Qatar comes after a two-month break from racing, marking the second F2 outing in Lusail after an intense 2024 round. The F2 Championship battle reached its pointy end in the penultimate round of 2024. The three-way battle between Paul Aron, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Isaac Hadjar was in full force.
Free Practice and Qualifying
Free Practice took place within a 45 minutes time block, allowing drivers to get to grips with the Lusail International Circuit. Bortoleto and Aron were quick to set times representative of how their sessions would go, their initial laps set with only 0.008s between the two.
The session continued on with the two battling for top spot, Aron soon setting the fastest lap. Shortly after, he improved his own time, setting a 1:38.024. This put over six tenths between himself and the Brazilian. The session ended like this, with Richard Verschoor, Oliver Goethe and Victor Martins completing the top five.
Qualifying marked the first night session for the F2 grid, with drivers setting off on medium compound tyres. Despite the change in conditions from Free Practice, Paul Aron’s pace remained. His initial lap was set at a 1:37.619. Oliver Bearman’s quickest lap was 0.446s slower.
Verschoor, Bortoleto, Bearman and Martins each took the fastest lap intermittently, until Aron returned to the top with a 1:36.614. Bortoleto and Aron battled back and forth for pole position for the remainder of the session.
Aron took pole position, with Bortoleto, Martins, Beganovic, and Verschoor completing the top five.
Sprint Race
Oliver Bearman lined up on reverse grid pole position, with Isack Hadjar lined up next to him. They started on opposite tyres, with Bearman on hards, and Hadjar on mediums. Hadjar took the lead of the race by lap 2.
Martins impressed all, driving from P7 to P3 in the first lap. By the fifth lap, Hadjar was clear of the pack. Crawford applied pressure on Martins, desperate to snatch the final podium position. By lap eight, the front-runners on mediums began to struggle with their tyres. This allowed Bearman to catch Hadjar and regain his lead by lap 21.
The chaos ensued from here, with Hadjar spinning out of P2 through Turn 4. Simultaneously, Kimi Antonelli and Kush Maini collided. The Safety Car was brought out, and the race ended under Safety Car. Bearman secured his third win of the season, with Crawford and Verschoor completing the Sprint Race podium.
Feature Race
With Aron taking off from pole in Qatar for the fourth time in the 2024 F2 season, he aimed to finish on the podium. This was something he was yet to do from pole position in 2024. Bortoleto jumped Aron on the start to take the lead, while Beganovic jumped Martins to take P3.
Aron pitted on lap 8 to exchange his tyres for a set of hards, the goal being to undercut Bortoleto. Antonelli and Verschoor collided in the pit lane. This broke the Italian’s steering, resulting in him ending up in the gravel, and setting off a Virtual Safety Car.
As the Virtual Safety Car came out, Bortoleto had already committed to entering the pit lane. Despite this, he crossed the pit entry line, and returned to the circuit. This resulted in a 5-second penalty for not following the race director’s instructions.
Although Hadjar was struggling in the midfield, a decision to pit under Safety Car greatly benefited his race. This left him behind Aron and Bortoleto—his Championship rivals. With Bortoleto, Aron, and Hadjar making their way by the cars, yet to pit, Bortoleto placed himself between his rivals.
Bortoleto ultimately crossed the line first, but with only 4.9s between himself and Aron. This meant he was demoted to P3 after his 5-second penalty was added. This in turn handed Aron his maiden F2 win, and promoted Hadjar to P2.
Heading into the final round in Abu Dhabi, Bortoleto held a 0.5 point lead on Hadjar, the Estonian 25 points behind in 3rd. Qatar held a key role in the 2024 F2 Championship battle, and looks as though it may do the same in 2025.
