2024 Sakhir Formula 2 round

The 2024 Sakhir FIA Formula 2 round was a motor race held between 29 February and 2 March 2024 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the first race of the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship and was being held in support of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

  2024 Sakhir Formula 2 round

Round details
Round 1 of 14 in the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Layout of the Bahrain International Circuit
Location	Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir, Bahrain
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.412 km (3.363 mi)
Sprint Race
Date 1 March 2024 Laps 23 Podium First Zane Maloney Rodin Motorsport Second Jak Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil Third Pepe Martí Campos Racing Fastest lap Driver Enzo Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing Time 1:45.833 (on lap 23)
Feature Race
Date 2 March 2024 Laps 33 Pole position Driver Gabriel Bortoleto Invicta Racing Time 1:41.915 Podium First Zane Maloney Rodin Motorsport Second Pepe Martí Campos Racing Third Paul Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight Fastest lap Driver Dennis Hauger MP Motorsport Time 1:46.743 (on lap 17)

Rodin Motorsport driver Zane Maloney got off to a perfect start into the 2024 season as he won both races of the weekend, to become the third driver in the series' history after Felipe Drugovich and Oliver Bearman to do so.

Report

Background

The round saw the competitive début of the new Dallara F2 2024 chassis. The F2 2024 was introduced to replace the Dallara F2 2018 chassis which had been used since 2018.

Team changes

New Zealand automotive manufacturer Rodin Cars took over Carlin and renamed the team Rodin Motorsport, after previously becoming majority shareholder in 2023.^[1]

Virtuosi Racing was entered under the moniker Invicta Racing after watchmaker Invicta deepened its involvement with the team, having been its title sponsor in 2023.^[2]

Driver changes

Reigning driver's champion Théo Pourchaire left ART Grand Prix and the series, as the category's sporting regulations disallow such title defenses. The previous year's top four finishers – Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti, Jack Doohan, and Ayumu Iwasa – would all exit the series. Reigning FIA Formula 3 Championship champion Gabriel Bortoleto entered the championship with Invicta Racing, with Formula Regional European Championship champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli making his debut in the series for Prema Racing, and reigning Super Formula champion Ritomo Miyata joining Rodin Motorsport for his international motorsport debut with the support of Toyota Gazoo Racing.^[3][4][5]

Classification

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on 29 February 2024, at 16:55 local time (UTC+3).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Time/Gap	Grid SR	Grid FR
1	10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta Racing	1:41.915	10	1
2	20	Isack Hadjar	Campos Racing	+0.023	9	2
3	5	Zane Maloney	Rodin Motorsport	+0.067	8	3
4	11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+0.075	7	4
5	6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin Motorsport	+0.088	6	5
6	2	Zak O'Sullivan	ART Grand Prix	+0.099	5	6
7	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Van Amersfoort Racing	+0.155	4	7
8	1	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	+0.243	3	8
9	25	Taylor Barnard	PHM AIX Racing	+0.292	2	9
10	7	Jak Crawford	DAMS Lucas Oil	+0.372	1	10
11	21	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	+0.418	11	11
12	17	Paul Aron	Hitech Pulse-Eight	+0.425	12	12
13	8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS Lucas Oil	+0.454	13	13
14	15	Rafael Villagómez	Van Amersfoort Racing	+0.4771	14	14
15	12	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	+0.4771	15	15
16	22	Richard Verschoor	Trident	+0.729	16	16
17	4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Prema Racing	+0.778	17	17
18	3	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	+0.795	18	18
19	16	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech Pulse-Eight	+1.030	19	19
20	23	Roman Staněk	Trident	+1.153	20	20
21	24	Joshua Dürksen	PHM AIX Racing	+1.238	21	21
107% time: 1:49.049 (+7.134)
DSQ	9	Kush Maini	Invicta Racing	1:41.696	222	222
Source:[6][7][8]

Notes

• ^1 – Rafael Villagómez and Franco Colapinto set identical times in qualifying; Villagómez was classified ahead as he set his lap time earlier.
• ^2 – Kush Maini originally qualified first and claimed pole position for the feature race, but was subsequently disqualified after his car's undertray was found to be in violation of series regulations. He was allowed to compete in the races at the stewards' discretion.^[9]

