F2 Spain: Martins takes dominant win as Correa earns first podium since Spa 2019 crash

The ART driver rediscovered his 2023 F2 form with a composed domination of the Barcelona sprint race.

Victor Martins put on a masterclass to get his F2 campaign back on track with victory in the Spanish Sprint race.

The ART driver had struggled across the opening rounds of the new season but showed his full ability as he converted a second-place starting position into the lead by Turn 1 and never looked back.

Martins would lead home Ritomo Miyata, though the Rodin driver was demoted to eighth after receiving two five-second penalties for abusing track limits.

The Japanese driver was far from alone in his track limits breaches, with Roman Stanek (Trident) and Zane Maloney (Rodin) both sanctioned while Franco Colapinto, Dennis Hauger (both MP Motorsport) and Maloney, again, all subject to post-race investigations.

After a poor start from pole, Kush Maini (Invicta) dropped back to fifth in the opening exchanges but made quick work of climbing back to the tail of Miyata.

Not only was it Martins’ first trip to the podium this season, but it was also the first piece of silverware for Juan Manuel Correa (DAMS) since the horrific crash in Belgium in 2019 in which he sustained multiple injuries.

Juan Manuel Correa, Dams

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

He made a penultimate lap move on Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta), whose tyres had dropped off the cliff.

It was another day to forget for Prema as well, as both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman struggled, with the former finishing P10 and the latter dropping like a stone to the rear of the pack before pitting. He returned to the track and finished in P21, 41s off the pace.

In truth, the action was limited with cars quickly forming DRS trains and being forced to manage tyres due to the extremely high levels of degradation that are common on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Paul Aron (Hitech) maintained his championship lead with a fourth-place finish while his chief rival, Isack Hadjar (Campos) could manage only seventh.

Maloney’s slide down drivers’ standings continued as the once championship leader came home in P19.

F2 Spain - Sprint race results

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Bonus
1	V. Martins ART Grand Prix	1	26	-
2	K. Maini Invicta Racing	9	26	+4.400 4.4	4.400
3	J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil	8	26	+7.900 7.9	3.500
4	P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight	17	26	+8.600 8.6	0.700
5	J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil	7	26	+9.000 9.0	0.400
6	G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing	10	26	+10.700 10.7	1.700
7	I. Hadjar Campos Racing	20	26	+11.600 11.6	0.900
8	R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport	6	26	+12.600 12.6	1.000
9	D. Hauger MP Motorsport	11	26	+17.800 17.8	5.200
10	A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam	4	26	+24.900 24.9	7.100
11	F. Colapinto MP Motorsport	12	26	+25.500 25.5	0.600
12	Z. O'Sullivan ART Grand Prix	2	26	+25.900 25.9	0.400
13	J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing	24	26	+26.800 26.8	0.900
14	P. Martí Campos Racing	21	26	+27.400 27.4	0.600
15	R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing	15	26	+28.000 28.0	0.600
16	R. Verschoor Trident	22	26	+29.300 29.3	1.300
17	A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight	16	26	+29.800 29.8	0.500
18	E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing	14	26	+31.700 31.7	1.900
19	Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport	5	26	+36.400 36.4	4.700
20	T. Barnard PHM AIX Racing	25	26	+38.300 38.3	1.900
21	O. Bearman Prema Powerteam	3	26	+41.400 41.4	3.100
22	R. Staněk Trident	23	26	+41.500 41.5	0.100
View full results