After ending Friday’s qualifying in tenth, Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini (MAI) will start Saturday’s Sprint Race on pole under reverse grid conditions. The Indian driver, who took second and sixth place in the sprint and feature races in Barcelona, will line up alongside Prema Racing’s Oliver Bearman (BEA) who starts the Austrian Sprint in P2. The Ferrari reserve driver, who made his Formula 1 debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in place of Carlos Sainz, currently sits seventeenth in the Formula 2 Drivers Championship. His team, Prema Racing, has been struggling with the car all season and is the only team in Formula 2 that has not yet seen a driver on the podium this season.
The drivers are currently on the grid, awaiting the beginning of the formation lap. Conditions are warm and sunny with a track temperature of 48.2 degrees Celsius and an air temperature of 30.4 degrees Celsius. The formation lap gets underway as the drivers make their way around the tyre, on the soft tyres. The drivers have now returned to the grid and taken their places on the starting grid.
It’s light out at the Red Bull Ring as the Formula 2 Sprint Race gets underway in Spielberg, Austria. Bearman has a good launch off the line and takes the lead into Turn 1. He gets away quickly as a three-wide fight behind him sees Campos Racing’s Pepe Martí (MAR) take second place and pole-sitter, Maini falls to third. Behind them, Martí’s teammate, Isack Hadjar (HAD) falls to tenth from his fourth-place starting position. Martí and Maini have been noted for their early collision.
“No further investigation” is the decision made.
Into Lap 4, Bearman continues to extend his lead over Martí. He is now over two seconds ahead of the Campos Racing driver. Maini, in P3, is a second behind Martí.
As the drivers get into Lap 7, Martí closes in on Bearman. Behind them, Paul Aron (ARO) of Hitech Pulse-Eight defends well against Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto (BOR). He launches a challenge on Taylor Barnard and manages to get ahead of the AIX Racing driver. Aron is now up to fourth.
He continues to close in on Bearman and as the drivers get into Lap 8, Martí gets up to about 0.8 seconds behind Bearman. Behind him, Maini also closes the gap to within a second. Now within DRS, Martí increases his challenge on Bearman.
Now into Lap 9, Bortoleto gets past Barnard and takes fifth position. Martí still within DRS of Bearman but the English driver has, so far, successfully against any challenges.
At the end of Lap 10, the standings are BEA, JMA, MAI, ARO, BOR, BAR, COL, DUR, HAU, OSU, CRA, HAD, VMA, ANT, FIT, VER, JCO, ACO, STA, MIY, VIL, MAL. Paul Aron set the best lap time of 1:19.048 in Lap 7.
Into the eleventh lap, Franco Colapinto of MP Motorsport gets up to sixth after a Turn 3 pass on Barnard. Three laps late, Joshua Dürksen gets ahead of teammate Barnard to take seventh. Barnard appears to be somewhat struggling and has been losing time with each lap. MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger (HAU) eventually gets ahead of Barnard at Turn 3 in the sixteenth lap to take the final points position in the Sprint Race.
The drivers are now in the management phase of the race, though some challenges are being attempted. One of these is a challenge on Barnard by ART Grand Prix’s Zak O’Sullivan (OSU). O’Sullivan gets around Barnard at Turn 4 to move himself into ninth. Jak Crawford of DAMS Lucas Oil makes an attempt for ninth place by going around the outside of Barnard at Turn 6. Barnard, however, defends well. Into Lap 20, Crawford again challenges Barnard. He gets ahead in Turn 4.
At the end of Lap 20, the standings are BEA, JMA, MAI, ARO, BOR, COL, DUR, HAU, OSI, CRA, BAR, HAD, BMA, FIT, ANT, VER, JCO, ACO, MIY, MAL, STA, VIL. Aron retains the best lap time of the race thus far with his 1:19.048 set in Lap 7.
In the twenty-first lap, Paul Aron has a successful challenge on Maini. The championship leader gets ahead of the Invicta Racing driver. Maini goes side by side with his teammate, Bortoleto, but Bortoleto gets ahead. Maini drops from P3 to P5 and is on the radio complaining about contact between himself and Aron. Victor Martins (VMA) of ART Grand Prix is shown a black and white flag for track limit violations.
Hauger gets ahead of Dürksen and up into seventh place in the twenty-fourth lap, after a successful pass on the AIX Racing driver at the third corner.
Martí has been challenging Bearman throughout the race. Bearman has defended well throughout the race and retains the leadership into the twenty-sixth lap. He falls out of DRS range to Bearman in Lap 27. Behind him, however, Aron is under pressure from Bortoleto. Further back, Hauger goes through, past Maini.
Into the final lap of the race, Bearman retains the lead. Bortoleto continues to challenge Aron. Behind them, an incident with Colapinto sees a yellow flag briefly brought out in Sector 2. Colapinto and Hauger go side by side. Hauger gets ahead into fifth place but Colapinto spins, dropping him down to eleventh.
The green flag is brought back out as the drivers finish the race. Bearman is the first across the line. This is the Prema driver’s first podium and first race win of the season. Martí is second across the line to secure P2, and Aron holds on to P3 despite Bortoleto’s challenges. The Invicta Racing driver finishes in P4, three places ahead of teammate Maini who spent most of the race in third position.
The final standings: BEA, JMA, ARO, BOR, HAU, CRA, MAI, DUR, OSU, VMA, COL, BAR, HAD, FIT, ANT, JCO, MAL, ACO, VIL, VER, STA, MIY. The best lap time of 1:18.708 was set on Lap 25 by Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata.