Sprint race

The sprint race was held on 1 March 2024, at 17:15 local time (UTC+3).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Zane Maloney	Rodin Motorsport	23	42:13.726	8	10 (1)
2	7	Jak Crawford	DAMS Lucas Oil	23	+5.490	1	8
3	21	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	23	+7.057	11	6
4	20	Isack Hadjar	Campos Racing	23	+9.783	9	5
5	17	Paul Aron	Hitech Pulse-Eight	23	+18.188	12	4
6	10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta Racing	23	+18.320	10	3
7	2	Zak O'Sullivan	ART Grand Prix	23	+20.135	5	2
8	11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	23	+21.032	7	1
9	6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin Motorsport	23	+21.490	6
10	22	Richard Verschoor	Trident	23	+21.839	16
11	1	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	23	+23.840	3
12	8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS Lucas Oil	23	+26.833	13
13	9	Kush Maini	Invicta Racing	23	+27.246	22
14	4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Prema Racing	23	+30.260	17
15	24	Joshua Dürksen	PHM AIX Racing	23	+35.257	21
16	3	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	23	+36.247	18
17	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Van Amersfoort Racing	23	+56.183	4
18	12	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	23	+1:04.819	15
19	15	Rafael Villagómez	Van Amersfoort Racing	23	+1:31.5581	14
DNF	23	Roman Staněk	Trident	19	Retired	20
DNF	25	Taylor Barnard	PHM AIX Racing	16	Brakes	2
DNF	16	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech Pulse-Eight	0	Collision damage	19
Fastest lap set by Enzo Fittipaldi: 1:45.833 (lap 23)
Source:[6][10]

Notes

• ^1 – Rafael Villagómez received a ten-second penalty post-race for causing a collision with Amaury Cordeel. His final position was not affected by the penalty.^[11]

Feature race

The feature race was held on 2 March 2024, at 13:30 local time (UTC+3).

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Zane Maloney	Rodin Motorsport	32	1:02:46.435	3	25
2	21	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	32	+4.621	11	18
3	17	Paul Aron	Hitech Pulse-Eight	32	+11.7811	12	15
4	2	Zak O'Sullivan	ART Grand Prix	32	+12.523	6	12
5	10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta Racing	32	+12.591	1	10 (2)
6	12	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	32	+13.609	15	8
7	9	Kush Maini	Invicta Racing	32	+14.719	22	6
8	11	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	32	+16.002	4	4 (1)
9	6	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin Motorsport	32	+16.272	5	2
10	4	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Prema Racing	32	+20.405	17	1
11	24	Joshua Dürksen	PHM AIX Racing	32	+24.035	21
12	15	Rafael Villagómez	Van Amersfoort Racing	32	+29.5321	14
13	23	Roman Staněk	Trident	32	+31.193	20
14	22	Richard Verschoor	Trident	32	+33.7022	17
15	3	Oliver Bearman	Prema Racing	32	+51.135	18
16	25	Taylor Barnard	PHM AIX Racing	32	+58.999	9
DNF	1	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	17	Engine	8
DNF	7	Jak Crawford	DAMS Lucas Oil	16	Stalled	10
DNF	16	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech Pulse-Eight	14	Collision damage	19
DNF	8	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS Lucas Oil	6	Transmission	13
DNF	20	Isack Hadjar	Campos Racing	0	Collision	2
DNF	14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Van Amersfoort Racing	0	Collision	7
Fastest lap set by Dennis Hauger: 1:46.743 (lap 17)
Source:[6][12]

Notes:

• ^1 – Paul Aron and Rafael Villagómez both received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. However, their final positions were not affected by their penalties.
• ^2 – Richard Verschoor originally finished thirteenth, but received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him down to fourteenth in the final classification.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Zane Maloney 36 2 Pepe Martí 24 3 Paul Aron 19 4 Gabriel Bortoleto 15 5 Zak O'Sullivan 14

Teams' Championship standings Pos. Team Points 1 Rodin Motorsport 38 2 Campos Racing 29 3 Invicta Racing 21 4 Hitech Pulse-Eight 19 5 ART Grand Prix 14

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also

• 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
• 2024 Sakhir Formula 3 round