Saturday was frustrating for
Franco Colapinto
, who was barely able to complete 14 laps in the second round of the
Formula 2
season held on the Jeddah street circuit in Saudi Arabia.
The Argentine driver spun when he was running 11th and had to abandon the competition, which Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi ended up winning.
With the aim of improving the result he had obtained on Friday in the sprint race (he had finished 11th),
Colapinto started a race from 12th place in which the first starting place belonged to the Indian Kush Maini
, who inherited that privilege because the owner of the
pole position
, the British Oliver Bearman, did not participate in the competition because he was called up by the Ferrari team to replace the Spanish Carlos Sainz in the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The start of the race gave a sign of how difficult the day would be for the young man born 20 years ago in Pilar and representative of the MP Motorsport team.
At the start, the Spanish Josep María Martí (Campos Racing)
spun at the exit of turn 2 and collided with Colapinto
and the Estonian Paul Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight).
The incident forced the safety car to enter and the competition was neutralized.
Although he was able to continue in the race,
the Argentine suffered a break in the front wing of his vehicle
.
Martí, the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta Racing) and the Czech Roman Stanek (Trident) were less lucky, who had to abandon the test.
ACCIDENTAL START IN JEDDAH!
Pepe Martí spun and Franco Colapinto could not avoid it, breaking the right part of the front wing at the start of the #SaudiArabianGP Feature Race.
📺 Watch #Formula2 on #ESPNenStarPlus pic.twitter.com/97A8LriR3t
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) March 9, 2024
When the
safety car
left the fast urban layout of Jeddah (it is the fastest street circuit of all those included in the Formula 1 and Formula 2 calendars), the Argentine managed to maintain an acceptable performance, which allowed him to stay in the fight. for accessing positions that award points.
But at the end of the 14th lap, when he was in 11th place, behind the Barbadian Zane Maloney (Rodin Motorsport) and in front of the Frenchman Victor Martins (ART Grand Prinx),
Colapinto touched the wall in the last corner of the track with his tire. left rear
.
That caused damage to his suspension that led him to spin in turn 1. His car stopped there and his hopes of scoring points remained.
SPIN AND END OF RACE FOR COLAPINTO.
The Argentine touched the wall at the exit of the last corner and when braking for Turn 1, he ended up spinning and being out of competition in the #SaudiArabianGP.
📺 Watch #Formula2 on #ESPNenStarPlus pic.twitter.com/fiagdARmUZ
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) March 9, 2024
Without the Williams Academy driver in the fight (he was seen crying uncontrollably after his abandonment), full speed returned to the track on the 18th lap with
the Ecuadorian Juan Manuel Correa
(Dams Lucas Oil) at the top and
with Enzo Fittipaldi
in the fourth place.
However, in just three laps the Brazilian from the Van Amersfoort team jumped to the top: first he left behind the British Taylor Barnard (PHM AIX Racing) and then, in a brilliant maneuver, he overtook the Belgian Amaury Cordeel (Hitech Pulse-Eight) and Correa .
From then on,
Fittipaldi never looked back and built a comfortable lead
that allowed him to celebrate his first victory in the category in a major event (he had won the sprint at Spa-Francorchamps in 2023).
The winner was escorted by Kush Maini and the Norwegian Dennis Hauger, Colapinto's teammate in MP Motorsport.
Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi celebrates after winning the Formula 2 race held in Jeddah.
Zane Maloney finished seventh and thus remains the leader of the championship with 47 points.
With his victory on Saturday, Fittipaldi jumped to second place with 32 and further behind are Hauger (31) and Aron (28).
Colapinto could not add even one unit this weekend
, he was left with 8 and is 12th in the contest.
The next Formula 2 test will be run in two weeks at the Melbourne circuit (Australia): qualifying will take place on Friday the 22nd, the sprint race will be run on Saturday the 23rd and the main test on Sunday the 24th (the schedules are still were not confirmed).