Belgium F2 & F3 review: Hadgar extends lead and other stories

Let's have a look at what went down in F2, F1's feeder series and F3 on a weekend of great racing as rain also played a role.

Paul Aron from Estonia captured his second consecutive - and third overall - feature race pole position for Round 10 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was 0.168s off Aron’s time.

Championship leader Isack Hadjar qualified third with his usual grumbling on the team radio. American Jak Crawford was fourth. Row three was Andrea “Kimi” Antonelli and Zane Maloney.

In the early stages of qualifying, the session was red flagged after Victor Martins was stranded on the side of the track and was unable to get going again.

The 18-lap Sprint Race, scheduled before F1 qualifying, was postponed due to rain, and started post F1 qualifying. Zak O’Sullivan started from partial reverse grid pole position, Dennis Hauger sharing the front row with him. The rain was falling as drivers went on the formation lap on wet tyres.

The lights went out, despite slippery conditions all the young guns barreled through Eau Rouge on the opening lap without any incident. The order at the end of Lap 1 was O'Sullivan, Hauger, Verschoor, Maloney, Colapinto, Crawford, Antonelli, Bearman, Hadjar and completing the top ten was Bortoleto.

On Lap 2, Antonelli in the mist of Colapinto tried every which way to get ahead, but the Williams junior kept his place. The following lap the teenage Italian successfully forced the issue going into Eau Rouge and pulled his PREMA teammate Bearman ahead of Colapinto.

Victor Martins, who started from the rear of the grid, had worked his way up to 12th. Red Bull junior Pepe Marti stopped on the track on Lap 3, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car followed by the Safety Car. The race was red flagged on Lap 7 due to track conditions. Soon the Race Control declared the race will not be resumed. Per regulations, the race not reaching half distance, only the top five will be awarded points.

O’Sullivan takes his second victory of the season. Hauger was second and Verschoor took third. They were followed by Maloney, Crawford and Antonelli in sixth.

Aron shot into the lead from pole position. The Estonian, early leader in the championship, was looking forward to closing the gap to new championship leader Hadjar. Before all the drivers could clear Turn 1, Bearman crashed into Pepe Marti, and both were out of the race. The Red Bull junior, who was out of the Sprint Race on Lap 3, cried on the team radio: “My luck is insane. Best start of my life.”

Hadjar passed Bortoleto for second before the safety car was deployed. Argentine Colapinto was also stopped on the track. The Safety Car came into the pits at the end of Lap 3 and action resumed. Top five; Aron, Hadjar, Bortoleto, Crawford, and Verschoor. Antonelli, who started on hard tyres, was sixth, followed by O’Sullivan, Maini, Hauger and completing the top ten was Maloney.

The second deployment of the Safety Car came on the following lap. Alpine junior and one of the pre-season favorites Martins was t-boned by a spinning Rafael Villagomez. The track went green on Lap 7. Aron was immediately under pressure from Hadjar who was looking very racy. The DRS was enabled on Lap 8 and Aron was a sitting duck for Hadjar who sailed past him to take the lead. Aron was then brought into the pits by his HiTech team for change of rubber. At the end of Lap 8 top five were Hadjar, Bortoleto, Crawford, Verschoor and Antonelli. Verschoor moved into third with a pass on Crawford on Lap 9, who was then called into the pits by his team for tyre change.

Race leader Hadjar came into the pits at the end of Lap 9, putting Bortoleto into the lead. Hadjar came out in 12th, while Bortoleto was instructed on team radio, “Max attack, and Box.” Bortoleto’s pit stop saw him come out in tenth. The top five at the end of Lap 10 of 25; Verschoor, Antonelli, Maini, Cordeel, and Barnard. Aron passed Hadjar for eighth.

Three laps later with the help of DRS Hadjar returned the favor and passed Aron to move into seventh place. Hadjar was looking good for race win as he had the pace and cars ahead of him still had to make their mandatory pit stop.

Maini, running in fourth on Lap 14, is told to box. The Indian comes out in 15th. Antonelli and Cordeel are in on the following lap. The Italian comes out behind the Belgian driver. Championship contenders Hadjar and Aron were fourth and fifth respectively with ten laps remaining.

Race leader Verschoor in for tyre change on Lap 17, leaving the top two, Correa and Barnard, still to pit. Same lap Bortoleto takes fourth from Aron, and Antonelli passes Cordeel for 13th. Hadjar moves closer to race victory by taking second from Barnard with race leader Correa still to pit. His pit stop on Lap 17 left the door open for the top three, Hadjar, Bortoleto and Aron to fight for victory in the Belgian forest.

Hadjar was within DRS zone of Bortoleto. Third place Aron was losing touch with the top two and had fallen 4s behind Bortoleto and into the clutches of Crawford. With five laps remaining Hadjar pulled himself out of the DRS zone of Bortoleto. Verschoor passed Maloney for sixth. Japanese Toyota supported driver Ritomo Miyata was eighth. Cordeel took ninth from Antonelli.

