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Oliver Bearman is pleased with a “decent” return to F2 in Melbourne, Australia with his first points of the 2024 season in that category.
Bearman had qualified his PREMA car on pole in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, only to withdrawn from the remainder of the F2 season after Carlos Sainz needed appendicitis surgery – and the Brit went on to finish seventh on his F1 bow.
Sainz however recovered enough fitness to make a winning return in Melbourne, which meant that Bearman resumed his F2 campaign but he could only qualify 16th in a “difficult Qualifying session.”
The session included two red flags which prevented Bearman from creating ” a good feeling” with his first set of supersoft tyres, which he believed he had resolved for his final run only for the second red flag and technical issues to ruin his final two laps.
Bearman though thought that he could of been comfortably fighting for a top-three result if not for the bad luck, which left him “disappointed” to be low down the grid for both the Sprint and Feature Races.
Ferrari’s 18-year old junior went on to enjoy a steady Sprint as he recovered to eighth but forced Joshua Durksen wide in his overtake on the Paraguayan, which earned him a ten-second time penalty to drop him to 14th and still without a point in F2.
Bearman described his penalty as “unfortunate” despite his pace having “felt really good.”
Better luck eventually arrived in the Feature Race as he recovered to ninth at the start but a “double stack” pit stop cost him momentum on top of a safety car which put him back down the order and stuck “in a train” with little overtaking opportunities.
Bearman ultimately benefitted from those who had gambled on the alternate strategy not having the opportunity to take advantage of another safety car, as he recovered to 10th on the road at the checkered flag and a first point in F2 of this season.
Franco Colapinto’s post-race disqualification however gifted Bearman a ninth-placed finish and his first two points of the season, which has left him 60 points off title leader Zane Maloney with 11 rounds of the season still to be completed.
Bearman now has a near two-month break before he resumes his quest for the F2 title at Imola, Emilia Romagna, Italy, across weekend of 17-19 May, although there will be an in-season test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, between 23-25 April.
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