Race 2 gets underway after a downpour that floods the track, but it doesn't rain at the start with the sun peeking through the clouds again and slowly drying the Red Bull Ring track. The start is behind the Safety Car. At the start Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Prema Racing, in pole position steadily holds the P1. The driver from Bologna dominates the race in the wet, undisputed leader, never sees his position at risk. No problems, in his first race of the weekend for the Junior Mercedes, not even on the Safety Car restart, on the track after the accident between Nicola Lacorte, Iron Lynx, and Zachary David, US Racing. Antonelli, on the run, builds an increasingly consistent gap and passes first under the checkered flag. He lost something only at the end, due to the rising pressure of the Pirelli rain tires on a track that was gradually drying out, but the advantage built earlier was more than enough to give him a sure and unchallenged victory.
Second was Rafael Camara, a Brazilian from Prema in the Ferrari Driver Academy program, who thus redeemed the misfortunes of race 1 with his first podium of the weekend. He fails to catch up with the leader, but in turn detaches the rest of the group, leaving opportunities for rivals to contend only for P3. Third is Alexander Dunne, who returns to the podium after his victory in race 1 this morning. The Irishman of US Racing emerges victorious from the 5-way fight that branches out during race 2. He tries to get even something more by continuing to push, sets the fastest lap with 1'41.543, but the two in front are just too far. He is forced to slow down for a gear engagement problem in the middle of the fight, but manages to come back from that on top and crosses the line third. James Wharton, PREMA Racing (another one of the Italian F.4 drivers representing the Ferrari program dedicated to young talent); Kacper Sztuka, US Racing; and Charlie Wurz, PREMA Racing, are Dunne's main opponents for the third step of the podium. Prema's Australian gives a though battle on the track: he briefly passes Dunne in P3 before losing his position, then gets the worst of it in a tussle with Poland's Sztuka. The two get side by side and touch tyres. Sztuka parades ahead and closes in P4, while Wurz takes advantage of the battle to gain P5 over his teammate and, with Antonelli and Camara, completes a Rookie podium all composed of drivers from the Italian team. Wharton finishes sixth.
P7 to Maya Weug. The on-track representative of Iron Dames and Ferrari Driver Academy struggles a bit at the start, in a race that calls the young drivers to a difficult job of tyre management with a very wet start, she then finds her pace and maintains the position, tooking full advantage of the excellent work started yesterday in qualifying. In P8 is Iron Lynx's Portuguese Ivan Franco Domingues, who thus has a chance to collect his first points of the weekend after his bad luck in race 1, in which he was forced to retire after an accident caused by contact with Bedrin. Ninth was Conrad Laursen, Dane driver of Prema Racing, who finished under the checkered flag preceding Brando Badoer, Italian driver of Van Amersfoort Racing. Problems for his teammate, Emerson Jr. Fittipaldi. The Brazilian, stable in P13, spun right on the last corner before the final straight and finished 17th.
Troubles also for Dane William Karlsson, BVM Racing, who was stopped on the final lap by an accident in Turn 4 with Pedro Perino, US Racing, with the two closing on the rear end of the race after having been involved in a good fight in the midst of the group on the restart from the Safety Car. For both, Perino and David, comes post-race penalty with 5 grid positions lost for the next race. Penalty also for Arvin Lindblad, Van Amersfoort Racing, who gest 10’’ post race due to his contact with Frederik Lund.
Tomorrow we resume with Race 3, starting at 10:35, with Group A and C drivers, before ranking the 36 drivers qualified to take it to the track for the final race of the weekend, at 17:25.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “was a tricky race, the conditions were not the easiest. Was really wet in the beginning, but then the track started to dry up. The car felt amazing, I want to thank my team for the hard work, all my sponsors, my family and all those who support me. We will see tomorrow what we can do.”
Rafael Camara: “the first race, unfortunately I had the contact in T4. I was looking forward for this race, I think was quite tricky conditions, because it was very wet before the race and after it was drying very quickly. I tried to catch Kimi, but he was just more fast. In the beginning he was quite close, then after he opened the gap and I couldn’t follow him. I think in the end it was a good result and now I will try to focus for the last race tomorrow.
Alexander Dunne: “it’s been a good day, pretty succesful. P3 in the end is not too bad, we possibly could have got P2, but halfway during the race there was a gear problem, so I couldn’t shift up, that’s why I lost about 3 seconds. If that didn’t happened, P2 was definetely possible because the pace was really strong, I’m happy.”
Charlie Wurz: “after a difficult qualifying yesterday, where we didn’t quite find the right setup we were a bit frustrated. We knew this track is a good track to overtake with a mix conditions, we can gain quite a few positions in the race if we just keep our head down and make sure we do everything perfectly, and I think that’s what happened today. Starting P9 we made our way up to P5 through just keeping it cool and calm and, after, attacking when we had the opportunity. In the end we finished P5 with good pace and we found a step in the right direction with the setup. I was quite happy with the balance and I think that helped us today.”
Maya Weug: "it was a very particular race. It was raining a lot in the pregrid, we all went out with rain tyres. At the beginning we struggled a little bit, lacked a little bit of pace. When it was gradually drying up, it was a little better, however with what we lost at the beginning it was difficult. In the end the pace was good, that's important, I'm happy to score some points. Let's see what’s the weather tomorrow."
