Isack Hadjar, a driver for Campos Racing, celebrated his victory on the podium after winning the Formula 2 Feature race in Australia. This win was particularly satisfying for Hadjar, as he had previously lost a race due to a penalty for causing a collision. Crossing the finish line ahead of the pack at the Albert Park Circuit, Hadjar secured his second victory at this location. Paul Aron and Zane Maloney joined him on the podium.
At the start of the race, Dennis Hauger, starting from pole position, held onto the lead. However, Andrea Kimi Antonelli made a daring move into Turn 11, snatching first place from Hauger. Maloney, the current championship leader, managed to overtake Richard Verschoor and secure third place. Pepe Marti also made a move, moving into fifth position.
During the race, Victor Martins and Oliver Bearman made impressive gains in the field, with Martins moving from 21st to 11th and Bearman rising nine places overall. Despite Antonelli’s initial lead, Hauger was able to regain the top spot on Lap 2 and establish a comfortable lead.
However, Hauger soon encountered difficulties with his tires, complaining about a lack of grip on the Soft compound. Other drivers, such as Marti and Maloney, also struggled with their rubber, going off the track at Turn 10. Martins had a close call but managed to maintain control of his car.
As the race progressed, it became clear that the Medium compound tires were the better option. Kush Maini demonstrated this by overtaking both Maloney and Antonelli to move into second place. Shortly after Maini’s impressive move, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Joshua Durksen from PHM AIX Racing going off the road at Turn 14.
When the race resumed, Maini took the lead from Hauger, prompting many drivers in the top 10 to pit and switch to the Medium tires. This included Hauger, as well as the teams from Campos and Prema who chose to double stack their pit stops.
But moments later Hauger collided with the barrier at Turn 6 on Lap 11, causing the Safety Car to come out and clear the debris from his MP Motorsport vehicle.
This interruption benefited Hadjar, who made his pit stop and emerged in seventh place, ahead of Antonelli, who had been leading before making his stop.
At the restart, the driver from Campos was able to increase the gap to Antonelli while easily overtaking Taylor Barnard and Roman Stanek to protect his lead.
Paul Aron climbed up the ranks and overtook Antonelli at Turn 11 on Lap 20, and then Maloney passed the Italian driver for a net third place on Lap 25.
Once Maini, Jak Crawford, and Juan Manuel Correa went into the pits on Lap 31, Hadjar regained the lead and cruised to a 4.4s victory over Aron in second place.
The win by the Red Bull Junior is the first for Campos in F2 since Azerbaijan 2019 and a first triumph for the French driver despite the heartbreak of the Sprint race.
Maloney secured another podium finish in third place, ahead of Antonelli and Ritomo Miyata from Rodin, who achieved another top five finish in his rookie F2 season.
The only remaining MP Motorsport car driven by Franco Colapinto finished sixth, but the Argentinian was disqualified after the race for “failing to engage the correct start procedure.”
As a result of this decision, Rafael Villagomez, Martins, and Bearman were all promoted one position, along with Crawford, who claimed the final available point at Albert Park.