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

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.

   
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1 France V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 26

-

           
2 India K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 26

+4.400

4.4

4.400          
3 United States 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 United States 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 France I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 26

+11.600

11.6

0.900          
8 Japan R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 26

+12.600

12.6

1.000          
9 Norway D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 26

+17.800

17.8

5.200          
10 Italy A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam 4 26

+24.900

24.9

7.100          
11 Argentina F. Colapinto MP Motorsport 12 26

+25.500

25.5

0.600          
12 United Kingdom 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 Mexico R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 26

+28.000

28.0

0.600          
16 Netherlands R. Verschoor Trident 22 26

+29.300

29.3

1.300          
17 Belgium A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 26

+29.800

29.8

0.500          
18 Brazil E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 26

+31.700

31.7

1.900          
19 Barbados 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 United Kingdom O. Bearman Prema Powerteam 3 26

+41.400

41.4

3.100          
22 Czech Republic R. Staněk Trident 23 26

+41.500

41.5

0.100          
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