Andrea Kimi Antonelli won his maiden Formula 2 race at Silverstone on Saturday, finishing eight seconds clear of Zane Maloney and Kush Maini in a race that was interrupted by a downpour. The Italian negotiated a red flag and three safety car interventions, dominating every racing lap.

By Martin Lloyd

Antonelli has waited longer than many would have expected for this victory. The Prema driver is rumoured to be in line for a Mercedes F1 seat in 2025 despite a difficult campaign so far, with both he and teammate Ollie Bearman lacking pace since the start of the season. Recently, form has improved for both, although Bearman retired from the Silverstone sprint after a second engine failure in as many races. Meanwhile, Antonelli never looked like losing the lead of the race, and took Prema’s second successive sprint race win, following Bearman’s victory in Austria. At the post-race press conference, Antonelli spoke to selected media about his performance.

“I have to say on my side, in the last couple of weekends I haven’t done the greatest of jobs,” he said. “But now I am really happy to get my first win today. It was a difficult race overall, really difficult conditions. We managed everything pretty well and I am really happy to bring home my first win.”

Two of the safety cars involved rolling starts following periods of rain, with another called after a collision between Paul Aron and Pepe Martí on the Wellington Straight. Both had been running well, having gained positions from their starting spots of 12^th and 21^st to run on the fringes of the points. Unfortunately for both, their showings ended when Aron’s engine failed on the exit of Aintree, and Martí did not have time to react – the Spaniard lost his front-right wheel and both of their races were over. After the race, Martí gave Feeder Series his thoughts on the incident.

“With the poor visibility and the low grip, [the accident] was pretty much impossible to avoid. I had about a second and a half of realising, ‘oh, he’s got an engine failure, oh, I need to lift off the throttle, I need to avoid him’. So it was obviously impossible to do at that time and you never expect something like that to happen right ahead of you, and less in these conditions.”

Aron later discussed the accident with Feeder Series. The championship leader was disappointed to lose out on potential key points in the title battle, and felt that he had the pace to move further forward.

“I know that we were set up for drier conditions at the end of the race,” he said. “If in those really wet conditions we were still matching the other guys, then we would surely have been a step ahead towards the end of the race. That was also the plan, I was just playing it safe, and waiting for the race to come to me but after that we got the issue and there was nothing more we could do.”

Isack Hadjar retired separately on the same lap, having spun at Copse. Aron will take solace from that fact, knowing that he did not lose further ground in the championship to the man who sits nine points behind him. This is especially true considering that Hadjar starts on pole in the feature race, with Aron again a lowly 12^th after a costly spin in qualifying.

Sunday’s feature race will provide a key opportunity for Hadjar to take the lead, and the Frenchman told Feeder Series during the race weekend that he is confident in his championship chances as the gap closes to Aron. The Hitech driver also felt that his start to the season gives him a good foundation for a title challenge.  

“If we are in the lead after half the season, then it means we are doing something right”, said Aron. “If we look at the stats, then pace-wise we are always up there, and so far consistently we have been bringing the results and points. In that sense, I’m also confident we will be there come Abu Dhabi.”

“Isack’s been quick all year as well, so I see no point why he wouldn’t be up there with me. It’s good for him to be confident, I know how much we still have potential and its still a long season to go.”

Further down the field was Taylor Barnard, who endured a difficult qualifying and started in 18^th place. However, AIX [formerly known as PHM] have shown strong pace in recent rounds, confounding pre-season expectations of another difficult season. He recovered to finish just four tenths outside of the points in ninth, but told Feeder Series that he feels that the team still has work to do to understand its recent progress.

“Since the Barcelona test, we’ve made a bit of a step forward,” he said. “It seems like it’s a bit inconsistent because obviously in qualifying we were not very fast, so we need to figure it out and really understand what’s making us fast and what’s making us a bit inconsistent. We’ve made a big step forward since last year, and even since the start of this year.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency