Hadjar wins Spa feature race to extend F2 lead as Aron stops on last lap

Photo: Red Bull

Isack Hadjar took his fourth Formula 2 feature race win at Spa-Francorchamps to extend his championship lead as rival Paul Aron retired on the last lap.

Starting third on the grid, Hadjar moved up into second past Gabriel Bortoleto on the initial run to Les Combes as polesitter Aron retained the lead.

The safety car had to be deployed on the first lap after Ollie Bearman tangled with Zane Maloney on the run to La Source and took a fast-starting Pepe Marti into the barriers. Franco Colapinto also slowed to a stop at Les Combes from inside the top 10.

Aron kept the lead at the restart on lap four before another safety car was triggered at Les Combes when Rafael Villagomez got onto the gravel racing Taylor Barnard and spun, collecting the hapless Victor Martins.

This time, Hitech GP’s Aron had to go defensive at the restart against Hadjar into Les Combes and one lap later couldn’t prevent the Campos Racing driver from taking the lead.

Aron immediately pitted to swap his soft tyres for mediums, with Hadjar doing the same one lap later and still rejoining ahead despite a slow pitstop.

Still, Aron used the heat in his tyres to close up on Hadjar and got back ahead into Les Combes on the following lap, only for Hadjar to respond two laps later.

Thereafter, Aron seemed to lack pace and fell away, with Bortoleto passing him for a net second place on lap 17 of 25, just as Hadjar was getting stuck behind the slower cars of Juan Manuel Correa and Barnard, who would pit at the end of the lap.

Hadjar therefore assumed the lead by just 0.9s over Bortoleto but the Invicta Racing driver never managed to make a challenge, and Hadjar clinched victory by 2.9s.

Aron had fallen 7.7s away from Bortoleto going onto the final lap but was still on for a podium finish, having kept Jak Crawford at bay, when he suddenly slowed and came to a stop.

Hadjar therefore now has a 36-point lead over Bortoleto with Aron falling to third in the title race, a further five points back.

Crawford inherited the final podium place in third ahead of Zak O’Sullivan, who had a strong race from 10th on the grid on a day where the soft-medium strategy seemed best.

Richard Verschoor finished five seconds back in fifth, where he had spent the opening part of the race before leading the middle phase prior to pitting on lap 16.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli had started fifth as the highest-placed medium-tyre starter and ran second to Verschoor in the middle of the race, but suffered a slow pit-stop that dropped him behind Amaury Cordeel and left him ninth at the finish.

Race results (25 laps)