In Bahrain, Zane Maloney of Rodin Motorsport won the inaugural FIA Formula 2 Feature Race of 2024.
On his path to victory, the “Boy from Barbados” skillfully handled two Safety Car restarts.
Bridgetown native Maloney stormed from third on the starting grid to capture the lead at Turn 1, quickly edging off front-row competitors Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar.
Maloney has a commanding early lead in the championship after winning Friday’s first Sprint Race of the year.
On his F2 debut, Paul Aron of Hitech Pulse-Eight, another rookie, finished ahead of Pepe Martí of Campos Racing in second place.
Zane Maloney begins his championship run with a strong weekend.
Maloney’s explosive start, which propelled him from third to first on soft tyres, set up his race.
Pole-sitter Bortoleto was slow off the start, and Maloney and Hadjar tussled into Turn 1, with Maloney taking the lead. In the meantime, Bortoleto stopped Hadjar’s race by throwing him into a spin.
Due to his mistake, Brazilian Bortoleto received a 10-second time penalty.
Following a brief Safety Car phase, Maloney established a comfortable lead over Zak O’Sullivan of ART.
Richard Verschoor, a Dutch driver, demonstrated the new F2 car’s racing prowess by making several daring passes into the top 10.
We watched to see if the strategy would work as most of the competition was using the hard compound Pirelli tyres. It soon became clear that the soft tyres could provide good performance and durability.
On Lap 10, Victor Martins of ART was the first to remove the hard tyres, which propelled him up the order.
DAMS Jak Crawford of Lucas Oil was the first competitor using soft tyres to stop, however, his race ended when his engine failed and the crew was unable to restart it.
On Lap 18, Maloney pulled into the lead immediately before Martins experienced a mechanical issue that resulted in his losing the lead and necessitating the use of a second safety car.
With ten laps to go and O’Sullivan trailing on soft tyres, Maloney appeared to be under pressure. He was now running on the hard tyres.
However, the Barbadian completed the restart flawlessly, rapidly building a comfortable lead of 1.4 seconds that grew until the finish.
As O’Sullivan’s soft tyres suffered in the Bahraini heat, his prospects of finishing on the podium vanished, and in the last laps, Marti and Aron passed the Williams Academy driver.
However, nobody could compete with Maloney, who easily won his second match of the weekend.