F2 Australia: Hadjar scores feature race win as Hauger crashes out

Having lost a win in Saturday’s opener to a post-race penalty, Campos driver Hadjar got redemption in the 33-lap contest on Sunday as he took the chequered flag by 4.4s from Paul Aron.

Hadjar had made little progress in the first-thirds of the race after starting from eighth on the grid, but a crash from polesitter Hauger on lap 11 went in his favour, allowing him to leapfrog a number of cars in pits and take an unlikely win.

At the start of the race, Hauger got a brilliant getaway from pole to lead into Turn 1, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Zane Maloney holding on to second and third respectively.

At Turn 12, Mercedes junior Antonelli made a bold pass on Hauger at Turn 12 to snatch the lead, but the MP Motorsport driver was able to retake the position at Turn 9 on lap 2.

As the race wore on, Kush Maini started showing his speed on the more durable medium tyres, moving up to fifth when Pepe Martin ran wide on lap 5 and overtaking both Richard Verschoor and Maloney on the following tour.

The Invicta driver was also able to make a pass on Antonelli for second, before breezing past Hauger at Turn 13 on lap 9 to sensationally claim the lead.

This triggered the mandatory round of pitstops, with Hauger leading a train of cars into the lane at the end of the 10th tour, leaving Maini, Hadjar and Juan Manuel Correa out in front.

But coming out of the pits, Hauger lost control of his MP Motorsport-run Dallara at Turn 6, likely due to an issue with the front left-tyre, smashing the barriers at the next left-hander and dropping immediately out of the race.

This led race control to show the VSC, before deploying a full safety car to assist with the recovery of his car.

It turned out to be the decisive moment of the race as Hadjar was already in the pitlane when the caution was announced. Losing less time relative to the competition who were crawling at VSC speeds, Hadjar rejoined the track ahead of Antonelli in seventh, effectively putting him in the lead.

At the restart, Hadjar not only kept Antonelli at bay but also managed to pass a number of cars ahead that were yet to pit, before easing to a dominant win and marking himself out as a title contender.

Aron snatched second place from Antonelli on lap 20, with Maloney also getting past him at Turn 9 later in the race to grab the final spot on the podium.

Toyota protege Ritomo Miyata scored yet another fifth-place finish at Albert Park for Rodin, leading Trident’s Richard Verschoor and the sole-surviving MP entry of Franco Colapinto.

Van Amersfoot’s Rafael Villagomez survived a wide moment on lap 19 to bag eighth, as Victor Martins completed a stunning recovery from the back of the grid to take ninth for ART.

Prema’s Oliver Bearman bagged his first point of the season in 10th despite completing a 360-degree spin coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap.

Maini, who led the race until the safety car compromised his strategy, dropped to 13th after finally making his pitstop on lap 31, behind Jak Crawford and Amaury Cordeel.

Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	I. Hadjar Campos Racing	20	33	-
2	P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight	17	33	+4.400 4.4	4.400
3	Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport	5	33	+9.600 9.6	5.200
4	A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam	4	33	+12.900 12.9	3.300
5	R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport	6	33	+13.600 13.6	0.700
6	R. Verschoor Trident	22	33	+18.000 18.0	4.400
7	F. Colapinto MP Motorsport	12	33	+19.700 19.7	1.700
8	R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing	15	33	+23.600 23.6	3.900
9	V. Martins ART Grand Prix	1	33	+25.000 25.0	1.400
10	O. Bearman Prema Powerteam	3	33	+29.400 29.4	4.400
11	J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil	7	33	+31.100 31.1	1.700
12	A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	33	+33.800 33.8	2.700
13	K. Maini Invicta Racing	9	33	+34.000 34.0	0.200
14	P. Martí Campos Racing	21	33	+34.500 34.5	0.500
15	J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil	8	33	+41.700 41.7	7.200
16	R. Staněk Trident	23	33	+58.100 58.1	16.400
17	T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing	25	33	+59.300 59.3	1.200
18	E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing	14	33	+1'09.100 1'09.1	9.800
dnf	D. Hauger MP Motorsport	11	9						Retirement
dnf	G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing	10	6						Retirement
dnf	J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing	24	5						Retirement
dnf	Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix	2	5						Retirement
View full results