Campos Racing’s Red Bull Junior Isack Hadjar took back-to-back FIA Formula 2 Feature Race wins with victory at Imola.
Hadjar overcame a late onslaught from Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoeleto as Joshua Durksen made history for Paraguay with his maiden podium after graduating from FRECA.
Prema’s Oliver Bearman had a race to forget, stalling twice in the pits after leading early on.
Saturday’s Sprint saw Argentine Franco Colapinto take his maiden F2 victory with a tough move on the final lap and he lined up ninth on Sunday’s Feature Race grid.
Invicta’s McLaren Development Driver Bortoleto was in the pound seat on pole, sharing the front row with Bearman and sporting a tribute helmet to fellow Brazillian Ayrton Senna.
Hadjar was caught in the multi-car pileup at the start of Saturday’s Sprint and looked for better starting from third in the Feature, sharing the second row with teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who had a terrible getaway at lights out on Saturday.
Championship leader Zane Maloney was poised to compete from sixth on the grid.
Bortoelto didn’t get an optimal launch at lights out with Bearman snatching the holeshot ahead of Hadjar and Joshua Durksen.
Antonelli had a stronger start than Saturday but still dropped down one place to fifth at the start of the 35-lap race.
Thankfully, the field behaved better than they did at the start of Saturday’s sprint and a crash was avoided at lights out.
Bearman had Hadjar and Durksen for close company as DRS was enabled on Lap 3, with just over a second covering the top three.
Tyre management was key as the front runners all elected to start on the softer option tyre.
Whoever could manage their tyres best ahead of pitting would be in prime position in the latter stint of the 35-lap race.
By Lap 6 Durksen had lost some ground on the two leaders and was called into pit and Hadjar ahead of him did the same.
They were joined by Maloney and Roman Stanek as the first gaggle of runners to switch tyres.
A lap later and Bearman and Borteleto came into pit, followed by Colapinto and Taylor Barnard.
It was a disaster stop for Bearman however as the British driver stalled twice, giving up several seconds and dropping him to 21st place.
Hadjar meanwhile took the net lead in P10 ahead of Borteleto, Durksen and Colapinto as Antonelli pitted on Lap 9.
It was a smoother stop for the second Prema driver and he emerged behind Borteleto but cold tyres meant Durksen was able to make quick work of passing the Prema driver.
This left Amaury Cordeel as the true race leader on Lap 10, winning the battle of drivers who started on the harder rubber.
However, the runners who started on the soft tyre, before switching to the hard option were poised to return to the front as Hadjar, net leader in seventh on Lap 12, was running the quickest pace of anyone on the circuit.
Hadjar enjoyed an approximate two-second margin ahead of Borteleto and the net lead duo enjoyed a near four-second margin ahead of Durksen.
Durksen himself had a cushion back to Antonelli by Lap 14, who had Colapino, and Paul Aron for company.
“He’s moving under braking,” came the frustrated call from Maloney over team radio as he struggled to fight past Stanek for 13th on the road on Lap 15.
Maloney was becoming impatient as he and Stanek were losing ground on Aron ahead and Jak Crawford joined in on what became a three-way fight for P13 on Lap 17.
“Man he’s weaving around,” claimed Barbadian Maloney as his frustration grew and Stanek’s pace waned.
However, Stanek’s Trident engineer’s encouraging words made apparent that as long as he could hold position down the start/finish straight, the likes of Maloney and Crawford behind would stay that way.
Stanek was holding up a train of cars by Lap 19, as his Trident team-mate Richard Verschoor and Dennis Hauger joined the group behind him.
Maloney’s unsuccessful pursuit of Stanek prompted Crawford to attack on Lap 20 and the DAMS driver took 14th away from the championship leader on the run between Tosa and Piratella.
Crawford wasn’t able to translate his move on Maloney to passing Stanek and further up the road Aron was experiencing the same, tucked in behind Colapinto in a fight for 11th on the road on Lap 24 of 35.
Stanek’s defence withered by Lap 25 as Crawford moved past the Trident to take 13th on the road as the top six remained out, yet to pit for the soft rubber.
Hadjar at this point sat poised in seventh, untroubled by Borteleto following closely behind as Durksen and Antonelli were driving comfortably in ninth and 10th respectively.
Cordeel was an intriguing proposition, running 6.5s clear of the rest of the field on Lap 28 and nearly 23s ahead of Hadjar in seventh on the alternate strategy.
Juan Manuel Correa was the first of the top six to pit at the end of Lap 29, going from third on pit entry and emerging in 13th place on the start of Lap 30.
Cordeel, Josep María Martí and Victor Martins pitted at the end of Lap 30 and all eyes were on the former of this trio to see where he would emerge.
But disaster, the right rear tyre came loose on Cordeel’s car and his race was ruined.
Martí also suffered a similar fate as botched stops turned two driver’s races upside down.
Amid the pit-lane drama, the fight for victory was on between Hadjar and Borteleto as Rafael Vilagomez pitted at long last at the end of Lap 32.
The stage was set for a three-lap battle for the win.
“Leave me alone,” Borteleto said to his engineer on the penultimate lap, as he fought to stay close to the back of Hadjar’s Campos machine.
Coming onto the final lap at Imola the DRS wasn’t enough for Borteleto to pass at Tamburello, but Hadjar had a tricky exit coming out of the chicane, giving hope to the Invicta driver behind.
The duo went nose to tail through Piratella, putting on a last-lap show for the Imola crowd.
Try as he might, Borteleto couldn’t get a move done and Hadjar held on to take a well-deserved victory.
But it was still a first podium finish for Borteleto, as it was for rookie Durksen some 13 seconds down the road, a first for a Paraguayan driver in F2 and the first points for his team AIX Racing.
Antonelli finished fourth to equal his best result in F2, with Sprint winner Colapinto completing the top five.
Aron finished 0.3s shy of Colapinto in sixth, gaining ground on Maloney in the championship fight as DAMS duo Crawford and Correa finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Martins executed the alternate strategy well to convert 22nd on the grid to ninth as Verschoor rounded out the top-10.
