Kush Maini achieved back-to-back podium finishes at the Sprint races at Albert Park after a podium at the Saudi Arabia GP the previous Race weekend.
Meanwhile, the young French driver Isack Hadjar demonstrated exceptional pace throughout the weekend by winning both the Sprint and Feature races on the track. Unfortunately, a penalty in the Sprint race resulted in him dropping to sixth place, allowing Maini to secure the podium spot.
Practice
Isack Hadjar was desperate to get his season kicked in after a disastrous start to the season with 3 DNFs in a row. Championship leader Zain Maloney was set to extend his points advantage whereas Kush Maini looked confident after big points in Jeddah finishing P2.
During Practice at Melbourne, MP Motorsport's Dennis Hauger recorded the fastest lap time of 1:29.654. Isack Hadjar from Campos Racing followed closely in P2, just 0.001 seconds behind the leader. Prema Racing's Andrea Kimi Antonelli took the third position, leading the charge for his team. While Maini manging a solid P6.
Qualifying
With two Red Flags, a long qualifying session ended with Dennis Hauger taking pole position in Melbourne for the Feature race after topping the session with a time of 1:28.694 closely followed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Richard Verschoor, and Kush Maini rounding up the top four. 10th fastest time for Roman Staněk meant he started the sprint race in the pole position
Sprint Race
During the race, Hadjar took the lead after a slow start, but he accidentally hit his teammate Josep María Martí while trying to pass pole-sitter Stanek. This caused Martí to collide with Gabriel Bortoleto, and both drivers were out of the race. As a result, the Safety Car was called on the opening lap.
On lap 10, Andrea Kimi Antonelli spun out, causing Richard Verschoor also to spin and Paul Aron to sustain front wing damage. Both Antonelli and Verschoor were out of the race, and the Safety Car was called once again.
On lap 15, Hadjar managed to pass Stanek once again and established a comfortable lead. He then set the fastest lap with seven laps to go and secured a three-second lead over the Trident driver, who was defending well from Maini.
On the penultimate lap, Hauger managed to overtake Maini, around the outside of the at Turn 9 to take third place. Maini followed in fourth ahead of Colapinto. But Hadjar was given a post-race penalty for his Lap 1 incident which made Roman Staněk the winner with Kush Maini promoted to the podium.
Feature Race
Dennis Hauger had a great start and managed to take the lead, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli following closely behind. Later in the first lap, Antonelli attempted to pass Hauger on the inside at Turn 11, which allowed him to take P1 for a short time. However, Hauger responded on the next lap and retook the lead at Turn 9 using the DRS.
There was a short virtual Safety Car on Lap 7 to remove Joshua Duerksen's car from the track. Once racing resumed, Maini, who had chosen to start the race on medium tires, quickly gained ground with his better tire condition. He managed to take the lead from Hauger on Lap 9, thanks to the use of DRS. Maini was on an alternate strategy compared to the other drivers, and it seemed to work very well for him, as he was able to put in some fast lap times. He appeared to be on the best strategy to win the race.
But on Lap 11 polesitter Dennis Hauger crashed out and brought the out safety car which was a disaster for Maini as his lead over the pack disappeared however the Invicta racing team decided not to bring him into the pits retaining track position as the team principal commented safety car killed their strategy. Maini finally pitted for soft tires with 2 laps to go and finished a disappointing 12th place against what could have been a race win.
“Finally a race winner of a Formula 2 Feature Race. It feels great to do it here in Melbourne especially, it’s such an amazing track. Really happy and see you in Imola!”
-Isack Hadjar
“Obviously I am always thinking, the better result I get, the more points I get. We are all fighting for a Championship. It is early, there are a lot of rounds to go. It is not in my mind exactly but you know the better result, the more points so you are aiming to improve every race and get the most out of it. We did that today and hopefully, we can do that tomorrow.”
- Dennis Hauger after Sprint race.
“For sure, yesterday should have been a podium. From my side, I made a big mistake which lost me lots of places. Happy to be back on, bit of a chaotic race. For sure the pace has been good all year so far. I think we have proved that in each round. It is cool to have a clean Feature Race”
-Zane Maloney
Up Next
Formula 2 heads to Imola, Italy next for Round 4 from 18-19 May. Keep an eye on our channels for a detailed schedule in IST. You can catch all the F2 action live in India on F1TV Pro or Fancode’s Annual Subscription.