Oliver Bearman converted pole position into victory in the sprint race in Losail ahead of Jak Crawford and Richard Verschoor.
The Ferrari junior driver passed Isack Hadjar in the closing laps after a race-long strategic battle between the pair.Hadjar then threw away an opportunity to take the championship lead by spinning, which cost him a podium finish.
Haas-bound Bearman took pole position on the partially-reversed grid after yesterday’s qualifying session and held onto the lead at the start ahead of championship contender Hadjar. However, Hadjar on his medium tyres had much more pace than Bearman on the hards and stuck with the Prema initially, before claiming the lead at turn 10.
Hadjar quickly built a lead over Bearman as the leading pair left Victor Martins behind in third. But after the race resumed on lap eight after a short Virtual Safety Car period when Oliver Goethe suffered a spectacular engine failure, Hadjar reported he was unhappy with the wear on his front-left tyre.
Bearman bided his time over several laps, closing to within DRS range of the Campos. At the start of lap 21, Bearman made a late decision to dive down the inside of the first corner but made it work to reclaim the lead. Hadjar tried to stay with the Prema but lost control of his car into turn four, spinning through the gravel strip and dropping two further places to fourth.
The race ended under the Safety Car after a multi-car clash at turn one between Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Kush Maini and Victor Martins led to the former two retiring. Bearman took the chequered flag first ahead of Jak Crawford, with Richard Verschoor claiming the final podium position thanks to Hadjar’s spin.
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Hadjar came home fourth ahead of Paul Aron and Gabriel Bortoleto with Miyata a provisional seventh and Zane Maloney claiming the final point in his final F2 sprint race. Hadjar’s spin means instead of leading the championship he lies two-and-a-half points off championship leader Bortoleto.
Four drivers made their F2 debuts in the race. Dino Beganovic was on course to finish the best of them in seventh until he was hit by Ritomo Miyata, causing him to spin and drop to 13th. However, he finished 11th to still take the honour of best debutant. John Bennett came 13th ahead of Max Esterson, with Cian Shields finishing last on the road in 18th.
Formula 2 Qatar race one results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Oliver Bearman | Prema |
| 2 | 7 | Jak Crawford | DAMS |
| 3 | 11 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport |
| 4 | 20 | Isack Hadjar | Campos |
| 5 | 17 | Paul Aron | Hitech |
| 6 | 10 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta |
| 7 | 6 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin |
| 8 | 5 | Zane Maloney | Rodin |
| 9 | 24 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX |
| 10 | 1 | Victor Martins | ART |
| 11 | 8 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS |
| 12 | 2 | Luke Browning | ART |
| 13 | 14 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort |
| 14 | 22 | Max Esterson | Trident |
| 15 | 23 | Christian Mansell | Trident |
| 16 | 16 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech |
| 17 | 15 | Rafael Villagómez | Van Amersfoort |
| 18 | 25 | Cian Shields | AIX |
| 19 | 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema |
| 20 | 9 | Kush Maini | Invicta |
| 21 | 12 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport |
| 22 | 21 | Pepe Martí | Campos |
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Formula 2
- Bortoleto clinches F2 title as Hadjar stalls and Duerksen wins finale
- Aron hit with double penalty for team’s illegal DRS modification, Hadjar gains a point
- Marti wins sprint race as Bortoleto extends points lead ahead of finale
- Martins beats title rivals Bortoleto, Aron and Hadjar to Yas Marina pole
- Bortoleto’s lead down to half a point as penalty hands win to Aron in Losail
Alonslow
30th November 2024, 19:05
Hadjar choked
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
1st December 2024, 4:55
No, his team put him on a stupid strategy. And his team isn’t that great.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
1st December 2024, 9:00
if you run a softer compound AND are forced to load the tires early and thoroughly, you WILL NOT heat cycle them correctly. This is why F1 guys warm up their tires, even to the point of having multiple laps, in order to condition the compound correctly. This is why Lando does not push hard at the beginning of the race and outpaces almost everyone at the end.
If you want to know how hard you can cycle your tires it requires some very good trend analysis and quality thermodynamic understanding of the materials/system that is those tires and the forces that are exerted on them. So far it appears that it is still early days with respect to modeling tires, but hopefully soon enough, it will be impossible for guys like Pirelli to ‘spice’ up the racing by providing inferior tires because the teams will have a very clear understanding of their properties to the point where all risks are understood.
****************
This was a huge mistake, Hadjar is faster than Bearman, but they put him on a desperate strategy (FOMO). Teams that put their drivers at risk due to high risk strategies like this need to have their bums examined for evidence of cranial occupation.