F2 Sprint Race
In a race marred by torrential downpours, Andrea Kimi Antonelli emerged above the rest to take his maiden FIA Formula 2 victory. Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney finished in second place while Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto took P3.
Heavy rain and a wet track meant after a Formation Lap behind the Safety Car, the race began with a rolling start as it was reported that heavier rain was quickly on its way. Antonelli was unbothered as he took the pack across the line to start the 21-lap Sprint, retaining the lead, however, the action into the opening corners came from PREMA Racing teammate Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto, whose close battling resulted in slight contact, with the Briton coming out of the encounter with a broken front wing endplate in their fight for fifth place.
The torrential rain creeping on all the teams weather radars made its appearance during the closing stages of the first lap, with Antonelli out in front after having built up a 2.5 second lead over Barbadian Zane Maloney in second.
The damage to Bearman’s car – although only seeming slight initially – caused him to drop down the order in the space of half a lap, losing places to the likes of Franco Colapinto, Dennis Hauger and Victor Martins, before eventually ending up in ninth place.
With the endplate of Bearman’s front wing left stranded on track and posing a danger to other drivers in the steadily deteriorating conditions, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed on Lap 3 to allow Marshal’s onto the track to recover the piece of car.
With racing resumed, Paul Aron made a move on an unaware Isack Hadjar on the approach to Maggotts and Becketts, passing his tital rival for P10. Isack Hadjar’s bad luck didn’t end there with the Frenchman losing 11th place to Zak O’Sullivan going into Abbey at the end of the lap, and then running off the road at Turn 1, consequently losing two more places to teammate Josep Maria Marti and Ritomo Miyata, putting him 14th.
The full Safety Car made its appearance on Lap 4, with the weather deteriorating even further, however, it was shortly decided that it was too dangerous to continue with the conditions as they were, with the Red Flag being thrown to temporarily suspend the race.
With the weather seeming to improve slightly and the rain decreasing in its intensity, racing resumed on Lap 7 with a second rolling start, and like at the start of the race PREMA Racing rookie Antonelli managed to keep ahold of the lead. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins had a great restart, moving up to sixth place with overtakes on the two MP Motorsport drivers in the first sector.
Lap 8 saw major drama, with contact between Marti and Championship leader Aron, left both drivers out of the race and standed on track. Also stranded on track was Hadjar, after a separate incident saw the Frenchman spinning at Copse and into the gravel. Both incidents called for the second Safety Car of the race to allow the marshal’s to safely work to recover the stricken cars.
Racing resumed once again on Lap 13 with the Mercedes Junior Driver Antonelli once again leading comfortably from the restart, whilst further behind, Bearman made a pass on Hauger at Turn 4 for eighth place. Colapinto soon followed and overtook Hauger going into Brooklands, before passing Bearman – after a mistake caused the Briton to run throught the gravel trap at Copse, dropping him down to 18th place.
On Lap 16 contact between a charging Zak O’Sullivan into the back his teammate at The Loop left Victor Martins spinning and O’Sullivan with damage, ultimately ending the race for the two of them. Elsewhere on the track, Bearman pulled off the track onto the side of the circuit on the Hanger Straight to bring out another Virtual Safety Car for the recovery of the cars.
Heading into the penultimate lap, a battle between Colapinto and Crawford was heating up, with Colapinto looking to have cleared Crawford for fifth after overtaking around the outside at Stowe, however, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver fought back and regained the space going into Abbey.
On the final lap, a battle between the teammates of Invicta Racing for the final place on the podium was heating up and there seemed to be nothing between the two, with the pair almost making contact several times.
It was all too little too late though for the battle for the top step of the podium, as Antonelli seemed untouchable and crossed the line to take his maiden Formula 2 race by over 8 seconds, with Zane Maloney finishing in second place.
The final three corners determined the 3rd place victor, with the Invicta’s going wheel-to-wheel, however, it was Bortoleto who sealed the final place on the rostrum after a drag race to the line meant the gap between himself and Kush Maini in 4th was only 0.3 seconds.
Colapinto finished fifth after a final lap pass on Crawford, whilst Hauger and Stanek crossed the line to secure 7th and 8th place respectively, rounding out the points paying positions.
F2 Feature Race
Isack Hadjar managed to covert his Friday Pole Position to a Feature Race victory in a vital time for his championship hopes. Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney made it two trips to the podium over the weekend, finishing in second place, whilst DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford was relegated to third place after inheriting a time penalty from first on the road.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Hadjar after a wheelspin on the line allowed the ART Grand Prix of Victor Martins to take the lead, with Oliver Bearman getting a perfect lauch to rise from fifth place on the grid to second by the first corner. Franco Colapinto and Dennis Hauger also lost out on the start after dropping from third and fourth to eighth and ninth place respectively.
Further drama followed, specifically at Turn 3 on the first lap, after contact between Kush Maini and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, caused the Italian driver to spin and the Safety Car was deployed to allow for the recovery of the PREMA Racing car.
