Isack Hadjar took his fourth Formula 2 feature race win of 2024 on Sunday in Belgium, holding off a fast-charging Gabriel Bortoleto. Hadjar’s championship hopes were also given a boost when rival Paul Aron retired with a technical issue on the final lap.

By Steven Walton

Campos Racing’s Hadjar effectively led for much of the race, overtaking Aron on Lap 8 and holding off Bortoleto in the closing laps.

Bortoleto said afterwards he thought he was going to win at one point. His gap to Hadjar dropped to under a second, but Hadjar pulled away again and eventually beat Bortoleto by nearly three seconds.

Hadjar said the result was the best way to go into the four-week break before F2’s next round at Monza. “I feel like I drove the perfect race,” he said.

In the early stage of the race, polesitter Aron challenged Hadjar for the lead, but the Estonian’s pace fell away in the second stint and he slipped to third.

Hitech GP’s Aron looked set to finish third until the final lap, when he ground to a halt with an apparent technical issue.

The retirement shook up the F2 championship. Hadjar now leads Bortoleto by 36 points as Aron fell to third in the standings, 41 behind Hadjar.

Aron’s retirement was the second race-ending technical issue he has had this season. He also retired from the sprint race at Silverstone after being hit by Pepe Martí as his engine lost power.

Title rivals Hadjar and Bortoleto faced their own technical issues earlier in the season. 

Hadjar retired from both races in Jeddah and was compromised by an engine issue during qualifying in Spielberg. Technical issues ended Bortoleto’s feature races in Jeddah and Melbourne.

In a press conference after the Belgium race, Hadjar told Feeder Series that reliability this year was worse than it was last season.

“There’s nothing really we can do. We are trying to prevent [issues] from happening,” he said.

Invicta Racing’s Bortoleto said reliability had also been a problem for him, but added, “It’s understandable. Everyone had their problems. I’m not the only one.”

Bortoleto said he had a “minor issue” before the Belgium feature race that affected his tyre warm-up, but he praised his team and F2 for handling the issue.

“They [F2] were the ones changing the pieces in the car and they were also super quick to understand what is the issue and how to fix it, so congrats to them,” he said.

Jak Crawford – who inherited third place in Belgium when Aron retired – said it was “unfortunate” there had been more reliability problems this year.

Crawford said he drove half of a lap in Belgium with a black screen on his steering wheel. “I couldn’t shift. I was stuck in fifth gear for half a lap,” he explained. “These things happen, and it’s very random at times, but the teams are always doing their best to keep on top of it.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency