Williams Academy Driver Franco Colapinto made a last-lap pass on Hitech’s Paul Aron to take his maiden FIA Formula 2 race victory in the Imola Sprint.
After stalking Aron for the majority of the race an elbows out move at Tamburello gained the Argentine MP Motorsport driver his first F2 win in just the fourth round of his rookie season.
Championship leader Zane Maloney completed the podium amid several runners crashing out at the start.
After a plethora of laps were reinstated post-qualifying, Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel lined up on the reverse grid pole for the 25-lap Formula 2 Sprint at Imola.
A delayed start meant proceedings got underway at 14:22 local time and Colapinto was poised to challenge Cordeel from second on the grid in his MP Motorsport machine.
Sauber Academy Driver Maloney lined up fifth for Rodin, with Prema’s Formula 1 prospects Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Ollie Bearman lining up sixth and eighth respectively.
Having set the fastest effort in qualifying Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto lined up 10th for the Sprint.
There was a nervy moment for Antonelli as he had a sluggish getaway on the formation lap, but the Italian was able to get things collected to ensure he made the start.
Colapinto had a terrible start from second as Aron leapfrogged from the second row to lead Hitech team-mate Cordeel, but there was absolute chaos behind with a multi-car pile-up heading into the opening chicane.
Unsurpringly the Safety Car was deployed with several cars stricken or hobbling around the Imola circuit.
Roman Stanek, Isack Hadjar, Enzo Fittipaldi, Joshua Durksen and Dennis Hauger were all caught in the incident and saw their races end early.
The replays show Hadjar’s failed attempt to pass Stanek set off a chain reaction that caused the gaggle of runners to crash out in dramatic fashion.
A massive benefactor from the incident was Bortoleto, who luckily carved his way through the chaos by the skin of his teeth after passing a slow-starting Antonelli to find himself in sixth.
Antonelli meanwhile slipped to 12th at lights out, effectively going backwards with a botched launch.
After five laps the Safety Car was due to come to an end with Aron leading Cordeel, Colapinto, Maloney, Bearman and Bortoelto back to green.
Aron pulled the pin early and caught the rest of the field sleeping to lead by nearly nine-tenths of the second across the line to start Lap 6.
Cordeel went wide on the exit of Rovazza at the end of Lap 6 to concede second to Colapinto and then found himself having to defend against Maloney.
Meanwhile, Aron was flying out in front, two seconds up the road with the fastest lap in his pocket on Lap 7.
With second secured, Colapinto sought to reel Aron in and cut three-tenths into the Hitech driver’s advantage at the first time of asking.
Aron didn’t look like he had the pace, losing more time to Colapinto on Lap 9 amid a fastest lap for Cordeel aboard the second Hitech machine in third.
But the race leader responded, wrestling back the fastest lap to keep the gap behind to approximately 1.8s with 15 laps to go.
Colapinto however, was desperate to fight for a race win in his rookie F2 season with fellow rookie Aron, pulling within DRS range on Lap 13.
Cordeel was struggling at this point, dropping pace having possibly taken too much out of his tyres and holding up a train of Maloney, Bearman, Borteleto, Taylor Barnard and Richard Verschoor.
As Lap 15 came around Aron and Colapinto were nose to tail and a two-way tussle for the win was well and truly on.
With 10 laps to go Cordeel and Maloney had managed to break away slightly from Bearman and Bortoelto behind with the top six having split into three pairs of battles.
Overtaking options were limited with the single DRS zone at Imola and with five laps to go the top runners were all holding position.
Maloney was the first one to pull the pin, pulling around the outside of Cordeel to take third place at the first part of the Tamburello chicane on Lap 23.
Colapinto launched a renewed challenge for victory on the penultimate lap, trying to close the gap to Aron in front.
The Argentine used DRS on the final lap and toughed it out around the outside of Tamburello to force himself into the lead.
Colapinto held on to take his first F2 victory ahead of an aggrieved Aron, who’d led from the start and was unhappy with the Argentine’s move to take the win.
Maloney did well to take his fourth podium of the season ahead of polesitter Cordeel in fourth.
Bearman resisted Borteleto’s advances on the final lap as the pair finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Barnard finished a fine seventh with Verschoor, Kush Maini and Zak O’Sullivan completing the top-10.