Racing resumed come Lap 3, however it was short-lived as the Safety Car was almost immediately re-deployed for the recovery of Joshua Duerksen’s car after he suffered a spin coming through Woodcote. Whilst fighting Paul Aron for position, the AIX Racing driver placed a wheel on the grass that caused him to spin and end up in the gravel, however Aron did not escape unharmed. The Championship leader was tagged on the right rear by the spinning Duerksen and was left with a puncture and forced to pit at the end of the lap. The incident was investigated by the stewards who deemed Aron at fault for the collision and he was handed a 10-second time penalty.
Hadjar utilised DRS down the Hangar Straight on Lap 8 to take second place from Bearman after sitting on his rear wing for a while. Both drivers pitted at the end of this lap for their mandatory pit-stop, changing to the Hard compound tyres and left the pitlane in the same order.
Victor Martins responded a lap later to pit from the lead of the race, followed by Maloney, Crawford and Bortoleto. However, as a result of an unsafe release from the team the DAMS Lucas Oil driver was fed back out quickly and into the path of the Rodin Motorsport car, later resulting in a five-second time penalty.
After being the last driver for the top 10 to stop to switch from the Soft compound, Hadjar closed down on fellow Frenchman Martins, with the ART Grand Prix driver under stress from the fast paced Campos. With DRS on Lap 12, Hadjar was almost successful at passing around the outside at Stowe but had to concede the place after running wide on the corner and exceeding track limits.
On the same lap Hadjar reattempted the overtake, going side-by-side with Martins through the Vale chicane but still couldn’t get the moce done. However, pressure seemed to get to Martins with the Alpine Academy Junior running wide at the final corner and again going off at Turn 1 to allow Hadjar through.
Martins lost further placed to Crawford and Maloney as he rejoined the track at Turn 3, with Crawford profiting from the French driver’s battle to take the lead of the race from Hadjar enterring the Wellington Straight, although any celebrations were short lived as he then received the news from the team of his penalty for the earlier unsafe release.
Franco Colapinto pitted on Lap 22 from the lead, again on the alternative strategy that gave him some success last weekend, opting for the Soft compounds and rejoining in seventh place, although he soon conceeded this position to Martins, as his tyres were not up to temperature.
Colapinto soon passed back ahead of Martins and with five laps remaining he was into sixth position, however his progress soon halted with three laps to go as the top 5 ahead increased their assault in the pursuit of leader Crawford. The American driver’s lead to second-place Hadjar was only 2.5s, half of what he needed if he wanted to retain his lead after his penalty was applied at the conclusion of the race.
Despite his best efforts, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver couldn’t increase his lead over Hadjar, resulting in the Campos Racing driver claiming his third victory of 2024 and taking the lead of the Drivers’ Championship along with it. Maloney kept within distance to be promoted to second as Crawford eventually had to settle for third place after his time penalty.
Colapinto finished fourth, 10 seconds behind the American driver, with Martins rounding out the top 5. Bortoleto claimed sixth place for Invicta Racing, followed by Bearman, Fittipaldi, Hauger and Josep Maria Marti rounding out the final few points paying positions.
F3 Sprint Race
Arvid Lindblad stole the show in a delayed Saturday Sprint Race, taking his third win of the 2024 Formula 3 season. He lead from start to finish leaving pole-sitter to take second place, while Matias Zagazeta became the first Peruvian driver to stand on a Formula 3 podium taking third.
A great start from Lindblad saw the PREMA driver take the lead heading into Turn 1, winning a three-way battle between himself, pole-sitter Leon and Zagazeta.
The battle continued throughout the lap with Zagazeta getting ahead of Leon, however, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver didn’t take this lightly, soon reclaiming P2 through Maggotts and Becketts. The Jenzer Motorsport rookie soon came under attack from Christian Mansell heading into Stowe but he managed to stay ahead.
Mansell then conceeded a position come Lap 3 to Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin, who showed strong pace to pass the ART Grand Prix driver on the entry to Luffield to take fourth place.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed moments after this pass after a collision between Santiago Ramos and Tommy Smith saw the former suffering from a puncture and shedding a piece of tyre onto the racing line near Copse, which consequently needed to be clearer by the marshals.
Racing resumed on Lap 5, but it was almost immediately nutralised as the Safety Car was deployed due to Max Esterson and Oliver Goethe colliding on the entry into Copse, sending both drivers through the gravel trap and into the barriers. Both drivers were okay and able to remove themselves from their cars, however the damage meant both cars needed to be recovered by the marshals.
The Safety Car was removed at the end of Lap 7, however there was further drama after another collision between Tim Tramnitz and Luke Browning going through the Loop. Both drivers continued with Tramnitz pitting as a result of a damaged front wing, whilst Browning was forced to change his tyres after sustaining a puncture. Both rejoined the race a lap down and the back of the pack.
Lap 12 saw MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne dropping behind Mansell and Wurz to seventh place and whilst looking to retake sixth from the Jenzer rookie Wurz, collided on the Wellington Straight. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed for the second time as a result of the stationary Wurz’s car on the grass, while Dunne had to complete a visit to the pits to change his front wing, returning to the track at the back of the field.
