Trident’s John Bennett claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory in a dramatic sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, pulling off a decisive final-lap overtake on Prema Racing’s Sebastián Montoya. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez completed the podium in third. After the race, Bennett, Montoya and Villagómez spoke to Feeder Series about how they managed team–driver communication during the enthralling battle for victory.

By August Bamford 

Starting second on the grid, Bennett made a superb launch to snatch the lead from reverse polesitter Montoya before the opening corner. The Colombian reclaimed the position with a bold move into Turn 4 on lap eight, but Bennett refused to let him escape. The Salisbury-born driver sat patiently within DRS range and waited for his opportunity. 

With three laps remaining, Bennett started to creep back in, chipping away at Montoya’s advantage by a couple of tenths each lap. A mistake from Montoya at Turn 1 on the final lap brought Bennett onto his gearbox, and when Montoya ran deep again at Turn 4 – the same corner where he’d taken the lead earlier – Bennett executed a well-judged switchback to retake the lead of the race. From there, he held firm to the chequered flag, sealing his maiden F2 victory in dramatic fashion.

“This is how I envisioned the strategy in my head,” Bennett explained to Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “Really just settle in, take the DRS, manage the tires and try to make something happen in the last few laps. I have a strong relationship with my engineer, Leo [van der Eijk]. Throughout the whole race he was keeping me motivated, reminding me to stay within DRS, wait till the end of the race, be patient, keep the tires under control. That’s exactly what I did, making sure I kept it in the right place. I always knew the gaps, and then I attacked when I wanted to.”

While Bennett got the best launch off the line at the start of the race, there was chaos further back in the field and any sense of order quickly dissolved as two separate but simultaneous incidents unfolded at Turn 3. It began when Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara made contact with ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, sending him around. Oliver Goethe was collected by Inthraphuvasak in the process and spun himself, while Dino Beganovic also sustained damage after hitting the Thai driver’s stricken car.

At the same time, Câmara’s teammate Joshua Dürksen, preoccupied with trying to pass Noel León for ninth place, braked too late and made contact with Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov. AIX Racing’s Emerson Fittipaldi Jr was eliminated immediately when he hit Dürksen, and the safety car was brought out while marshals recovered the three stranded cars of Fittipaldi, Goethe and Inthraphuvasak. 

“It’s a tricky situation,” Dürksen explained to Feeder Series from his perspective. “A lot of things were happening in front of me and I was focused on my battle with León. I felt like I was completely under control and on my braking point. Then in front of me, a big chaos happened in front. The guys braked more, I tried to brake more, but I could not avoid the incident, so I had to touch Tsolov.

“It’s unfortunately quite common at this track to have incidents at Turn 3. It’s just the way the corner is and the long straight. Everybody is trying to go side by side. It’s very easy for these things to happen.”

When the race resumed on lap three, the race settled into a more measured rhythm, with drivers increasingly managing tyre wear in the 31°C heat. Montoya, however, had a sense of urgency as he reclaimed the lead on lap eight with a decisive move down the inside of Turn 4, forcing Bennett back into second.

By lap 16, the DRS train began to break up, opening up opportunities for those with better tyre life. Alex Dunne duly capitalised to move into fourth with a clean move on Câmara. 

Further forward, Bennett remained tucked within DRS range of Montoya, but he held fire on any overtaking attempts. That patience became even more critical after Colton Herta stopped on track on lap 21, bringing out a virtual safety car and compressing the field once again.

“I was just trying to break DRS to Bennett,” Montoya said. “I knew I had the pace and I knew we could get him out of DRS. I had a little bit more in the car to try and pull away. Just my strategy didn’t work today because as soon as I pulled away, the virtual safety car came out. John was just waiting more for the last few laps and it worked.”

Racing resumed on lap 22, with Montoya leading Bennett by under a second into the closing laps. Bennett was beginning to close rapidly, choosing that moment as his time to pounce on the Prema driver. The gap dropped steadily as Montoya came under increasing pressure to which he eventually succumbed on the final lap of the race. 

“The team have put in so much work over the winter and between each round,” Bennett said. “It’s no surprise that they had a tricky year last year, as did I, but we always kept working. It can be hard sometimes to keep pushing when no results are coming, and I know they felt very motivated this year. To get the win feels absolutely amazing. They all deserve it so much and they all worked super hard.”

Behind the leading duo, Villagómez was closing rapidly on the battle. For a moment the Mexican driver looked capable of challenging Montoya for second, but he ultimately ran out of laps before he could mount an attack.

“More important than communication for me is preparation,” Villagómez said when asked about his communication with his team during the race. “The prep you do before the race, the debrief you have with the team. You run through different scenarios, so you know what to expect and when things happen, you’re prepared.”

Dunne finished in fourth ahead of Minì, with Roman Bilinski in sixth ahead of Kush Maini in seventh. Minì’s fifth-place result means he increased his championship lead over Tsolov to nine points after the Bulgarian finished eighth.

Following the race, Câmara, who finished sixth on the road, was handed a five-second time penalty for causing the collision on the opening lap with Inthraphuvasak, but he still earned the bonus point for setting the fastest lap, which he did on lap seven. Feature race polesitter Noel León finished where he started in 10th place.

Câmara’s penalty compounded a difficult day for Invicta, with Dürksen’s race eventually coming to an end on lap 12 as damage from the first-lap incident forced his retirement. 

“We had overall damage, so the grip was very low,” Dürksen continued. “It felt like driving on ice basically. The damaged car was very unbalanced, and to be honest, I felt it was pointless to keep driving and risking that the car gets even more damaged.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency