Dutch Feature Race: Maloney takes back-to-back win in Zandvoort
4th September 2022Trident’s Zane Maloney took his second, consecutive, win as the Barbadian driver controlled two race restarts to remain ahead of ART’s championship leader, Victor Martins.
How the race unfolded…
It was a great start from both Maloney and ART’s Victor Martins, when the lights went out which allowed the two drivers to go wheel-to-wheel into the first corner. On the exit of the opening corner, Martins forced Maloney wide and onto the kerb to take the lead away from the pole sitter.
However, the race was neutralised, on lap four, as the safety car was deployed. Carlin’s Brad Benavides and Jenzer Motorsport’s William Alatalo found themselves in the gravel trap on the exit of turn two.
Benavides found himself under the gearbox of Alatalo as the two drivers race into turn two. Due to the contact, the Carlin and Jenzer drivers skipped across the gravel trap, on the corner exit, and luckily before they stopped at the barrier. However, they couldn’t get their cars out of the gravel.
Race control were set to investigate the incident between Benavides and Alatalo after the race.
At the end of the seventh lap, the safety car bolted back to the pit lane and left Martins to control the pace of the pack. Martins bolted around the final corner which caught Maloney napping at the restart, and the ART driver raced down into turn one unchallenged.
Slightly further back, as Maloney tried to break the slipstream, Prema’s Jak Crawford attempted to steal second place away from the Trident driver into turn one but the American driver locked up, heavily. When Crawford regained control of his car, the Prema driver found himself down to P9 – from P3.
On lap 12, Maloney finally regained the race lead as he repaid the move Martins had made on him in the opening lap. Despite Martins best attempt to defend the inside line, Maloney took the cleaner – outside line – and switched back down the inside which forced the ART driver to the kerb.
Four laps later, Maloney managed to establish a one-second gap which would take him out of DRS range from Martins, who remained in second. This allowed – third-placed – Van Amersfoort Racing’s Franco Colapinto to put the live championship leader under pressure.
The race was soon neutralised, once again, as the Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 18. This was due to Campos’ David Vidales who had pulled off to the side of the track, on the exit of turn two, with a reliability issue. The VSC was soon upgraded to a full safety car.
In addition to the stranded Campos, there was a large piece of debris stranded out on the track: ART Gregoire Saucy’s nose cone. It was soon found that Saucy’s nose cone had disconnect from his car after he rear-ended Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan at turn four.
Unlike Martins, at the first restart, Maloney got the field back up into racing speed as he bolted away around the penultimate corner – at the end of lap 20. While the ART championship leader was able to remain close behind the Trident driver, the gap was too big for Martins to make a move for the lead.
The safety car was soon redeployed onto the circuit after ART’s Juan Manuel Correa made contact with VAR’s Rafael Villagomez around turn one. The VAR driver was quickly punted around and left in the gravel trap. As a result, the VAR driver was beached in the gravel.
During this safety car period, Saucy peeled into the pit lane to retire his car as the ART driver suffered terminal suspension damage.
To keep Martins behind, at the third restart, Maloney decided to bolt away early as the field arrived into the braking zone of turn 13 as the safety car raced back to the pit lane.
However, Martins was relatively prepared for the restart and managed to remain fairly close into turn one but not close enough to make a move.
Podium:
- Zane Maloney, Trident
- Victor Martins, ART
- Franco Colapinto, VAR
That’s it for the article, Dutch Feature Race: Maloney takes back-to-back win in Zandvoort! What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more F3 here
- F3 Dutch Sprint: Collet secures victory after early move on Correa
- F3 Dutch GP: Maloney secures pole as Alatalo causes late red flag
- Belgian GP: Maloney heads Trident 1-2 in Spa with maiden win
- Belgian Sprint Race: Bearman secures win after red flag stop
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
