Maini began the characteristic race from pole place and with two factors in his pocket, by advantage of Oliver Bearman’s withdrawal from the weekend with a purpose to substitute Carlos Sainz on the Ferrari Components 1 outfit with the Spaniard rendered unfit via appendicitis.
Whereas the Invicta driver made an ideal begin, issues have been wild behind with Bahrain double podium winner Pepe Marti shedding the rear of his Campos entry on the exit of Flip 2 and spinning into the trail of Trident driver Roman Staněk.
Whereas Marti initially blamed the spin on contact from Franco Colapinto, the MP Motorsport driver choosing up injury within the incident, replays cleared him of guilt.
Gabriel Bortoleto was one other early retiree, pulling his Invicta entry off the observe with a mechanical drawback whereas the protection automobile allowed for the Flip 2 clear-up to be accomplished.
The race noticed solely 4 drivers – Staněk, Bortoleto, Juan Manuel Correa, Taylor Barnard and Amaury Cordeel – begin on the medium tyre, with the rest of the sphere utilizing the supersoft choice. On lap six, after finishing the minimal distance on the softest rubber, the pack started to file into the pitlane to finish their mandated stops.
Fittipaldi (Van Amersfoort Racing) had began from fourth and, after dropping behind Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli within the opening exchanges, promoted himself to the online race lead on lap 13, utilizing DRS to move a defenceless Maini.
Jak Crawford, Dams, leads Roman Stanek, Trident, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing, at the beginning
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
Bu on lap 15, Colapinto threw a curveball into the combination as a faucet of the wall on the closing nook triggered him to lose the rear at Flip 1, inflicting one other security automobile interruption.
Regardless of the protection automobile taking the sphere via the pits, Correa elected to not benefit from an inexpensive cease, Barnard and Cordeel each selecting to take the possibility that the supersoft rubber may final 13 laps – a distance which, by the point the race resumed, was all the way down to 10.
The race-winning transfer got here in breathtaking fashion at the beginning of lap 22, as Fittipaldi went three-wide with Cordeel and Correa earlier than making his manner across the outdoors of each drivers.
Whereas Maini additionally made mild work of the supersoft-shod runners, Cordeel was relegated two additional locations on the road as Hauger and Jak Crawford each flew by on the exit of the ultimate nook.
