjar set a great lap to go 2nd as we entered the final 5 minutes of practice, rookie O'Sullivan was 9th fastest, in front of Ollie Bearman in 10th. 
3 minutes to go the 2nd Red Flag of the 45 minute session was waved for Rafael Villagomez who  outbreaked himself into turn 1 causing him to spin and end up going backwards toward turn 2, initially he kept the car running but it was short lived and the session did not resume once his car had been recovered.

Practice Result 

1 HAU 
2 HAD +0.001
3 ANT +0.473
4 MAL +0.604 
5 VER +0.679
6 MAI +0.688
7 VMA +0.713
8 BOR +0.719
9 STA +0.729
10 OSU +1.060
11 BEA +1.067
12 DUR +1.128
13 MIY +1.184
14 COL +1.205
15 ARO +1.228
16 CRA +1.584
17 JCO +1.641
18 BAR +1.661
19 FIT +1.758
20 VIL +2.201
21 JMA +2.225
​22 ACO +23.131

Qualifying 

All the cars were straight out to try and set a banker lap to protect against red or yellow flags ruining their laps later in the session. The Prema cars looked on much better form than they started the year in Bahrain.
24 minutes on the clock Martins brought out the first yellow flags and then Red flag of the session, as he took to much kerb at turn 7 which just like Albon destabilized the car and sent him spinning into the wall and out of Qualifying, Zane Maloney narrowly avoided collecting Martins were he came to rest after his crash. Mean while Crawford & Villagomez found the grass at turn 1 but managed to continue. 

Running resumed with 24 minutes on the clock and no times on the board, the pressure to get a banker lap in just incase of another Red Flag or Yellow flag interruption was higher than ever. 
​Maini was the first across the line to set a lap, Maloney followed immediately going faster than Maini, Antonelli was also on a great lap feeling much happier in his Prema and going top of the times for the moment. Hauger & Aron were going faster again than Antonelli with Aron going fastest and Hauger 2nd. 
Crawford caught the wall at turn 5 causing him a puncture and a trip back to the pits. 
Maloney's next attempt was a rapid one but he bailed into the pits not completing the lap as Maini did finish his and put himself top. That again was short lived as Antonelli went fastest again before he was beaten by Bortoleto and then Aron. It was a really close battle at the sharp end of the F2 grid to take pole today and the top spot would change hands a lot more before the session ended. 

14 minutes left of Qualifying and we saw most of the cars return to the pits to prep for their final runs, Aron, Hauger and Hadjar were the top 3, Malone was down in 10th despite bailing on a really fast lap, Bearman after being caught out by the first Red Flag and mixed up in traffic was down in 12th hoping for a similar result to Jeddah were he stuck his Prema on Pole before being promoted to the f1 for the weekend.
10 minutes to go and cars began to file out of the pits fueled for multiple laps and praying for a clean end to the session. Maloney was the first of the front runners to set his lap going fastest of all just in time for the 2nd Red flag of the session, caused by Jak Crawford, who didn't make the corner at turn 12 and ploughed through the gravel trap and into the barrier. 

Bearman got punished by the Red flag again as he was forced to bail on a fast lap when the running was stopped, Maini, Hauger,  and many others also were on a decent laps and lost their chance to improve and all needed to take a chance in the closing 4 minutes of action.
1 minute 42 were left on the clock when the final timed runs started, Bortoleto lead the grid around, pushing the car and the cold tyres round the rapid street track to try and claim pole, Maini didn't improve in sector 1, Antonelli was improving on his lap, Bearman was in a lot of traffic further back as Bortoleto went sideways through the gravel trap and almost collected his team mate who just seconds later took the top spot briefly before Antonelli went top and Enzo Fittipaldi hit the wall hard after leaving the track at turn 10. Hauger was the last man on a fast lap and it paid off for him. He improved his time by half a second and took Pole by over 3 tenths from Antonelli.  

Qualifying Result 

1 HAU 1'28.694
2 ANT +0.344
3 VER +0.479
4 MAI +0.619
5 MAL +0.680
6 ARO +0.691
7 JMA +0.735
8 HAD +0.776
9 BOR +0.808
10 STA +0.900
11 OSU +0.938
12 MIY +1.008
13 FCO +1.278
14 DUR +1.311
15 BAR +1.538
16 BEA +1.876
​17 VIL +2.389
18 FIT +2.884
19 ACO +3.047
20 JCO +3.134
21 CRA  DNF 
22 VMA DNF 

Reverse top 10 Sprint Grid 

1 STA            2 BOR
3 HAD           4 JMA
5 ARO           6 MAL
7 MAI             8 VER 
9 ANT           10 HAU
11 OSU         12 MIY
13 FCO         14 DUR
15 BAR         16 BEA
17 VIL           18 FIT 
19 ACO         20 JCO
21 CRA         22 VMA 

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk