Maloney secured first F2 win of 2024 in Bahrain Sprint

Rodin’s Zane Maloney secured his first win of 2024 as he charged to the front of the field during the Bahrain Formula 2 Sprint race. 

F2 returned and with its usual format, the top 10 drivers of Thursday’s qualifying session were reversed. This meant Jak Crawford took sprint pole position ahead of Victor Martins. 

It was a clean start from the front two drivers as Crawford maintained the race lead into the opening corner. Martins moved into second after a decent getaway under the initial acceleration phase. 

Out of the opening corners, the top three stood as; Crawford, Martins and Zak O’Sullivan. 

The race was soon neutralised on lap two as the Virtual Safety Car was deployed. It was found that Amaury Cordeel’s car was being pushed by the marshals up the track, leading to the endurance and outer track layouts. 

Cordeel’s retirement came as a result of contact with Villagomez, on the opening lap, who suffered a puncture and was forced to limp back to the pits. 

When the race resumed, on lap three, Martins put Crawford under immediate pressure, going wheel-to-wheel with Crawford into turn one. It looked as if Martins had the move done on the exit of turn two but Crawford retaliated and maintained the race lead.

O’Sullivan dropped down to fourth place by lap four after the driver opted for the alternate tyre strategy. The majority of the field had the soft tyres on but O’Sullivan – and a select few – ran the hards. 

Maloney, who slowly and quietly made his way through the sharp end of the field, took the race lead with a well-thought-out switchback on Crawford at turn 4 on lap eight.

On lap 16, Hadjar completed the move on Martins to put the Campos into third, behind both Maloney and Crawford. 

The Campos of Hadjar and Marti were third and fourth, respectively, on lap 20. In the latter stages of the race, Hadjar had complained that his tyres were destroyed, and Marti pounced into turn one. Hadjar was able to stay with his teammate but had to yield position into T4.

When the chequered flag fell,  Maloney took the first win of the season, as darkness shrouded the Bahrain Circuit, Crawford and Marti completed the podium in second and third respectively.