Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar topped the times in the F2 practice session of the 2024 Austrian GP weekend. He was followed by Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron and the DAMS Lucas Oil of Jak Crawford. AIX’s Joshua Dürksen was an early retirement after stopping on track only a few minutes in, and Pepe Martí failed to return to the pits after stopping on track following his practice start.
Pirelli brought the Soft and Supersoft tyres this weekend with drivers bolting on the Softs for the practice session. The weekend will be a challenge for the F2 teams, with new gravel traps installed in a bid to avoid racing riddled with track limits violations. Tyre degradation will also prove a huge factor this weekend, with the on-track temperature reaching 35.7°C.
Green Light
First onto the track was Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Amaury Cordeel, and over ten minutes in, the fastest time on the board was PREMA’s Oliver Bearman. However, he was quickly knocked off by a number of drivers including current Championship leader Paul Aron with a 1:16.680.
With 30 minutes to go of the F2 practice session of the 2024 Austrian GP weekend, the red flags were brought out. Joshua Dürksen was stopped on the main straight. The rest of the drivers returned to the pits on a hot morning in Spielberg.
It didn’t take the Stewards long to recover the stricken AIX of Dürksen. The pit lane was reopened with 26 minutes to go, but the track remained empty for a further couple of minutes. Zane Maloney was first back out on track, eager to get some crucial laps in. Aron’s time remained unbeaten.
The yellow flags came out with 18 minutes to go, before they quickly returned to green. Kush Maini flew off-track coming into Turn 9, managing to keep the car out of the barriers. Luckily, they didn’t affect Victor Martins’ lap, but the ART driver failed to better the time of Aron or Jak Crawford in P2. He slotted into P3 before dropping to P4 as Isack Hadjar topped the times with a 1:16.624. The Campos driver then bettered his own fastest time, posting 1:16.441.
Last Ten Minutes
As the clock ticked down to ten minutes left of the session, the track was at around half-capacity. The two PREMAs of Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a quiet session, with Bearman sitting in P9 and Antonelli in P17. Maloney’s session also appeared to be ropey; he was one of many drivers to find himself in the newly-installed gravel traps.
As the session drew to a close, tyre degradation was proving an issue for the teams. Denis Hauger, struggling with the rear of the car, was off at the apex of Turn 9 straight across the gravel. There were fewer and fewer faster times being posted. The Soft tyres were struggling on the hot track of the Red Bull Ring.
As the chequered flag was waved, Hadjar sat at the top of the times with a 1:16.441. He was followed by Aron, Crawford and Hauger, all within two tenths. As the drivers embarked on their practice starts, Pepe Martí failed to make it back to the pits. The Campos driver stopped on the exit of Turn 3 and could not restart the car. However, this didn’t affect the session.
Quali commences at 1:55pm BST.
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Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool