Bortoleto’s lead down to half a point as penalty hands win to Aron in Losail

Paul Aron finally secured his first Formula 2 victory after Gabriel Bortoleto lost victory with a penalty in a dramatic Losail feature race.

Sauber-bound Bortoleto had been in position to win but was hit with a five-second time penalty for an infringement at the pit lane entrance earlier in the race.

Bortoleto finished first but fell to third behind Aron and Hadjar after his penalty was applied. Aron therefore picked up his first victory in the championship.

After the F1 Academy race was cancelled following damage to the barriers caused by the Porsche Carrera Cup race, the start of the F2 feature race was also delayed for more than 10 minutes while work continued on the barriers at the final corner.

When the race finally began, pole winner Aron made a sluggish start which allowed championship leader Bortoleto to take the lead into turn one. Aron held onto second place, with Ferrari junior driver Dino Beganovic moving to third in his first F2 feature race.

The top six drivers had started on medium compound tyres, with Kush Maini in seventh and Oliver Bearman in eighth the highest placed drivers on the hard tyres. Maini dropped down the order to 11th, putting sprint race winner Bearman in a strong position among a sea of medium-shod runners.

Sixth-placed Jak Crawford was the first driver called in to pit at the end of lap six, the earliest permitted lap by the regulations. Aron was running behind leader Bortoleto and pitted first of the pair. But when Andrea Kimi Antonelli pulled off track with damaged steering, after he was hit by Richard Verschoor in the pit lane, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.

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Bortoleto attempted to enter the pit lane, but with mandatory pit stops not counting under VSC conditions, he was encouraged to stay out by Invicta. He abandoned his pit attempt, but had already passed the pit entry bollard on his left which committed him to coming in.

The VSC was upgraded to a full Safety Car, allowing Bortoleto to pit on the next lap and resume ahead of Aron in seventh as the highest-placed driver to have pitted. Bearman took over the lead of the race, ahead of Joshua Duerksen, Maini, Max Esterson, Luke Browning and Pepe Marti, who were all yet to stop on hard tyres.

The race resumed at the start of lap 13 with Bearman leading Duerksen, Maini and Esterson. Duerksen attempted to pass for the lead into turn one, but Bearman resisted, holding him off through the first corner.

Bortoleto was hit with a five-second time penalty for failing to pit despite passing to the right of the pit entry bollard, then ran wide at the exit of turn one and hit the polystyrene 100 metre board on the left. The Safety Car was then deployed again before the end of the restart lap when Rafael Villagomez spun into retirement following a clash with Crawford, while Verschoor was handed a 10-second penalty by the stewards following his unsafe release from the pit lane.

The race restarted on lap 17, but Bearman locked up entering the final corner and ran wide, with Duerksen taking the restart in the lead. Duerksen was encouraged to give the position back to Bearman but as he did so exiting turn one, he lost two further places to Maini and Browning.

Bortoleto moved up sit behind team mate Maini in fourth place, who was still yet to stop. Even though Invicta asked Maini to move aside for his team mate, Maini only yielded when he pulled into the pit lane at the end of the lap to make his stop for medium rubber.

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The delays and the Safety Car interventions meant the race was now running to a time limit. Bearman and Duerksen continued to run on their old hard tyres, the Prema driver five seconds ahead out front. Bortoleto caught Duerksen and eventually passed him into turn one to gain second place, with Aron following by on the next lap.

Bearman finally pitted with just under three minutes remaining, handing the lead to Bortoleto. But Bortoleto’s five second penalty hung over him and put him vulnerable to both Aron behind and championship rival Hadjar in third.

As hard as Bortoleto pushed, he could not pull out the gap he needed to finish ahead of championship rival Hadjar. Aron picked up the win when he crossed the line 1.8 seconds behind Bortoleto, while Hadkar only narrowly stayed within five seconds of his rival to demote him to third.

Oliver Goethe finished fourth ahead of Beganovic with Christian Mansell in sixth. Amaury Cordeel was seventh ahead of newcomer John Bennett. Zane Maloney was ninth in his last Formula 2 race with Ritomo Miyata claiming the final point in tenth. Bearman finished 12th after leading for the majority of the race.

The result gives Bortoleto a half-point lead over Hadjar in the championship heading into the final round of the season next weekend in Yas Marina. Aron retains a slim mathematical chance of clinching the title, 25.5 points off Bortoleto.

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Formula 2 Qatar race two results

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Formula 2

• F2 shows F1 may change drivers’ penalties when races finish behind the Safety Car
• Bearman wins Losail sprint race as Hadjar blows chance to take points lead
• Aron beats Bortoleto to Losail pole as Beganovic bags fourth on his debut
• New F1 race director Marques will also run F2 races in Qatar
• Verschoor wins, Bortoleto takes points lead as crash disrupts Baku feature race

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