The Barcelona driver secured second place in Saturday's sprint race, while the Frenchman had his turn on Sunday, finishing third after a remarkable comeback. Campos Racing continues to lead the teams' standings
Another standout performance by Campos Racing drivers at the seventh round of the FIA Formula 2 season, held this past weekend at the Red Bull Ring, the venue for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix. In a race marking the midpoint of the current campaign and significant as Red Bull's home ground, both Isack Hadjar and Pepe Martí made their podium appearances again. For Hadjar, the Frenchman turned his weekend around after a blown engine during qualifying. Martí, on the other hand, secured his third podium in his debut season in the category.
On Friday, during free practice, Hadjar showed he was on another level. He clocked a time of 1m16.441s, leaving his closest rival more than two-tenths behind, which is quite remarkable on a short track like Spielberg. Martí was twelfth with a time of 1m17.060s in the first contact with Austrian soil.
In qualifying, Hadjar again proved to be the true dominator of Friday by setting a time of 1m15.828s on his first set of super-soft tires, leaving his pursuers more than two-tenths behind again. However, it would be his only attempt to fight for pole position as a trail of white smoke indicated that his car's engine had failed. As a result, six drivers managed to beat Hadjar's previous time with their second set of new tires, leaving him seventh at the end, just ahead of Martí. The Spanish driver, despite losing two-tenths at the final corner, set a time of 1m15.893s, earning him eighth place alongside his teammate.
On Saturday, before the 28-lap sprint race, Campos Racing's mechanics had their own race to replace Hadjar's engine in time. With Martí and Hadjar starting third and fourth in the reversed grid, the Spaniard took advantage of the start to overtake Kush Maini and move into second place in the early stages. Hadjar, on the other hand, dropped back in the pack as if the new engine couldn't deliver full power. In a race where it was vital to finish with the tires in good condition due to high temperatures, Martí focused on controlling Maini behind him while keeping an eye on race leader Oliver Bearman. From lap 18, Martí closed in on Bearman as Maini fell back, overtaken by several drivers. Martí, who kept the pressure on Bearman throughout the race, crossed the finish line in second place. Hadjar finished in thirteenth.
Sunday's feature race, with a pit stop and scheduled for 40 laps, was another tough test for everyone. Both Hadjar and Martí decided to start this feature race on super-soft tires, like most of the front runners. When the lights went out, both Campos Racing drivers avoided the usual first-lap incidents and were fifth and sixth at the end of the first lap. Hadjar tried several times to overtake Paul Aron, but the Estonian changed his line during braking multiple times, resulting in a five-second penalty later on. Behind them, Martí tried to hold off Bearman, but his tires experienced more wear so he was the first to head to the pits on lap 6. Just as he was entering the pit lane, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed because a car had stopped on track. Once the green flag was back, Hadjar's stop came on lap 8, in an attempt to undercut Aron. This maneuver not only allowed him to overtake Aron but also Joshua Dürksen.
Thus, among those who had pitted, Martí was the virtual leader while Hadjar was third. Martí lost some time overtaking slower cars that hadn't pitted yet and, not wanting to wear out his tires, was passed by Gabriel Bortoleto on lap 20. Hadjar himself, at the request of the team that asked Martí to give up the position, also overtook his teammate on lap 27 and tried to go after Bortoleto on the condition that if the Frenchman couldn’t catch the race leader, he would return the position. By then, the gap had already widened to three seconds, and the Frenchman, who was followed closely by Martí, was unable to close it. But at that very moment, and before Hadjar could return the position, a notice came from the race director indicating that Martí’s pit stop had been illegal because it occurred under the VSC and would incur a penalty. From then on, since Pepe would end up in the back positions due to the penalty, the new goal for the Spaniard was to defend Hadjar’s position from Franco Colapinto, who was on a different strategy and finishing with the super-soft tires, making a full comeback. The Argentine overtook half a dozen drivers in the final stages, including Hadjar and Martí, who crossed the finish line in third and fourth place. Finally, as had been indicated beforehand during the race, the stewards decided to impose a drive-through penalty (converted to thirty seconds) on Martí because, although they appreciated and noted that the Spanish driver was only two meters away (at the speed he was traveling at that moment, barely a tenth of a second) from the safety car line 1 when the VSC was implemented, understanding why he continued with the operation, that pit stop was a violation of the Sporting Regulations (stopping during a VSC).
At the halfway point, Hadjar remains second in the drivers' standings with 106 points, eleven behind Aron. Martí is 12th with 37 points. In the teams' standings, Campos Racing also holds the lead with 143 points, one more than Hitech Pulse-Eight.
The non-stop calendar of the category continues next weekend at Silverstone, with two more key races kicking off the second half of the season.
Photos: © Dutch Photo Agency
