SAM HALL
FORMULA 2
JEDDAH (SAU)
8-9 MARCH
ROUND 2/14
The Formula 2 weekend in Jeddah was a story of a poleman who didn’t start, a winner who didn’t win, and climaxed with a stunning maiden feature race victory for Enzo Fittipaldi.
Victor Martins and Ollie Bearman, both among the pre-season title favourites, were looking to get their challenges back on course after poor showings in the opening round in Bahrain. But, for vastly different reasons, the duo left Jeddah still with nil scores to their names.
This was particularly harsh on Bearman. The Prema Racing starlet should have scored two points for taking pole position on Thursday before his call-up to replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari meant he was withdrawn from any further F2 action, and his tally was transferred to Invicta Racing’s second-placed qualifier Kush Maini.
Martins qualified his ART Grand Prix car fourth, but his sprint race came to an end after only two corners when contact with Dennis Hauger pinged him into the concrete wall and resigned him to consecutive retirements. After starting third in the longer feature race, Martins slipped back. He could have scored a point for 10th, but that was taken from him after the stewards issued a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Paul Aron.
Aron had started the sprint race from pole, with Richard Verschoor alongside. Trident’s Dutch veteran bided his time, finally making his move for the lead using DRS into Turn 1 on lap eight. This was a lead that Verschoor would not relinquish until some hours after the chequered flag fell, when he and team-mate Roman Stanek were disqualified for having an incorrect throttle pedal progressivity map.
The move that ultimately won the race came with three laps to go, when Hauger pulled off an identical move into Turn 1 on Aron, throwing his MP Motorsport entry to the inside of the Hitech car.
Hauger and Aron were joined in the top three, if not the podium celebrations, by Fittipaldi, and the Van Amersfoort Racing man went two steps better on Saturday. Fitti
