Dennis Hauger survived a late restart and kept his cool to convert reverse grid pole into sprint race victory at Albert Park ahead of Jak Crawford.
In a race where light rain added a degree of difficulty for drivers over the 22 laps, Hauger was never headed and led home Crawford by just over a second with Kush Maini repelling a race-long assault from Arthur Leclerc to claim third.
After rain had fallen in the dying minutes of final F1 practice, the Albert Park circuit was still damp as drivers headed out onto the circuit on their reconnaissance laps. The lack of grip caught out both Enzo Fittipaldi and points leader Ralph Boschung, who spun on their way to the grid and did not start.
The start was delayed, forcing the drivers to wait an extra five minutes to get F2’s first race in Australis underway. When the lights went out, pole winner Dennis Hauger successfully held the lead into turn one with Jak Crawford keeping second place.
Crawford challenged Hauger along the back straight into the fast chicane of turns nine and ten, but had to slot back into second. Behind them, a melee behind saw feature race pole winner Ayumu Iwasa pick up a puncture from contact with Zane Maloney, forcing him to pit.
Kush Maini ran third but came under pressure from Arthur Leclerc behind. Leclerc appeared to take the position from the Campos driver into the fast chicane along Lakeside Drive, but Maini dived back down the inside of his DAMS rival into turn 11 to keep the place.
Hauger continued to lead but Crawford kept well within a second of him in his pursuit of the leader. Leclerc had another look to the inside of Maini on the run to the chicane, but was aggressively rebuffed, leading to vocal complaints from Leclerc over team radio.
Around the mid point of the race, drivers started to receiving warnings that more rain main soon be on the way. A major multi-car battle over fifth place broke out between Maloney, Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins the Premas of Frederick Vesti and Oliver Bearman, but despite fighting among each other across the entire final sector, all five successfully avoided tripping over each other.
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As rain started to fall on lap 14, Jack Doohan in 12th was hit by Juan Manuel Correa into turn three, spinning the Virtuosi driver into a stall and retirement. With Doohan’s car stranded, the Safety Car was deployed as rain began falling more heavily around the circuit.
Back in the pack, Theo Pourchaire, Roman…
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