Spanish GP: Bearman cruises to feature race victory as Martins charges to third
4th June 2023Prema’s Oliver Bearman cruised to victory in the F2 feature race, with minimal contest from Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi, while ART’s Victor Martins charged through the field to a third-place finish.
How the race unfolded…
It was a great launch from Bearman who dove to the inside line to protect the all-important line, from the likes of Dam’s Ayumu Iwasa and Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi as the three drivers went side-by-side into turn one. In a challenge for the lead, Bearman closed the door on Fittipaldi who had to take evasive action and go through the escape road.
In a similar manner to Formula 3, Fittipaldi kept his foot to the floor as he followed the race directors instructions through the escape road and returned to the track side-by-side to Bearman.
In the end, Bearman remained out in front ahead of Fittipaldi and Iwasa, but on the run down to turn five ART’s Theo Pourchaire overtook Iwasa into turn five to move up into second place
At the end of the first lap, both Isack Hadjar and Clement Novalak pitted for a fresh set of tyres, the latter had a puncture, but as it was so early on the duo would need to complete another pit stop. Hadjar was later given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
On lap 10, the front runners of Pourchaire, Iwasa and Van Amersfort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa pitted to get rid of their worn soft tyres for the hard set. Fittipaldi, Prema’s Dennis Hauger and Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan pitted a lap later for the same of tyres as those before.
The race leader finally pitted from the race, at the end of lap 13, to exchange his used softs for the hard compounds. Fortunately, Bearman was able to rejoin the circuit down in 12th but in the net-race lead.
Due to Bearman’s pit stop, it meant ART’s Victor Martins inherited the race lead ahead of Prema’s Frederik Vesti and Hitech’s Jak Crawford who were in second and third, and on the same hard compound tyres they started on.
On lap 24, the hard tyre runners of VAR’s Richard Verschoor and Crawford peeled into the pit lane to complete their mandatory stop and change their hards for the soft compound tyres. This was quickly followed by Vesti who pitted for his soft tyres a lap later and feeded back into ninth from second.
Martins followed suit and pitted on lap 26 to yield the race lead back to Bearman, the ART driver returned down in fifth place.
With three laps to go, the drivers on the alternate strategy – Martins and Vesti – began to threaten the final podium positions. On lap 35, Martins made a move to obtain the final podium-awarding spot on Iwasa into turn one. While Iwasa defended his track position from Vesti behind, it allowed Martin to gather breathing space.
On the final lap, Bearman cruised to victory ahead of Fittipaldi and Martins who finished in second and third respectively while fifth-placed Vesti struggled to pass Iwasa who remained fourth.
Podium:
- Oliver Bearman, Prema
- Enzo Fittipaldi, Carlin
- Victor Martins, ART
That’s it for the article: Spanish GP: Bearman cruises to feature race victory as Martins charged to third!
Read more Formula Two here:
- Monaco GP: Vesti secures F2 feature race win as Doohan brings out red flag
- Monaco GP: Iwasa secures sprint win after Hadjar suffers problems
- Azerbaijan GP: Bearman walks to F2 win after chaotic final restart
- F2 Saudi Arabia GP: Iwasa controls sprint race after early move
- F2 Bahrain Feature Race: Pourchaire dominates first feature race of 2023
- F2 2023 Bahrain: Boschung secures maiden win comfortably ahead of Hauger
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