2024 F2 Highlights Part 2: Return to Europe

12 November 2024

We are closing in on the final two rounds of the 2024 Formula 2 season but before we get to Round 13 and Lusail, we’re recapping some of the highlights of the year so far.

In the second part of this series, we take a look back at the Imola and Monte Carlo rounds that kicked off the European leg of the campaign and two rookies who made their mark.

Colapinto announces his F2 arrival

Franco Colapinto had tasted success around Imola previously back in Formula 3, and it was around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari that the Argentine found his feet in F2.

At the wheel for MP Motorsport in his fourth race weekend in the Championship, Colapinto secured a spot in the top 10 in Qualifying, which became a front row start for Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Early season title contender Paul Aron got the jump on the MP driver however at lights out. The Estonian surged ahead from third on the grid and then passed teammate Amaury Cordeel into Turn 1 to seize the lead ahead of the Lap 1 Safety Car.

After racing resumed on Lap 6, Aron began to stretch his advantage but an error from Cordeel entering Lap 7 opened the door for Colapinto to move up to second.

Then began the slow game of back and forth between the race leader and his closest rival, as the Argentine driver whittled away the gap between himself and P1.

Having been over two seconds behind Aron at the restart, Colapinto clawed his way to within DRS range of the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver by Lap 13. But the Estonian’s resistance looked set to go the distance and keep him just far enough out of range to prevent a pass.

That was until an untidy Turn 18 from Aron entering the final lap allowed Colapinto to close right up and gain a strong slipstream.

Aron was forced to defend his lead into the first chicane, but Colapinto wasn’t going to lose his chance, and he squeezed his way by the Hitech to take P1 and the race victory on the last lap of the Sprint Race.

Colapinto was on the charge around Imola and his pressure paid off for victory in the Sprint

ART and O’Sullivan hit the jackpot

Sometimes in motorsport, the stars will align when the odds seemed impossibly long, and for ART Grand Prix and Zak O’Sullivan, their number came up in Monte Carlo.

In one of the unlikeliest of wins in recent memory, the Briton benefitted from a late-race Virtual Safety Car to secure victory around the famous streets to leave Campos Racing and Isack Hadjar wondering how it had got away from them.

However, it wasn’t just down to the intervention and perfectly timed pitstop that put ART on the top step. O’Sullivan had gone under the radar in his lengthy first stint with pace strong enough to put him in a position to benefit.

In a race that already had plenty of drama after pole sitter Richard Verschoor was left on the sidelines having been set for victory, there was one final twist to come.

After Hadjar had taken over in front, those on the conventional strategy had completed their mandatory pitstops and with the race entering its latter stages, it all looked straightforward for the Frenchman.

As one of the final runners yet to pit on the Soft tyres he’d started with, O’Sullivan ran as long as he possibly could, but his times were respectable given the age of his red-walled rubber.

Contact between Joshua Duerksen and Zane Maloney prompted the VSC deployment but not before ART brought O’Sullivan in to satisfy the regulations of completing a stop under racing conditions.

He rejoined just ahead of Hadjar, who couldn’t believe what he was now seeing as victory slipped away. The VSC was withdrawn, and O’Sullivan resisted the pressure from the Campos driver across the final lap to earn a memorable win.