The 2024 Sakhir FIA Formula 2 round was a motor race held between 29 February and 2 March 2024 at the Bahrain International Circuit in

Sakhir Sakhir ( ) is a desert area located in the Southern Governorate of Bahrain, near Zallaq. It contains the Al-Sakhir Palace, built in 1870. Camping in Sakhir during the winter months is a popular activity in the country. Notable sites In the earl ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. It was the first race of the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship and was being held in support of the

2024 Bahrain Grand Prix The 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024) was a Formula One motor race held on 2 March 2024 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. It was the opening round of the 2024 Form ...

Rodin Motorsport Rodin Motorsport (formerly known as Carlin Motorsport, Carlin and Rodin Carlin) is a motor racing team based in the United Kingdom. It currently competes in six championships: FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, BRDC Britis ...

driver Zane Maloney got off to a perfect start into the 2024 season as he won both races of the weekend, to become the third driver in the series' history after

Felipe Drugovich Felipe Drugovich Roncato (born 23 May 2000) is a Brazilian-Italian racing driver of Austrian descent who last competed in FIA Formula 2 Championship with MP Motorsport. He is the 2018 Euroformula Open champion and the 2022 Formula 2 champion. ...

and

Oliver Bearman Oliver Bearman (born 8 May 2005) is a British racing driver. He was the 2021 Italian and ADAC Formula 4 champion and is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. He most recently competed for Prema Racing in the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship, en ...

to do so.

Report

Background

The round saw the competitive début of the new Dallara F2 2024 chassis. The F2 2024 was introduced to replace the Dallara F2 2018 chassis which had been used since 2018.

Team changes

New Zealand automotive manufacturer Rodin Cars took over Carlin and renamed the team ''Rodin Motorsport'', after previously becoming majority shareholder in 2023. Virtuosi Racing was entered under the moniker ''Invicta Racing'' after watchmaker Invicta deepened its involvement with the team, having been its title sponsor in 2023.

Driver changes

Reigning driver's champion Théo Pourchaire left ART Grand Prix and the series, as the category's sporting regulations disallow such title defenses. The previous year's top four finishers – Pourchaire, Frederik Vesti, Jack Doohan, and Ayumu Iwasa – would all exit the series. Reigning

FIA Formula 3 Championship The FIA Formula 3 Championship is a third-tier international single-seater racing championship and organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship launched in 2019 as a feeder series for the FIA Formula 1 W ...

champion Gabriel Bortoleto entered the championship with Invicta Racing, with Formula Regional European Championship champion

Andrea Kimi Antonelli Andrea Kimi Antonelli (born 25 August 2006) is an Italian racing driver currently set to race in the 2023 Formula Regional European Championship with Prema Racing. He previously competed in the Italian F4 Championship and ADAC Formula 4 Champi ...

making his debut in the series for Prema Racing, and reigning

Super Formula The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) an ...

champion

Ritomo Miyata (born August 10, 1999) is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in Super Formula for Kuo Vantelin Team TOM'S and Super GT for TGR Team WedsSport Bandoh. He is a 2 time Japanese F4 champion and the 2020 Super Formula Lights champion. E ...

joining

for his international motorsport debut with the support of Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Classification

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on 29 February 2024, at 16:55 local time (

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

). ;Notes * –

Rafael Villagómez Rafael Villagómez Jr. (born 10 November 2001) is a Mexican race car driver who is currently competing in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship for Van Amersfoort Racing. He won the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy competition in 2019. Career ...

and

Franco Colapinto Franco Alejandro Colapinto (born 27 May 2003) is an Argentine-Italian racing driver who is due to compete in FIA Formula 3 for MP Motorsport. He is the 2019 F4 Spanish champion and a race winner in the European Le Mans Series. He is a member of ...

set identical times in qualifying; Villagómez was classified ahead as he set his lap time earlier. * – Kush Maini originally qualified first and claimed

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

for the feature race, but was subsequently disqualified after his car's undertray was found to be in violation of series regulations. He was allowed to compete in the races at the stewards' discretion.

Sprint race

The sprint race was held on 1 March 2024, at 17:15 local time (

). Notes * –

received a ten-second penalty post-race for causing a collision with Amaury Cordeel. His final position was not affected by the penalty.

Feature race

The feature race was held on 2 March 2024, at 13:30 local time (

). Notes: * –

Paul Aron Paul Aron (born 4 February 2004) is an Estonian racing driver currently set to race in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship with Prema Racing. He previously competed in the Formula Regional European Championship for Prema in 2021 and 2022, in wh ...

and

both received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. However, their final positions were not affected by their penalties. * – Richard Verschoor originally finished thirteenth, but received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him down to fourteenth in the final classification.

Standings after the event

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Teams' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links

Official website
{{Portal bar, Bahrain, Sports

Sakhir Formula 2 Sakhir Formula 2