Andrea Kimi Antonelli was in a class of one as he managed the soaking Silverstone track to register his first Formula 2 win.
With rain on the immediate horizon, the safety car led the field for the formation lap before handing control to Antonelli as the Prema driver officially began the race with a rolling start.
Keen to build on his sprint race success in Austria, Oliver Bearman immediately began to show his nose either side of Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who was himself being balked by the DAMS of Jak Crawford.
Contact with Bortoleto into Brooklands on the first lap saw Bearman lose a front wing endplate, freeing the former to attack Crawford over fourth, a move that was completed shortly after at Copse.
The damage appeared to have an immediate impact for Bearman as the predicted deluge came – the recently announced Haas driver for 2025 dropping to the rear of the top 10 by the end of the second tour.
With conditions worsening and visibility reduced to almost nothing, the virtual safety car was deployed as lap three began – although this was to allow for the recovery of Bearman’s endplate, not due to the conditions. By this time, Antonelli had established a 3.4s lead over former championship leader Zane Maloney (Rodin).
Half a lap after racing had resumed, the safety car was scrambled before, just moments later, the red flags were displayed. This time, it was the conditions that were to blame.
The field filed out of the pits after a pause of 14 minutes. Although the rain had eased, teams were already warning of further heavy rain on its way.
At the end of two laps behind the safety car, control was once again handed to Antonelli, who backed up the field along the Hangar Straight and through Stowe, before hitting the throttle on the short run to Vale.
As Antonelli again pulled clear, the battling Invicta pair of Kush Maini and Bortoleto went wheel to wheel over third place, taking pressure off Maloney.
But the racing was again paused on lap eight as the safety car was deployed after a collision involving Pepe Marti (Campos) and Paul Aron (Hitech) – the former piling into the back of the championship leader who had been forced offline and had slowed with severe wheelspin. It is the first time this season that Aron has failed to finish.
In a separate incident, Isack Hadjar, second in the standings going into the race, retired with his Campos in the gravel at Copse after making an individual error.
On lap 13 of 21 and with less than 15 minutes remaining on the clock, racing resumed once again.
Quietly making progress, Victor Martins – who will start the feature race from second on Sunday – had gained positions on every restart but tangled with his ART team-mate Zak O’Sullivan at The Loop while attempting a move around the outside for sixth on lap 16. At the same time, Bearman pulled off the track with a reliability problem.
Restarting with four minutes to go, Antonelli was able to stroke it home with Maloney over five seconds back. Bortoleto, who passed Maini with a stunning final-corner move, was third. With the Brazilian having gone over the white lines to complete the move, the incident was swiftly noted by the stewards.
Following a post-race investigation, Bortoleto was handed a five-second penalty, an outcome that reversed the positions and promoted Maini up to third.
Bortoleto moves to 91 points and Maloney to 83, although despite both failing to finish Aron and Hadjar remain at the top of the standings on 117 and 108 points respectively. Antonelli moves up to eighth, one point clear of Maini.
Silverstone - Sprint race
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| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Pits | Points | Retirement | Bonus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam |
4 | 21 |
- |
1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |  Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport |
5 | 21 |
+8.600 8.6 |
8.600 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
|
10 | 21 |
+10.800 10.8 |
2.200 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 |  K. Maini Invicta Racing |
9 | 21 |
+11.200 11.2 |
0.400 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |  F. Colapinto MP Motorsport |
12 | 21 |
+18.000 18.0 |
6.800 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 |  J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil |
7 | 21 |
+18.700 18.7 |
0.700 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 |  D. Hauger MP Motorsport |
11 | 21 |
+20.100 20.1 |
1.400 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 |  R. Staněk Trident |
23 | 21 |
+20.900 20.9 |
0.800 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 |
T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing
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25 | 21 |
+21.300 21.3 |
0.400 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 |  R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport |
6 | 21 |
+24.200 24.2 |
2.900 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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