On the penultimate lap third place Aron set the fastest lap. Then on the final lap he checked into Heartbreak Hotel as his car slowed and stopped on the track. This is a major blow for his championship aspirations in his rookie season as Hadjar took the chequered flag and 25 points with it. Brazilian Bortoleto, also a rookie, took second place and Crawford climbed on the third step of the podium. O’Sullivan and Verschoor completed the top five.

The bottom five were Maloney, Miyata, Cordeel, Aron and Antonelli.

Spa hosted the penultimate round of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship. The 30-minute qualifying session took place on Friday. One major change from the previous round in Hungary was Ferrari Driver Academy’s Tuukka Taponen replacing Nikola Tsolov at ART team. HiTech team’s Luke Browning set the fastest time in wet/dry morning free practice. Mexican Noel Leon was second fastest for van Amersfoort racing with ART’s Australian Christian Mansell third.

In qualifying Callum Voisin set the fastest time to claim his maiden pole in Formula 3. Joining him on the front row for Sunday's Feature Race was Irish driver Alex Dunne. Row two was Leonardo Fornaroli and Sebastian Montoya. Noel Leon and Max Esterson occupied row three. Taponen qualified thirteenth on his F3 debut. Not a good day for championship contender and Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad, he could only manage 27th on the grid.

The partial reverse grid saw two cars from PREMA team on the front row. Swede Dino Beganovic on pole position and Sicilian Gabriele Mini alongside. The 12-lap Sprint race started in damp conditions. Mini got the jump on Beganovic and took the lead going into Turn 1. American Max Esterson, coming out of Eau Rouge, spun, and crashed out on his own on the opening lap, bringing out the Safety Car. The top five were Mini, Beganovic, Red Bull junior Tim Tramnitz, Mexican Santiago Ramos, and English driver Browning. Lindblad was already up to 16th at the end of the opening lap after starting 27th.

Racing resumed on Lap 4. Beganovic began his pursuit of Mini and passed his teammate at the end of the Kemmel Straight to reclaim the top spot. The following lap Montoya moved into the top six by passing Browning. At half distance on Lap 6 Beganovic was 0.6s ahead of Mini, who was coming under pressure from Tramnitz. Lindblad had climbed up to 13th. And Montoya was trying to break into the top five, he was .5s behind Noel Leon.

On Lap 8, the top three Beganovic, Mini and Tramnitz were covered by less than one second. Leon moved up to fourth. Lap 10 Mini came under intense pressure from Tramnitz while Beganovic had pulled a one second lead. Leon was within striking distance of a podium finish. He also had close company of his compadre Ramos.

On the final lap Leon took third from Tramnitz. Intense four car battle for fourth. Ramos went cockpit-to-cockpit with Tramnitz and Montoya seized the opportunity to join the battle. Without any argy bargy Tramnitz was able to cross the finish line in fourth. Ramos was fifth. Browning was classified six after Sami Meguetounif was penalized for track limit infringements. Montoya was seventh. Fornaroli eighth. German Oliver Goethe was ninth. Voisin collected the final point from his tenth place position.

Beganovic took a close but comfortable second victory of the season ahead of Mini, the Sicilian Nicolas Todt managed driver extended his lead in the championship with his fifth podium of the season.

Coming into Round 9 of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship at Spa, the season had already seen ten different winners. Voisin took the lead at the start from his first ever F3 pole position, while Montoya slotted into second place. Disaster for championship leader Mini as he spun and dropped to 29th from his 11th spot on the grid. At the end of the opening lap Voisin led from Montoya who had started fourth. Fornaroli was third with Dunne and Leon completing the top five.

Sprint Race winner from Saturday Beganovic was 12th. Lindblad, another championship contender and winner of the opening race of the season was 16th having moved up eleven places. DRS was enabled on Lap 2, and Voisin was hounded by both Montoya and Fornaroli for the race lead.

Safety Car was deployed following a collision between Taponen and Stenshorne. Polish driver Casper Sztuka came into the pits for a new front wing. Australian Mansell had moved up to 12th from his 20th starting position.

Track went green on Lap 7, Voisin got the jump on Montoya at the re-start while Meguetounif snatched fourth from Dunne. Before the lap was over the Safety Car was deployed again after Sophia Floersch and James Loake made contact and ended up in the gravel. Loake was able to get back on the track.

Racing resumed on Lap 9. Again, Voisin made a good getaway from Montoya and Fornaroli to maintain his lead. Lap 10 Lindblad was put into a spin and stranded in the kitty litter after contact with Mansell. In Turn 10 of the same lap Boya went into the barriers after suffering a puncture from contact with Charlie Wurz. Another Safety Car period ensued. This was third SC appearance in the 15-lap race.

Green means go with two laps to go, and that is what Voisin did. Despite DRS being enabled on the final the English driver was able to resist challenge from Montoya to capture his first victory in F3. Montoya’s second place was his first podium of the season. Third place for Fornaroli catapulted the Italian to the championship lead.

The final round of the championship takes place after the summer break at Monza.