2024 F2 Season Roundup: Round One – Bahrain

Roundup of the opening round of the 2024 F2 season in Sakhir, Bahrain.

With a new spec-car introduced in pre-season, this opening round promised plenty of drama as teams got to grips with their new machinery and for many teams, they also had to adapt to having new drivers on board.

Pre-season title favourites meanwhile served up unexpected struggles on a weekend which saw a lesser-talked contender dominate proceedings.

Now here is a roundup of all the action across the opening round of the 2024 F2 season in Bahrain.

Practice

Campos’ Isack Hadjar was first out on track and proceeded to set the early benchmark time of 1m 48.615 in the 10th minute, only for MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto to displace him two minutes later as the Argentinean went 1.640 seconds quicker.

Pepe Marti and Dennis Hauger soon afterwards exchanged fastest laps whilst Rodin Motorsport rookie, Ritomo Miyata suffered a spin at Turn 1 but managed to continue in the session.

Miyata’s teammate, Zane Maloney meanwhile went quickest at the halfway mark with 1m 45.588 ahead of Marti and Hauger.

Hadjar meanwhile spent an extensive period in the pits after he had set the benchmark time and once he returned to the track, the Frenchman set the fastest lap of the session with 1m 45.099 to finish quickest from Colapinto and Maloney.

Qualifying

Cordeel was first out for the opening Qualifying session of the season ahead of everyone but Hadjar and Marti, with the Campos pair having opted to do their first runs in the mid-session gap as everyone switched to soft tyre after running the hard tyre in practice.

Fittipaldi set a benchmark 1m 42.822 but was quickly displaced by Hauger, but Maini led at the end of the opening runs with 1m 42.533 ahead of Hauger and Fittipaldi.

Once Hadjar and Marti completed their first flying laps, Hadjar headed his teammate by just 0.021s with Maini sat third.

Fittipaldi meanwhile led the field out in the 20th minute for their final runs and went fastest six minutes later with 1m 42.070, only for Maloney to go top moments later from Hauger.

The pair however were demoted by Invicta Racing who locked out the front row as Maini topped Qualifying with 1m 41.696 ahead of Bortoleto.

Maini however was disqualified after stewards found that the height of his left undertray front external strake was below the minimum height requirement according to Article 3.4.1 of Technical Regulations.

Bortoleto consequently was promoted to pole position for the Feature Rac ahead of Hadjar, Maloney, Hauger, Miyata and O’Sullivan with the top six split by 0.099s.

Fittipaldi qualified seventh ahead of Martins, Barnard and Crawford, with Crawford having benefitted from Maini’s disqualification to inherit reverse-pole for the Sprint Race – which initially was set to go to Barnard on debut.

Sprint Race

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At lights out, Crawford made a clean getway but found himself chased by Martins and O’Sullivan as Barnard quickly tumbled down the order – with a mechanical issue which ultimately forced him to retire on Lap 17.

Cordeel and Villagomez meanwhile collided at Turn 4 with the Belgian forced to retire on the spot which caused a Virtual Safety Car a lap later.

Once racing resumed on Lap 3, Crawford fought off Martins but Maloney had worked his way up to fifth at the start and quickly cleared Fittipaldi and O’Sullivan by the end of Lap 4, before he cleared Martins two laps later on the inside of Turn 4.

Crawford meanwhile struggled to match Maloney’s pace and was overtaken by the 20 year-old Rodin driver on Lap 8, as Maloney executed a switchback out of Turn 4 to make the race-winning overtake as Crawford settled for second.

Tyre degradation soon began to bite for Fittipaldi who fell out of the top ten by the end of Lap 15, whilst Martins clung on to third until he too suffered a similar fate in the closing laps, as he got passed by Hadjar on Lap 16.

Marti meanwhile cleared Aron on the same lap and the pair plus Bortoleto, O’Sullivan, Hauger, Miyata and Vrschoor eventually demoted Martins to 11th at the checkered flag, whilst Marti cleared Hadjar on Lap 20 to finish third on his F2 Sprint debut.

Feature Race

At lights out, Bortoleto got a slow getaway which allowed Sauber junior, Maloney to leap from third into the lead whilst Bortoleto spun Hadjar around at the opening corner, with Fittipaldi collected in the process.

O’Sullivan consequently benefitted from the chaos to move up to second ahead of Hauger before the safety car was deployed, with Bortoleto handed a 10s time penalty for having spun Hadjar.

Racing resumed on Lap 5 as Maloney scampered clear of O’Sullivan and Hauger as Marti cleared Bortoleto then Hauger with Crawford following suit a lap later past Bortoleto.

Marti cleared O’Sullivan on Lap 7 at Turn 4 for second whilst Hauger got demoted to sixth by the end of Lap 9.

Martins was the first driver to pit on Lap 11 to switch to soft tyres which led to a spread of pit stops across the next eight laps, during which Crawford’s race ended on Lap 17 after his engine failed during his pit stop.

The safety car was redeployed on Lap 19 after Martins one lap earlier grinded to a halt at Turn 5 with an electric failure on his ART GP, which left Maloney back in the lead from O’Sullivan and Marti after Maini found himself having to put under the safety car from the race lead.

Racing resumed on Lap 22 as Colapinto, Bearman and Antonelli demoted Miyata to tenth, with Antonelli passing PREMA teammate – Bearman one lap later as the Brit fell back to 15th at the checkered flag.

Up front, Maloney sprinted away to complete a rare F2 race double at the same round as Marti and Aron cleared O’Sullivan to round out the podium, as the Brit ultimately fought off Bortoleto’s late charge to finish fourth after the Brazilian recovered from dropping to 13th at his stop to fifth.

Colapinto, Maini, Hauger, Miyata and Antonelli rounded out the top ten.

In the drivers’ standings, Maloney’s double win has left him top with 36 points and a 12-point lead over Marti with Aron, Bortoleto and O’Sullivan not far behind the Spaniard.

F2 will now head to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the second round between 7-9 March.