ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins secured his long-awaited first win in Formula 2 this season with an assured and controlled drive during the Barcelona Sprint race.
Martins pounced at the start to take the lead from Kush Maini to lead his fellow Alpine prospect, while Juan Manuel Correa earned his first podium since his accident.
Maini endured a sluggish start from reverse grid pole position and lost four positions even prior to reaching Turn 1 as Martins accelerated into a lead he would retain.
The Indian driver managed to recompose and passed both Invicta team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto and Correa to recover back up to third place on the race’s second tour.
Paul Aron would put Correa under even more pressure as he attempted to squeeze around the DAMS driver’s outside through Turn 5 on the third lap without success.
Hadjar attempted to throw his Campos down the inside of Kimi Antonelli at Turn 11 on Lap 4 for seventh, but the Mercedes Junior Driver held off the Red Bull Junior.
Antonelli again kept the Frenchman behind through Turn 7 on Lap 5 as the Italian bid to maintain speed with Aron ahead to avoid becoming vulnerable to cars behind.
The battle would continue at Turn 1 on the sixth lap, as Hadjar threw his Campos Racing car down the inside of Antonelli, which the Prema driver blocked once more.
Ritomo Miyata had climbed two positions to second and posted the fastest lap on the seventh lap to bridge the gap to race leader Martins to under an entire second.
Oliver Bearman was enduring a nightmare outing again in 2024 and on the seventh lap he was pushed down to 17th as Rafael Villagomez shoved him wide at Turn 1.
Martins was starting to accelerate clear come the ninth lap and had opened up a 1.3s margin over Miyata, as the Invicta Racing duo began their hunt for second spot.
Bearman was given his third track limit warning as he fell to 21st on Lap 11, losing two places to Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi and Trident’s Roman Stanek.
Meanwhile, Bearman’s Prema team-mate Antonelli was coming under more pressure from Hadjar and was made to cover the Red Bull prospect’s advances at Turn 4.
Having been tucked up behind the Prema since the start, the Frenchman made the long-awaited move stick into Turn 1 next time round and Crawford slipped through.
The top three remained unchanged going into Lap 15 as Martins continued to hold a 1.2s gap at the sharp end, with Maini 1.3s adrift from Miyata’s Rodin Motorsport.
Stanek, who was in 19th, was handed a five-second penalty over repeated track limit infringements, while Antonelli began to struggle more with degradation in eighth.
Miyata would be the next the stewards penalised as he exceeded track limits at Turn 13, leaving him vulnerable to losing a prized podium position and even a top five.
Hauger had closed up on the struggling Antonelli and a lock-up from the Italian at Turn 1 on Lap 18 opened a chance, but the Norwegian was too cautious to overtake.
Once again on the next lap, Hauger was tailing Antonelli’s rear but failed to make the overtake stick as the Mercedes protege was striving to hand onto a points finish.
A wheel-to-wheel duel between Bortoleto and Correa on Lap 20 saw the former lock-up at Turn 5 and that allowed Aron to creep within DRS range in the hunt for third.
Hauger managed to slip down Antonelli’s inside on Lap 21 to seize ninth position at least, but the MP Motorsport racer was warned about infringing track limits again.
By Lap 23, Martins pulled 3.3s away from Miyata as he got caught up in the battle for third place between the Invicta Racing duo, Correa and the championship leader.
Aron closed the gap on Correa to two-tenths and sized up the DAMS driver going into Turn 1 on Lap 25, while a lock-up into Turn 5 from Maini put Bortoleto on his tail.
Correa aimed to capitalise on the antics ahead with a dive to Bortoleto’s inside at Turn 10 which sent the Brazilian wide and cost him spots to both Aron and Crawford.
Martins crossed the line to become a winner in F2 for the second time in his career and the first time this term with ART, with Miyata trailing 4.4s back in second place.
However, the Japanese driver’s time drop saw Maini inherit second to make it an Alpine 1-2, while Correa was promoted up to the rostrum for the first time since 2019.
Aron extended his championship advantage with fourth place, with Crawford completing the top five, Bortoleto clung onto sixth as Hauger came home in seventh spot.
Miyata’s penalty dropped him down to eighth place, meaning he recorded a single point. However, he did set the race’s fastest lap to pick up an additional bonus point.
