Hadjar defends from Bortoleto to secure F2 victory in Emilia-Romagna Feature race
19th May 2024Campos’ Isack Hadjar defended superbly to keep Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto behind him and secure victory at the Emilia-Romagna Formula 2 feature race.
The French Campos driver won at the Imola circuit to secure back-to-back feature race victories following the sport’s last outing at Australia’s Albert Park.
As a result, it brings Hadjar closer to the top two drivers in the drivers standings. Following his win, he now trails Rodin’s Zane Maloney by nine points but remains four points behind Hitech’s Paul Aron.
It was a fairly well-behaved race out on track as the main problems seemed to be confined to the pit lane.
How the race unfolded…
Hadjar started third on the grid ahead of the feature race but soon found himself up into second place, behind Prema’s Oliver Bearman, after the pole-sitter Bortoleto suffered a poor start.
The Hitech driver comfortably sat in P2 until his pit stop, on lap six. Although Bearman pitted a lap later, the British driver stalled twice in his box and lost a significant amount of time as he returned to the circuit.
As a result, it meant Hadjar became the net-race leader ahead of Bortoleto and AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen.
It was a fairly quiet race for Hadjar as he and Bortoleto extended the gap to 12 seconds over Durksen, who ran net-third.
When the drivers on the alternate strategy pitted, from lap 30, it left Hadjar to battle it out for the race win with the Invicta driver.
Overall race leaders Amuary Cordeel and Josep Maria Marti retired from the race during their stops, on lap 31.
The Hitech team lifted Cordeel into the air, the driver spun up his rear wheels which left his rear-right tyre untightened. The loose tyre bounced off and hit Marti’s crew which delayed Campos’ left-rear mechanic from fitting the tyre correctly.
Cordeel and Marti retired with three wheels attached to their cars.
Although Bortoleto tried his best to dethrone the Hitech driver from the top spot, Hadjar managed to keep his closest rival at bay to secure victory. Bortoleto finished half a second behind the Frenchman as Durksen completed the podium 13.1 seconds behind the Invicta driver.
Read more Formula Two here:
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- Formula 2 unveil new generation of car ahead of 2024 season
- Novalak secures Dutch GP Feature Race as championship contenders retire
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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.
