Starting from pole at Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya, Oliver Bearman handed PREMA Racing its sixth win of the year the FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at the Spanish venue. The British rookie had a challenging start but quickly fought to the lead, dominating the early stages. Starting with option tyres, the Ferrari Driver Academy member maximised his pace early and then waited for all the contenders on the reverse strategy to pit. At that point, he was solidly back in the lead and crossed the finish line with a great margin. For him, it was the third win of the year after his Baku sweep.

Frederik Vesti did an equally impressive job starting from the 8th position after taking the Sprint Race win yesterday. The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Junior driver started with the harder compound and focused on maximizing his opening stint. In the final stages, now on new soft tyres, he cruised past several competitors moving up to P5 and even challenging for a potential podium spot.

With his top-5 result, Vesti was able to extend his lead in the driver championship, while PREMA Racing also increased its margin atop the team classification, having won five of the last six races between Baku, Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

7 FREDERIK VESTI

“We finished P5 from P8 on the grid in the Feature Race. It was a very exciting race and a very cool one because our strategy was working, as it’s always a bit of a risk to start on the prime tyres. The traffic on the other strategy was quite bad which led us to be in a good place after the pit stop. Once I got new tyres, it was amazing to overtake left right and center. We almost fought for the podium, but we’ll take the points. This weekend, we extended the championship lead, and we continue pushing.”

Qualifying: P8
Starting Position Race 1: P3
Starting Position Race 2: P8
Fastest Lap: 1:24.009
Race 1: P1
Race 2: P5

8 OLLIE BEARMAN

“Not a bad race today! I made a good start, not as good as I was hoping for, but I managed to be in the lead into sector 2, which was the goal. We tried to extend on options as much as possible and managed to do so. That obviously got us in a good position when we put the prime. After that, it was pretty clear sailing, although it was tough to pass all these cars without damaging my tyres. Once I was in the lead, it was just the case of managing and saving a bit of tyres in case of a safety car or something like that. I’m super happy with this result, now let’s go forward to Austria.”

Qualifying: P1
Starting Position Race 1: P10
Starting Position Race 2: P1
Fastest Lap: 1:23.546
Race 1: P7
Race 2: P1

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing