UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > F2: Round 2

Bortolotti takes title lead

The second round of Formula Two was held in Brno, Czech Republic. After an incredible opening weekend Robert Wickens leads the championship with the maximum twenty points with his fellow Red Bull backed driver Mirko Bortolotti who is second with eleven points.

The weekend opened with the first of two practice sessions, topped by Red Bull backed Mikhail Aleshin; Nicola De Marco was second 0.379 second slower with Kazim Vasiliauskas third as the only driver within a second of the benchmark time.

Aleshin doubled up with the fastest time in the second session, Edoardo Piscopo was second 0.222 seconds slower and marginally faster than Andy Soucek who was 0.225 of the pace. As the session was wet these three drivers were the only drivers within a second of Aleshin as the next driver was Carlos Iaconelli 1.430 seconds slower in fourth and fifth was Robert Wickens 2.429 seconds off the pace.

The cars were a lot closer in qualifying for the first race. De Marco was fastest to claim his first Formula Two pole. He will be joined on the front row of the grid by Bortolotti with Henri Karjalainen and Aleshin on the second row.

As the opening race began disaster stuck for two Italians before there was intense joy for another, with Bortolotti taking his first win of the season.

Before the race began both pole sitter, De Marco and sixth placed driver Eduardo Piscopo were both pushed off the grid as they were left standing as the remaining twenty four cars headed off on the formation lap. Both drivers were able to take the start from the pit lane.

Once the race began for real, Bortolotti had a clear run in to turn one from second on the grid, but the only car on the front row. Karjalainen started third but with a clear road ahead with De Marco gone, he got bogged down and shoved down a place by Aleshin who took second.

Further back the third Red Bull backed driver, Wickens, starting tenth made contact with Henry Surtees and his car was thrown up into the air. As it came down Jason Moore had nowhere to go resulting in the retirement of both the British drivers. Ironically as Wickens caused the accident and suffered the most contact he was able to recover and catch up to the resulting safety car.

After getting bogged down at the start Karjalainen was under pressure from Phillipp Eng and Carlos Iaconelli, both drivers eventually got past and Karjalainen settled into a rhythm and settled into a quiet race.

Iaconelli was clearly faster than Eng but in his haste to pass the Austrian he spun off the track and into retirement, easing the pressure on Eng, until later in the race.

With wet conditions overnight and the drying track was still very wet off line and it caught out several drivers. After Iaconelli had his spin the conditions also caught out Pietro Gandolfi, Vasiliauskas, Jens Hoing and very late in the race Germán Sánchez all retired.

After their problems three drivers were making huge strides through the field. Piscopo was doing the best picking off drivers one by one eventually reaching seventh place before he could go no further, Wickens made it from the back up to ninth place and De Marco was twelfth.

Up front Bortolotti and Aleshin were still comfortably leading the field, Eng was in third but was coming under pressure from Karjalainen, but despite the Finns great pace in the closing stages he could not find a way past.

Julien Jousse had an eventful race, he had set his car up for dry conditions, and on a damp track early on he was off the pace and dropped back but as the track dried he soon gained time, set the fastest lap and finished fifth.

Armann Ebrahim, was sixth but he too had to defend hard late on from Piscopo. On the last lap Piscopo got alongside and appeared to have sixth place in the bag but Ebrahim refused to give up and hung on to his place.

Tom Gladdis took the final point, holding off a charging Wickens. In the last two laps Wickens was fighting his way through the British wall, after already passing Alex Brundle and Jolyon Palmer to take ninth he came up short against Gladdis, allowing the youngest man in the series to take his first point.

Henry Surtees made up for his disappointment on Saturday by setting pole for Sundays second race. His time was 0.145 seconds faster than Aleshin who will join him on the front row. The third fastest time was set by Bortolotti who receives a five place grid penalty for lining up out of place in the first race, meaning that the second row consisted of De Marco and Jousse.

Front row starters Henry Surtees and Mikhail Aleshin did not get away from the line, which allowed Nicola De Marco into the lead. Soucek leapt from fifth on the grid up to second after he passed Julien Jousse around the outside at turn one.

The opening lap drama continued at turn two as seven cars were involved in a collision, which left Alex Brundle, Henri Karjalainen, German Sanchez, Pietro Gandolfi and Carlos Iaconelli out of the race. Jens Hoing and Robert Wickens were able to continue, although Wickens later retired.

De Marco dominated much of the race, before making a small mistake and dropping down to fourth on lap ten. The Italian was able to recover from the spin and re-passed Edoardo Piscopo in the closing stages to take the final podium position.

This left Andy Soucek to march on to his maiden F2 victory after a faultless display.

Julien Jousse scored his first Formula Two podium, taking second at the finish.

It was a bittersweet moment for De Marco who scored his first podium, but had looked certain to win the race until his spin.

Piscopo held fourth ahead of Milos Pavlovic and Armaan Ebrahim who rounded out the top six. The fight for seventh was intense as Sebastian Hohenthal, Tobias Hegewald, Kazim Vasiliauskas and Phillipp Eng swapped places at will. Contact was made between Hohenthal and Iaconelli, which dropped the Swede down to 12th.

Hohenthal also later collided with championship leader Mirko Bortolotti - the Italian's race ending in the gravel. It was Hegewald who went on to steal seventh, with Vasiliauskas clinching the final championship point.

All three Red Bull Junior drivers failed to finish the second race at Brno, but they still hold a 1-2-3 lead in the championship. Bortolotti leads Wickens by one point, with Aleshin a further four points back.

Written: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:01:54