Josep María Martí produced a stunning sprint performance to take victory in the F2 Sprint race after starting 11th on the grid in the Sakhir Sprint Race. After a frantic ending, the Campos Racing driver claimed the lead on the very final lap and went on to secure the victory but it was the late disqualification of AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen, as well as a penalty for Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne, handed out by the stewards well after the chequered flag had fallen that will dominate the headlines.
Following the race, the Technical Delegate referred Car 20 to the Stewards after it was found Diffusor strake 1 was lower than the minimum specified height, breaching Article 3.4.1a of the F2 Technical Regulations.
Having considered the matter, the Stewards determined that the Diffusor Strake 1 was 2mm below the tolerance specified in Article 3.4.2, constituting a breach of the Technical Regulations, resulting in the disqualification of Car 20 from the Sprint Race.
Meanwhile Rodin’s Dunne was called to the Stewards after an incident with Car 15 of Ritomo Miyata during the race.
After hearing from both drivers and examining available video evidence, the Stewards determined that Dunne was the driver predominantly at fault for the incident and, as a result, elected to hand him a five-second time penalty.
Dunne has also been assigned another five-second time penalty for breaching the Safety Car delta requirements during Safety Car period 2.
The Stewards examined evidence post-race and heard from both the driver and team representative. It was found that Car 17 was above the delta time, a breach of Article 40.7 of the FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations. The resulting penalty is the standard five-second time penalty for the offence.
Race Review
There was drama from the very start as a Lap one incident brought out the safety car after Sebastián Montoya ended up pointing the wrong way, leading to his car needing to be recovered. This was after Pole-sitter Duerksen got the start he needed to retain the lead. Victor Martins suffered damage to his front wing after getting squeezed on the run down to Turn One, he ended up off the track and suffered front wing damage after taking a trip through the polystyrene boards causing him to end up right at the back of the pack.
It was on Lap 4 that the Safety Car was finally called back in leaving Duerksen in the lead being chased by Beganovic and Villagómez.
Lap 11 saw a change for the lead of the race, With Beganovic aided by DRS going up the hill into Turn 4, making a move on Duerksen with the pair by then three seconds in the lead.
With tyre preservation becoming key for most of the grid Dunne was on the move again with a dive at Turn1, passing Villagómez for fourth on Lap 13.
Lap 16 saw the Safety Car deployed for a second time, this time it was after Max Esterson came to a stop in his Trident. It brought several drivers into the pit lane for a stop, with Gabriele Minì the highest-placed driver to pit from 10th for Hard Pirelli tyres, leaving him 14th for the restart.
The Safety Car was called back in on Lap 19 with racing resuming with Beganovic surrendering the lead to Duerksen after he ran wide at the final corner after being put under increasing pressure.
Behind them, a four-car scrap for third went the way of Verschoor, but Martí was able to pass Dunne for fourth a few corners later. The Rodin driver made slight contact with Browning and fell behind the Hitech TGR driver on Lap 20. An attempt to re-pass Browning at the first opportunity into Turn 8 opened the door for Arvid Lindblad to take seventh from the Irishman on the corner exit.
As the race entered the final three laps the battle for the lead turned into a 4 car fight when Verschoor and Martí were able to catch Duerksen and Beganovic.
The penultimate lap saw Beganovic draw alongside Duerksen and make a move for the lead, but he was unable to make the pass stick whilst trying at Turn 4. This was the chance that Verschoor needed to make a move to claim second before being caught out by Martí, who got the switchback on both of them out of Turn 8 to seize second for himself.
The final lap saw Martí take the lead going into Turn 1 aided by DRS. The AIX driver couldn’t fight back and had to defend from Verschoor, but his running wide at Turn11 allowed the MP driver to gain second just a handful of corners from the finish.
Martí earned his first win of the year in some style, ahead of Verschoor and Duerksen, with Beganovic holding onto fourth. Oliver Goethe fitted the Soft tyres under the second Safety Carand charged through from P15 to fifth in the closing laps. Lindblad, Villagómez and Minì completed the points in sixth, seventh and eighth places, respectively.
That Post race disqualification for Duerksen promotes every driver up one position each in the classification, with Dino Beganovic of Hitech TGR taking the final podium place in third position.
KEY QUOTE – Josep María Marti, Campos Racing Race Winner
“Super happy to win the Sprint Race here in Bahrain. It’s a circuit that has treated me very nicely in the past, and it did again today. I’m very happy, we did a perfect race given the circumstances and how the race unfolded, so very happy with it and looking forward to a very good race tomorrow.”
The Championship Standings
With the post-race penalty applied Verschoor now leads the Championship with 13 points with Martí second with 11 points. Duerksen is third with 10 points Leonardo Fornaroli is fourth with 8 points to his name, and Browning rounds out the top five on 6 points.
In the Teams’ Standings, MP Motorsport head the field with 19 points ahead of Campos Racing on 15 and Invicta Racing on 14. Hitech TGR are fourth with 12 points while AIX Racing complete the top five teams with 10 points
UP NEXT
The FIA Formula 2 action continues on Sunday 13th April, with what will be the first Feature Race of the year following Melbourne’s cancelled race.