Race report

F2 Spain: Martins ends F2 victory drought as Correa returns to podium

Victor Martins rediscovered his 2023 F2 form with a composed domination of the Barcelona sprint race.

Alpine Formula 1 Academy driver Victor Martins ended a victory drought by claiming his first win of the 2024 Formula 2 season following a dominant performance in the Barcelona sprint race.

Martins took the victory by 4.4s from Invicta polesitter Kush Maini, who dropped back to fifth in the opening exchanges. Juan Manuel Correa completed the podium after pulling off a late move on Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta), whose tyres had dropped off the cliff.

The podium for Correa came exactly five years to the date after his last rostrum visit in the series at the Paul Ricard Circuit. It is the latest step following his recovery from suffering multiple injuries in an horrific crash in Belgium in 2019.

Martins has endured some dreadful luck this season having entered the 2024 F2 campaign as the best-performing rookie in his maiden season. But his drive in the Spanish Grand Prix sprint race showed the ART driver’s full ability as he converted a second-place starting position.

A sign of his dominance was that he was hardly seen throughout the duration, as he gradually extended a lead with zero threat from behind.

It was a less positive day for Rodin driver Ritomo Miyata, who crossed the line in second but dropped to eighth after incurring a pair of five-second penalties for exceeding track limits.

The Japanese was far from alone in his track limits breaches, with Roman Stanek (Trident) and Zane Maloney (Rodin) both sanctioned, while Franco Colapinto, Dennis Hauger (both MP Motorsport) and Maloney, again, all subject to post-race investigations.

It was another day to forget for Prema as well, as both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman struggled, with the former finishing P10 and the latter dropping like a stone to the rear of the pack before pitting. He returned to the track and finished in P21, 41s off the pace.

In truth, the action was limited with cars quickly forming DRS trains and being forced to manage tyres due to the extremely high levels of degradation that are common on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Paul Aron (Hitech) maintained his championship lead with a fourth-place finish while his chief rival, Isack Hadjar (Campos) could manage only seventh.

Maloney’s slide down drivers’ standings continued as the once championship leader came home in P19.

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	V. Martins ART Grand Prix	1	26	-
2	K. Maini Invicta Racing	9	26	+4.400 4.4	4.400
3	J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil	8	26	+7.900 7.9	3.500
4	P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight	17	26	+8.600 8.6	0.700
5	J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil	7	26	+9.000 9.0	0.400
6	G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing	10	26	+10.700 10.7	1.700
7	I. Hadjar Campos Racing	20	26	+11.600 11.6	0.900
8	R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport	6	26	+12.600 12.6	1.000
9	D. Hauger MP Motorsport	11	26	+17.800 17.8	5.200
10	A. Kimi Prema Powerteam	4	26	+24.900 24.9	7.100
11	F. Colapinto MP Motorsport	12	26	+25.500 25.5	0.600
12	Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix	2	26	+25.900 25.9	0.400
13	J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing	24	26	+26.800 26.8	0.900
14	P. Martí Campos Racing	21	26	+27.400 27.4	0.600
15	R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing	15	26	+28.000 28.0	0.600
16	R. Verschoor Trident	22	26	+29.300 29.3	1.300
17	A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	26	+29.800 29.8	0.500
18	E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing	14	26	+31.700 31.7	1.900
19	Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport	5	26	+36.400 36.4	4.700
20	T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing	25	26	+38.300 38.3	1.900
21	O. Bearman Prema Powerteam	3	26	+41.400 41.4	3.100
22	R. Staněk Trident	23	26	+41.500 41.5	0.100
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