Sauber Academy Driver Zane Maloney completed a fine performance from eighth on the grid to take his maiden Formula 2 victory in Friday’s Bahrain Sprint for the Rodin Motorsport team.
Reverse grid polesitter Jake Crawford held onto a podium finish in second for DAMS and rookie driver and Red Bull Junior Josep María Marti took a fine third for Campos Racing.
Crawford got a good launch at lights out to snatch the holeshot and Zak O’Sullivan attempted to squeeze his way into second but failed to get past ART GP team-mate Victor Martins, with both drivers enjoying good starts.
That was the top three after the first of 23 laps with Enzo Fittipaldi and Zane Maloney rounding out the top 10, but a Virtual Safety Car kept the packed bunched up as Amaury Cordeel’s car was wheeled off of the road at Turn 4.
Front-row starter Taylor Barnard had a tricky start, falling back to 10th in his PHM AIX Racing machine.
The green flag flew once again at the start of Lap 3 and 2023 rookie of the year Martins harassed Crawford out at front.
The front five runners sought to stretch a gap from the rest of the pack, with Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar tagging along in a not-too-distant sixth.
A frenetic exchange with Maloney and Fittipaldi saw the former snatch fourth and then charge after O’Sullivan to take third into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 4.
The Rodin driver then set the fastest lap as he tagged onto the back of second-place Martins.
After five laps, it was a three-way fight for the lead between Crawford, Martins and Maloney and a three-way battle for fourth between Fittipaldi, Hadjar and O’Sullivan, who was feeling the effect of starting on the hard rubber, dropping further still as the laps ticked by.
Maloney was the man on the move, having snatched second from Martins, the Barbadian driver was setting his sights on leader Crawford on Lap 7, passing the American a lap later on the exit of Turn 4.
Had Crawford won his soft rubber too far in the opening laps – that would be the question on his mind as Martins was stuck to the DAMS driver’s rear diffuser.
The two PREMA drivers, hotly tipped to be title contenders this year had been struggling with balance all weekend and despite it not being required in Sprints, both rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman languished toward the back of the order and elected to pit for new tyres, emerging in 18th and 19th respectively.
14 laps in and having fallen to the fringes of the top-10, hard tyre-clad O’Sullivan started to move forward, snatching eighth from soft-tyre runner Fittipaldi.
Meanwhile, third-placed Martins got all crossed up on Lap 15 in the Turn 5,6,7 sequence of corners and as the Frenchman came round to complete his fifteenth lap, Hadjar was right on his tail and completed a pass in the DRS zone on the run-down to Turn 4 on Lap 16.
Out front, Maloney enjoyed a comfortable margin over Crawford of approximately 3 seconds with Crawford in turn enjoying a six-second gap back to third-placed Hadjar.
Martins’ woes continued and he found himself being passed by another Red Bull junior on Lap 18, namely Campos Racing rookie Martí.
Martí then found himself in a battle for the final podium place with fellow Campos and Red Bull Junior driver Hadjar with the latter struggling with front tyre wear.
Martí snatched third into third at Turn 1 on Lap 20, but Hadjar fought valiantly throughout the first sector, but to no avail as he resigned himself to fourth.
Things went from bad to worse at this point for Martins, falling back into the midfield, losing fifth place with several runners close behind as the field came around to start Lap 21.
Maloney comfortably took a controlled maiden win, passing the chequered flag with a plus-five-second advantage over Crawford and Martí finished a second and a half further back, having converted an 11th-place starting spot into a podium finish.
Hadjar held onto fourth and full-season rookie Paul Aron took fifth for Hitech, fending off fellow rookie and Invicta Racing driver Gabriel Bortoleto.
McLaren Junior Bortoleto had fought his way through a train of cars late on and cleared seventh-placed O’Sullivan by 1.8 seconds.
MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger claimed the final points-paying position in eighth, with reigning Super Formula Champion Ritomo Miyata taking ninth for Rodin.
Trident’s Richard Verschoor completed the top-10.
PREMA’s difficult day saw Antonelli finish in 14th and Bearman in 16th.
Formula 2 action continues with the Feature Race on Saturday which commences at 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT).
