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F2 Austria: Bearman scores sprint win to end Prema's dry spell

Oliver Bearman scored his first F2 victory since last year's Monza feature race campaign, securing the result after pulling ahead of polesitter Kush Maini (Invicta) at the start and leading all 28 laps.

While the Prema driver nailed his launch, Maini struggled to gain traction and dropped to third on the first lap, with Pepe Marti (Campos) also passing and Taylor Barnard (AIX) adding further pressure.

Championship challenger Isack Hadjar also endured a tough start, with an error on the opening lap dropping his from fourth to 12th. Unable to recover, he finished in 13th.

Across the duration, Maini found himself acting somewhat as a rolling roadblock, with team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, championship leader Paul Aron (Hitech), Dennis Hauger (MP Motorsport) and Jack Crawford (DAMS) all finding ways past as he slid to seventh.

Marti, who was carrying front wing damage after contact with Maini on the opening lap, did well to fend off the late attention of Aron for second place, with the latter continuing his streak of finishing on the podium at every race weekend of the season – although he is still yet to stand on the top step.

In a race that will not go down as a classic, the only incident of real note came on the last lap, as the two MP Motorsport drivers clashed on the exit of Turn 3.

Battling over fifth, Franco Colapinto made a bold DRS-assisted lunge on Hauger, but ran his team-mate off the track and over the sausage kerbs, before losing the rear of his own car when trying to put down the power. This caused the Argentinian to spin and make contact with the barriers, before recovering to finish 11th.

Having pulled clear of the DRS range in the early stages, Bearman was able to manage the gap at the front even as Marti edged back within range in the closing stages, taking Prema’s first podium of the season, meaning all 11 teams have now featured in the top three this term. 

With neither Hadjar or Zane Maloney (Rodin) scoring, Aron extended his championship lead to 15 points.

F2 Austria Sprint Race Results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1 United Kingdom O. Bearman Prema Powerteam 3 28

-

           
2
P. Martí Campos Racing
21 28

+1.700

1.7

1.700          
3
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
17 28

+3.000

3.0

1.300          
4
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
10 28

+3.600

3.6

0.600          
5 Norway D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 28

+11.000

11.0

7.400          
6 United States J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil 7 28

+11.600

11.6

0.600          
7 India K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 28

+13.700

13.7

2.100          
8
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
24 28

+13.800

13.8

0.100          
9 United Kingdom Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix 2 28

+15.800

15.8

2.000          
10 France V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 28

+19.800

19.8

4.000          
11 Argentina F. Colapinto MP Motorsport 12 28

+21.500

21.5

1.700          
12
T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing
25 28

+22.300

22.3

0.800          
13 France I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 28

+22.800

22.8

0.500          
14 Brazil E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 28

+23.600

23.6

0.800          
15 Italy A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam 4 28

+23.700

23.7

0.100          
16 United States J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil 8 28

+26.400

26.4

2.700          
17 Barbados Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport 5 28

+27.100

27.1

0.700          
18 Belgium A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 28

+27.500

27.5

0.400          
19 Mexico R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 28

+28.200

28.2

0.700          
20 Netherlands R. Verschoor Trident 22 28

+29.800

29.8

1.600          
21 Czech Republic R. Staněk Trident 23 28

+29.800

29.8

0.000          
22 Japan R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 28

+46.900

46.9

17.100          
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