Qualifying
- Zak and Victor put their best foot forward to aim for the first row of the grid behind the wheel of the new 2024 Formula 2 single-seaters. With just one flying lap and only very small margins, the Briton took 6th place, 1 tenth from pole position and the Frenchman secured P8, 24 hundredths behind the best time of the session.
Sprint Race
- The two ART Grand Prix drivers got off to an excellent start, with Zak managing to move into 2nd position ahead of Victor. On soft tires, the Frenchman immediately gained the upper hand over his teammate who was equipped with the harder compound.
- Victor attacked the leader without succeeding in taking command but was still in 2nd place halfway through the race.
- The high degradation of his tires suddenly caused him to fall down the ranking. Still 5th with three laps to go, he crossed the line in 11th.
- On the contrary, Zak lost ground until halfway through the race (from 2nd to 9th) before taking advantage of his hard tires to take 7th place.
Feature Race
- Once again Zak had an excellent start and by taking advantage of a collision on the opening lap, he found himself in P2.
- On the contrary, Victor had wheelspin before being forced to slow down I order to avoid a car crossing the track, leaving him in 12th place after just two corners.
- On the 11th of 32 laps, Victor was the first to change tires. Zak waited until mid-race and the two ART Grand Prix drivers found themselves together on the track, in 5th and 6th places.
- Unfortunately, an electronic problem caused Victor to retire from the race.
- Zak moved up into 2nd place, but the drop in performance of his tires caused him to lose two places in the final laps.
Sébastien Philippe:
“A small mistake in qualifying compromised our places on the grid, but we quickly identified it. Furthermore, with only one driver finishing in the points, the result does not reflect the potential of the team nor that of the drivers. Finally, tire degradation must be better controlled and brought into line with the new car in all track conditions. But we must remain focused on our objectives based on the good work done over the winter, because all the data was good. Our race pace was very strong and Zak came close to celebrating his first race with at ART Grand Prix on the podium. An electronic problem deprived Victor of a good result but the strategy of getting him out of traffic was the right one. We hope that success will be on our side in Jeddah to really launch our season into the top level.”
Victor Martins:
“We were happy with our winter testing and went into Bahrain with confidence. I like the Sakhir circuit, where we performed very well last year, however the new aerodynamic package doesn’t fundamentally change the car’s behavior. But here, the heat, the wind and the layout can make tire management very complicated. We saw that in the sprint race! The team reacted well in the feature race, pulling me out of traffic, but a mechanical problem prevented me from seeing if the strategy would have paid off in the end. We have to take it on the chin and just hope that Bahrain was our tough break and come back even stronger in Jeddah.”
Copyright: Dutch Photo Agency
