Isack Hadjar took his third Formula 2 feature race win of the season at Silverstone, ahead of Zane Maloney. Jak Crawford won on the road, but a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release into the path of Maloney relegated the American to third. After the race, Hadjar and Maloney spoke to Feeder Series alongside selected media at a press conference.

By Martin Lloyd

For Hadjar, this win could be crucial. While he won consecutive feature races at Melbourne and Imola, the Campos driver has remained behind Paul Aron in the championship – until now. With Aron outside of the points in both races, after an engine failure in the sprint and an accident with Joshua Dürksen in the feature, Hadjar has moved ahead of the Estonian. After the race, he discussed his relationship with the Campos team with Feeder Series.

“We’re just growing in confidence every time I hit the track, and the car felt just amazing,” said Hadjar. “At every track we go to, we seem to have a lot of pace, especially on one lap – one lap pace is really strong. I knew going into this track that we had a really strong package – and we had. We’re even more confident now for the rest of the season.”

After Aron’s disastrous weekend, Hadjar has now moved to 133 points, 16 clear of Aron. Meanwhile, Maloney enjoyed a successful weekend, achieving a double-podium in his best performance since his double-win at the opening round in Bahrain. Even more impressively, Maloney started the race in a lowly ninth position, but made a strong start to move into fifth by the end of Lap 1.

Later, he passed Ollie Bearman, and Victor Martins, before being narrowly promoted by Crawford’s penalty – the post-penalty gap between Maloney and Crawford was under two tenths. Following the podium ceremony, the Rodin driver gave his thoughts on his drive with Feeder Series.

“I’ve been with Rodin for a year and a half – I have confidence with them and they have confidence in me. It’s great to leave a weekend with a double podium.”

He is only a further 16 points behind Aron, with 101 compared to the Hitech driver’s 117. Despite his strong weekend, the aforementioned poor qualifying has often placed Maloney on the back foot this season, with this representing an issue that he is keen to address in the coming rounds.

“We’re a bit quicker in the race but we struggle a bit more in qualifying. I’ll be working on that like I said, but my confidence is at an all time high and we have the pace to go with them [Hadjar and Aron].”

Behind the podium finishers in fourth place was Franco Colapinto, the lead runner on the alternate strategy. He passed Martins late on, with the Frenchman eventually finishing fifth. He had led the race in the early stages, before a tussle with Hadjar saw him passed by Crawford and Maloney, in addition to his compatriot. Gabriel Bortoleto finished sixth, ahead of Ollie Bearman, another early leader, with Enzo Fittipaldi, Dennis Hauger and Pepe Martí rounding out the top 10. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency