SAM HALL
FORMULA 2
BARCELONA (ESP)
21-23 JUNE
ROUND 6/14
Victor Martins and Jak Crawford secured their first Formula 2 wins of 2024 at Barcelona, while Juan Manuel Correa’s emotional rollercoaster ended in a first podium since his championship return at the end of 2022.
ART Grand Prix driver Martins has endured a torrid season after finishing his debut campaign in 2023 as the highest placed rookie. The Frenchman arrived in Spain with just 11 points to his name, and is already all but out of contention for the title. But his fortunes changed in the sprint race when he stole a march on polesitter Kush Maini (Invicta Racing) on the run to the first corner and never looked back.
While Alpine junior Martins’s luck had improved, it was the opposite for Prema’s Ferrari protege Ollie Bearman, who dropped like a stone after his FP1 Formula 1 appearance with Haas, falling from a disappointing 15th grid slot to second last.
Joining Martins and Maini for the sprint race podium was Correa, who finished in the top three for the first time since his involvement in the 2019 crash at Spa that left him with serious injuries to his legs and claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert. But DAMS driver Correa was among eight drivers to receive a post-race penalty for exceeding track limits. The five-second sanction dropped him to eighth and promoted Hitech GP’s points leader Paul Aron onto the podium. Also penalised were Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema), who dropped five places to 15th, and Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport), who fell seven spots to 18th.
Remarkably, Sunday’s feature race featured no penalties for track limits, although a handful of drivers were still shown the black and white warning flag for taking liberties. As well as things had gone for Martins on Saturday, the second outing brought back his wretched luck when he was collected by Dennis Hauger at Turn 2 and forced to retire with damage.
Polesitter Aron led with little challenge until second-placed Crawford pitted his DAMS car to fit hard tyres. Aron stopped a lap later and exited the pits still in the net race lead, but lost
