Invicta Racing survived early race chaos to pick up useful points in the FIA Formula 2 Imola Sprint Race with Gabriel Bortoleto, while Kush Maini gained eight positions.
Saturday’s 25-lap Sprint Race was held in fine conditions. Late amends from Qualifying placed Gabriel 10th on the grid for this race following his Friday pole position, while Kush lined up 17th.
Both drivers got a decent launch at the start, but there was significant drama into the first braking zone as a collision between Roman Staněk and Isack Hadjar caused a chain reaction which eliminated both drivers and three others from the race.
This all happened around Gabriel, but the reigning FIA Formula 3 champion was able to excellently navigate his way around the carnage in front. Kush also managed the situation superbly, gaining eight places on the first lap before a lengthy Safety Car brought the action to a halt.
The long interruption meant that there was less stress on the tyres for the remainder of the race when racing resumed on lap six. Overtaking proved to be very tricky throughout, with very few passes being made in the depleted field.
Gabriel spent the remainder of his race just behind Oliver Bearman. Initially, this was as part of a DRS train over the final podium place, but Bearman dropped back slightly which turned the battle into one over fifth.
Kush was sandwiched between Richard Verschoor and Josep María Marti initially until the latter had a time penalty, to which then Kush managed the gap between Verschoor and Zak O’Sullivan.
Despite getting close a couple of times on the final laps, Gabriel had to settle for sixth. Kush didn’t make any further ground up and finished just outside of the points in ninth on the road. Post-race, Taylor Barnard was excluded which elevated Kush into eighth to round out the points-paying places.
SPRINT RACE RESULTS:
- Gabriel Bortoleto: P06, three points
- Kush Maini: P08, one point
Gabriel Bortoleto
I am happy with the result and with the car balance today. It was a crazy start but I managed to avoid all of the cars. We will keep pushing and we will work through the rest of the day to see what we can do for the Feature Race. We were close to Bearman towards the end, but he didn’t make any mistakes in our battle which didn’t allow me to make a move. I was very happy with the balance I had compared to him which is a positive heading into tomorrow.
Kush Maini
It was a good recovery today. It is a tough track to pass on but the key objective today was to gather as much data as possible for the Feature Race tomorrow as there will be more opportunities compared to today. Now we know that we can look to move forward tomorrow. We have that data, and we can use it in a positive way to pick up the best result as possible.
Andy Roche
The race went as well as we could expect to, to be honest. Gabi showed good pace which bodes very well for tomorrow. There are maybe a couple of tenths we need to find with Kush which we will look to do before tomorrow. All in all, it was a good result. Gabi and Bearman are on the front row tomorrow and after their battle today it could be a good race between them. Our target for the Feature Race is to win. We are going to try something a bit different with Kush, and our aim is to get him into the points as well.