Racing resumed on Lap 14 with Lindblad two and a half seconds ahead of Leon. After survivng an earlier attack from Voisin, Zagazeta was now comfortably outside of DRS range of the Briton.
With the battle for 5th place heating up, a DRS train had formed behind Mansell, including his ART Grand Prix teammate Nikola Tsolov, Gabriele Mini, Sami Meguetounif and Sebastian Montoya (who had blitzed through the pack after starting P17).
Lindblad was unbothered in his quest for victory, crossing the line to win his home race with an advantage of over 6 seconds. Leon finished in second, with Zagazeta taking the final spot on the podium.
Voisin was the next best British driver finishing in fourth, whilst Mansell took the chequered flag in fifth, but was soon demoted to P11 after exceeding track limits a multitude of times.
This is turn promoted Tsolov up to fifth ahead of Mini and Montoya. Meguetounif finished in eighth place ahead of Laurens van Hoepen and Trident teammate Leonardo Fornaroli.
F3 Feature Race:
PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad made it two wins out of two on home-soil after winning the dramatic wet-dry Silverstone Feature Race ahead of teammate Mini and Callum Voisin.
Light rain prior to the race start meant that 28 out of the 30 drivers switched to the wet tyres, with only Rodin Motorsport’s Voisin and Piotr Wisnicki opting to stick to the slick tyres.
In ever British fashion the rain stopped as the cars rounded the circuit on the formation lap, causing several drivers to pit for the hard compound tyres prior to lights out.
Pole-sitter Luke Browning had a good launch off the line on his wet tyres, while Leonardo Fornaroli seemed to be on the charge up the order, passing teammate Sami Meguetounif before completing a move around the outside of Max Esterson at Maggots and Becketts to take second place.
The first Safety Car of the race was needed for Cian Shields as his Hitech Pulse-Eight stopped at the side of the track at Turn 3.
Racing resumed come Lap 3, and Voisin utilised his faster slick tyres, going around the outside of Esterson at Turn 3 before further passing Fornaroli down the Wellington Straight. He then made a move on Browning on the run down to Copse corner, moving him up into the race lead.
It seemed the call from some drivers to pit for slicks after the formation lap was the right one, as those on slicks were flying around the track compared to those on the wet tyres. This included Tim Tramnitz who was up to second place by Lap 4, with a trailing Lindblad, Fornaroli, Smith and Mini.
The second Safety Car of the race was deployed following a collision on the Wellington Straight between Dino Beganovic and Sophia Floersch, who were both running on the hard compound. The latter came over the radio saying she was okay and was able to jump out of the car, while the PREMA driver was able to continue.
With the forecasted heavy rain now falling, Tramnitz pitted from P2 on track to change to the wet tyres, prompting a number of other drivers to also come in, while others including race leader Voisin and now third-placed Lindblad opted to stay out and gamble staying on the slick tyres.
Voisin, who nearer the start of the race had a five-second advantage at the front, was deemed by stewards to have left the track and gained an advantage when completing his overtake on Esterson, earning himself a 10-second penalty.
Racing resumed on Lap 8 of 22, with the wet tyre runners proving to have the advantage and moves from Browning and Fornaroli saw them pass Voisin in the first sector. Tramnitz was another major winner of this strategy as he surged from the back of the grid to P7 ahead of Hitech debutant James Wharton.
Wharton joined the F3 grid for his debut race to replace Martinius Stenshorne who was suspended from the Silverstone weekend after he raced at Silverstone in April at the GB3 meeting, which contravened the regulations stating prior approval from the promoter or the FIA was needed in writing in order to participate in another series.
The third Safety Car of the race was required on Lap 9 after a spin from Joshua Dufek at the exit of Stowe, cause a knock-on effect with Alex Dunne and Sebastian Montoya crashing into the barriers as they tried to avoid the AIX Racing car.
Entering the final 15 minutes of the race and the with the pack now bunched up together after the Safety Car, racing resumed with Browning extending his lead over Fornaroli to over one second, whilst Leon rounded the outside of Esterson at Stowe to take P3.
10 minutes remained and it seemed as if the two different tyre types had reached a crossover point, with the slick tyre runners of Voisin, Lindblad and Mini slowly beginning to make their moves through the field.
Entering the final five minutes of the race, Voisin was able to pass Browning down the Hanger Straight to take back the lead he had previously, however with the penalty he had acquired earlier on in race the focus was behind on Lindblad and Mini who were effectively battling for the lead of the race.
Voisin ultimately crossed the line in P1 on the road, but as a result of his penalty he was demoted to third place. This meant Lindblad who took the chequered flag in second place was promoted to first and gave him a clean sweep of wins, a first for Formula 3 in which a driver has won every race during a single weekend with Mini finishing in second place.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tommy Smith finished in fourth, ahead of Wisnicki who had come from last position on the grid, whilst Oliver Goethe finished in sixth place. Fornaroli made a late move on Browning to finish seventh and eighth respectively, with Nikita Bedrin finishing ninth and Leon rounding out the points in P10.
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