Mercedes junior Antonelli grabs first F2 win in rain-lashed Silverstone sprint race

Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli led every lap of a wet and incident-filled sprint race at Silverstone to take his first win and podium in the series.

The 17-year-old, who a contender for the seat at Mercedes which Lewis Hamilton will vacate at the end of the year, held his nerve out front from reverse-grid pole to win ahead of Zane Maloney. Gabriel Bortoleto narrowly beat team mate Kush Maini to the line for the final podium position.

Due to the very wet track before the start of the race, the race began with a single lap behind the Safety Car before a rolling start. Reverse-grid pole sitter Antonelli led the field away from Maloney, Maini and Jak Crawfordd, spray spewing from the cars as they got up to speed around the wet track.

Oliver Bearman challenged McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto for fifth through The Loop, but clipped the back of the Invicta car on the exit, losing the left-hand endplate of his front wing. Soon after, Bortoleto attempted to pass Crawford for fourth around the outside of Copse corner, straying across the line as he did. However, after investigating the incident, the stewards determined Crawford had forced the Invicta driver off the circuit and took no further action.

Antonelli held onto the lead ahead of Maloney and Maini, but rain began to fall heavily over the circuit in the final sector, causing the spray kicked up by cars to increase in volume. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, but only to recover debris on the track before the green flags resumed the race. However, the rain was not relenting and eventually conditions became too bad to continue and the Safety Car was deployed, before the race was suspended by a red flag less than a lap later.

The field returned to the pit lane before race control announced that the race would resume around 15 minutes after it had been suspended. The Safety Car led the field out of the pits at the start of lap five before the race resumed with a second rolling start at the beginning of lap seven. Antonelli successfully held the lead at the restart with Maloney following behind, while the two Invicta team mates Maini and Bortoleto battled over third behind.

Then, the Safety Car was deployed once again for separate incidents involving the two championship leaders, Paul Aron and Isack Hadjar. Aron appeared to lose momentum when passed by Zak O’Sullivan out of The Loop and was hit from behind by Pepe Marti heading onto the Wellington Straight. Both drivers retired from the incident. Soon after, Hadjar ran wide at Copse and spun off into the gravel, putting him out of the race.

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The Safety Car was deployed again to recover the three stricken cars before the race restarted for the third time at the start of lap 13. Antonelli once again offered Maloney no opportunity to attack him at the restart and led once more, pulling a small gap over the AIX thanks to the clear track in front of him.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Bearman pulled off the circuit with an apparent problem down the Hangar Straight, while Victor Martins retired after contact with O’Sullivan at The Loop. When the race resumed, Antonelli continued to pull out his lead and checked off the final laps to take the chequered flag and secure his first Formula 2 victory by over eight seconds from Maloney.

An intense final-lap battle for the final podium position between Invicta team mates Bortoleto and Maini was won by Bortoleto, despite running wide at the final corner to do so. The incident will be investigated by the stewards after the race.

Williams junior Franco Colapinto claimed fifth ahead of Crawford, Dennis Hauger and Roman Stanek taking the final point in eighth. Taylor Barnard and Ritomo Miyata completed the top ten.

Formula 2 Great Britain race one results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Prema
2	5	Zane Maloney	Rodin
3	10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta
4	9	Kush Maini	Invicta
5	12	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport
6	7	Jak Crawford	DAMS
7	11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport
8	23	Roman Stanek	Trident
9	25	Taylor Barnard	AIX
10	6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin
11	22	Richard Verschoor	Trident
12	8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS
13	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Van Amersfoort
14	15	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort
15	16	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech
16	24	Joshua Duerksen	AIX
DNF	2	Zak O’Sullivan	ART
DNF	1	Victor Martins	ART
DNF	3	Ollie Bearman	Prema
DNF	17	Paul Aron	Hitech
DNF	21	Josep Maria Marti	Campos
DNF	20	Isack Hadjar	Campos

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