Gabriel Bortoleto secured a fourth podium of his rookie FIA Formula 2 campaign as Invicta Racing heads into the summer break.
The 10th FIA F2 race in six weeks featured a podium finish for Gabriel Bortoleto, while Kush Maini finished outside of the top 10.
After persistent rain and poor visibility throughout Saturday, the skies had cleared up on Sunday for the Feature Race. The track was still damp in places, but the sun was out ahead of 25 laps of action.
Gabriel started second on the Soft tyre and Kush from 12th on Mediums following Friday’s Qualifying, and the race featured early drama. Kush brilliantly avoided the slow-starting Zane Maloney and the incident which occurred behind.
A retirement from Franco Colapinto meant Kush had gained four positions on the opening lap before the first Safety Car. Gabriel, meanwhile, dropped a position to Isack Hadjar.
The race had resumed on lap four before a second Safety Car for another collision. That stayed out until the end of lap six, when the pit window opened.
The race out front became a battle between Hadjar and polesitter Paul Aron, with Gabriel not far behind. Aron made his mandatory pitstop first, followed by Hadjar and then Gabriel. Gabriel’s stop was affected by another car coming in, which lost him a little bit of ground.
With slightly fresher tyres, Gabriel was able to close the gap to Hadjar and Aron in front, passing the latter and closing up to the former while he was stuck in traffic.
Hadjar then opened the gap slightly in front in the closing stages, but Gabriel was able to come through to comfortably secure second place. Kush had a difficult race, pitting at the end of lap 14 for his set of Soft tyres and making some places up initially, but he crossed the chequered flag in 15th.
A late retirement for Aron puts Gabriel second in the Drivers’ Championship, with Invicta Racing firmly in the hunt in the Teams’ Championship after taking a podium finish in each of the last nine rounds.
The team now has a gap of just over a month before the next round at Monza in Italy, between August 30 and September 1.
FEATURE RACE RESULTS:
- Gabriel Bortoleto: P02, 18 points
- Kush Maini: P15
GABRIEL BORTOLETO: “We picked up a very good haul of points today for both championships and it is great to leave Spa with a trophy. We did not have the best start but we kept at it and it was a fun race to be in. A month off gives us time ahead of Monza to analyse the season so far and what we can do better for the coming rounds.”
KUSH MAINI: “Overall it was a very tricky weekend and today we just did not put it all together. It was a good start and looking back our race could have ended very early if it was not. Unfortunately, we could not really make either tyre work and that limited our result today. This long gap allows us to look into the previous rounds ahead of the final part of the season and we will be looking to finish the year on a high.”
ANDY ROCHE, TEAM PRINCIPAL: “It was a great, measured drive by Gabriel to take second place today. It was a good battle with Hadjar and Aron, who are two of the main championship contenders. We will work with Kush to understand why this weekend did not work out, but he drove a great opening lap to keep out of trouble and to make up positions. While we are not heading into our longest break of the season, the entire team should be commended for its hard work with five events and 10 races completed over just six weeks.”
