Red Bull junior Pepe Martí overtook Joshua Dürksen for victory in the Formula 2 sprint race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria after a dramatic early-race collision resulted in a half-hour red flag period. Feeder Series spoke to the top three drivers about how it changed the race. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

The race was suspended on lap two after an incident involving Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad and Sami Meguetounif. Lindblad attempted a pass on the inside of Browning into Turn 3 as Meguetounif behind dove down the inside of both of them. With nowhere to go, Meguetounif and Lindblad touched wheels, sending the Trident airborne and over the top of Browning’s spinning car, which Lindblad had hit.

Meguetounif’s car flipped over and landed upside down. He quickly confirmed that he was unhurt.

“I’m very happy to see that everyone is fine,” third-place finisher Roman Staněk told Feeder Series in the post-race media session. “It’s always scary to see when the car is upside down because you never know what happened.” 

Martí, Dürksen and Staněk stressed that while accidents such as today’s are scary, it was important to use the red flag to reset. 

“We kind of try to stay in the zone for the race because that’s the most important thing,” Staněk added. “There [are] so many people and things that can distract you. You just have to stay in the zone, restart and do your job again.”

As race leader, Dürksen had to shift focus from the crash to his restart strategy. 

“It’s basically like starting a new race. What happened happened, and now we just have to focus again on what’s coming,” Dürksen said. “I was not really thinking about the crash or something. I was like, right, this is what’s happening and it’s like any race. I was basically just shifting my mindset again to how a normal race would start and that’s it. It was not an issue for me.”

At the original race start, reverse-grid polesitter John Bennett got a slow launch and immediately lost four positions, while Martí, who had received a three-place grid penalty, got a storming start from fifth, slotting in behind new race leader Dürksen and Staněk. Martí then passed Staněk down the inside of Turn 3, forcing the Invicta Racing driver to run slightly wide. 

Behind the top five, Alex Dunne, who started the race in third but baulked after jumping the start, ran sixth before losing positions to Richard Verschoor and Leonardo Fornaroli later on the opening lap. 

The collision involving Browning, Lindblad and Meguetounif prompted a lengthy pause in proceedings, and the race resumed with two laps behind the safety car and a rolling start on lap five.

“On my side, I was actually hoping for a standing start because I had a really good launch,” Martì said. Although he didn’t get his wish, he maintained position behind Dürksen.

At the restart, Oliver Goethe attempted to pass Dino Beganovic into Turn 3 for 13th but spun the Hitech driver, causing another safety car. Goethe received a 10-second penalty for causing a collision. 

There were no changes within the top eight after the second restart on lap eight, but a spirited battle raged behind. On lap nine, Victor Martins and Sebastián Montoya passed Dunne for ninth and 10th respectively at Turn 3, and on lap 10 Montoya passed Martins at the exit of Turn 3. Dunne lunged down the inside of Martins into Turn 4 on lap 13, but Martins used the switchback manoeuvre to pass him back on exit. The Irishman remained close, however, and made the overtake stick into Turn 3 on lap 15, with Martins forced wide. 

Meanwhile, Martí had made it back within a second of Dürksen on lap 11, when he set the fastest lap. That allowed the Campos Racing driver to use DRS, and after closing further on Dürksen, he used it to pass him into Turn 4. Dürksen took the position back down the inside of Turn 6, but Martí made the overtake stick by diving to the AIX Racing driver’s inside at Turn 3 the next lap. 

The battle for the lead tightened up the pack, with the top eight drivers by then all within DRS range of one another, but for the next five laps there were no overtakes. Bennett, however, fell more than a second behind Amaury Cordeel before losing fifth to Verschoor into Turn 4 on lap 24 and sixth to Gabriele Minì at Turn 7 on lap 26. 

Martí led Dürksen and Staněk across the line, making him the second Red Bull junior to win an F2 race around the team’s home track, but the rest of the order changed on the final lap. Cordeel, who had been fourth since the opening lap, spun on his own into Turn 3. Verschoor avoided hitting him, but Minì, Bennett, and Fornaroli all piled in at the top of the hill, ending their races short of the chequered flag. 

Montoya, Dunne, Martins and Miyata were promoted to the points-paying positions, with Dunne taking sixth despite having a five-second penalty for jumping the start. Staněk earned an extra point for setting the fastest lap among those within the top 10.

Kush Maini took the overall fastest lap on the penultimate lap while two laps down as a result of an apparent technical issue at the restart on lap three. He managed to rejoin the race but took a five-second penalty for a safety car infringement. His DAMS teammate Jak Crawford – the only  driver besides Martí to have won an F2 race at the circuit as a Red Bull junior – never made it off the starting grid to begin with after also experiencing an apparent technical issue.

Additional reporting by Tori Turner

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency