F2 race in Melbourne!

Qualifying

A spin by Victor on his first push lap saw him sidelined from qualifying and he had to start from 21^st on the grid for both races.
Zak fought his way into the top 10 and eventually crossed the line down in 11^th.

Sprint race

Victor made a good start, moving from 21^st to 13^th position on the first lap. He maintained an excellent pace which enabled him to overtake a lot of cars and eventually score points for 7^th place, 14 places from his starting position.
Zak also drove a solid race to move up into 8th place and secure 1 point.

Feature race

On soft tires, Victor made an excellent start and gained 5 positions before the first corner. He continued his comeback up to 10^th place before taking his one and only pit stop. He finished P9 at the flag, a gain of 12 places.
Zak started on the hard tire but was quickly forced to retire after being involved in two incidents.

Victor Martins:

“The mistake in qualifying cost us dearly, but there are positives to take from this weekend because we’ve significantly improved the car’s behavior and tire management. The pace was very good in the Sprint race and I also overtook numerous drivers on Sunday on the soft tire. It wasn’t that easy on the hard tires and unfortunately the timing of the safety car didn’t help us. Still, after our complicated start to the season, scoring points in the two Melbourne races after starting from the very last row on the grid is a great reward for all the team’s hard work.”

Sébastien Philippe:

“The raw result certainly does not reflect our potential, which was much higher than it was in the first two weekends. We were fast on a flying lap and Zak missed the Sprint race pole position by the skin of his teeth. Our long stints were pretty good, and Victor’s two comebacks are extremely encouraging as they show we’re heading in the right direction. If we had from the front rows, we could have fought for podiums. On paper, Zak’s strategy was the fastest, but race incidents prevented him from getting the best out of it. We now have two months to get back to our 2023 level of performance, and I fully trust the team to meet this challenge.”