JOHN BENNETT GAMBLES BUT NARROWLY MISSES POINTS FINISH IN MIAMI

British motorsport rising star John Bennett battled the elements and narrowly missed out on a points finish as he returned to action in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in Miami this past weekend (02/03 May).

The Salisbury-based racer kicked off the 2026 season with Trident in Australia back in March, before a lengthy unplanned gap in the calendar followed due to the cancellation of rounds set to run in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia last month.

Bennett - backed by Lonetree Limited - was instead greeted by the addition of Miami and Montreal to the adjusted calendar, with the North American double beginning with his first-ever outing on the Miami International Autodrome street circuit alongside the F1 paddock.

Alarming weather reports pointed to possible disruptions over the weekend, with sunny skies and 38-degree heat initially changing to thunderstorms on Sunday, with Bennett well prepared for whatever conditions came his way.

Bennett instantly took to the new circuit with confidence and he showed strong pace during the crucial qualifying session on Friday afternoon. He moved his #25 machine up the order to as high as P15 by the chequered flag, which seemed unrepresentative when looking at the times as Bennett was a mere half a second from pole position, and just a tenth of a second from the sprint race pole.

With encouraging signs from the opening day of work on track, the former GB3 vice champion arrived on Saturday hopeful of climbing the field to earn some championship points. A good start improved that situation further, as he jumped briefly to 13th by braving it around the outside of IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta in a fantastic side-by-side battle between the pair.

Bennett was eased slightly wide and down a place during this scrap, but not only did he get that spot back, he also went into combat with Ritomo Miyata and edged his way in front of him for 12th. Two spots shy of the points he craved, he came close but settled for 13th after a late swap between himself and Miyata.

The storm duly arrived on Sunday, with drivers bolting on wet tyres for what proved a chaotic and safety car-filled contest. As incidents thankfully broke out away from Bennett, he found himself as high as third on strategy calls as cars opted to pit in waves during individual safety car periods. The British racer emerged just outside the top ten, before the team made the bold decision to gamble for a set of dry-weather slick tyres.

The gamble was on a knife edge - potentially the difference between no points or an amazing race result. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not quite kind enough and as a result, he did not have the grip required underneath him to make the slicks work.

Following a return to the pits for wet tyres, he finished up 14th overall. He had impressed everyone with his speed in the wet though, lapping as the second fastest driver on the grid in the tricky conditions.

John Bennett: "It's good to be back out on track after a strange period out due to reasons obviously out of our hands, but it meant getting to race here in Miami and in Canada next also, which is a very cool experience.

"Qualifying I thought went well, but again it was just incredibly tight in terms of the times through the field which I think made our grid position look a bit unrepresentative to what we were showing with the car. We worked hard on our pace and set-up over the weekend and in the first race made a strong start. We had a great battle with Colton before just having to get out of the throttle to avoid being squeezed towards the wall on the first lap, but again we showed our fight and made up places as it went on.

"Sunday was obviously a very different story! I'm grateful that we got the chance to actually race because it was looking sketchy for a while, but when it did a lot of the race went from survival to just trying to judge the changes in conditions. We decided to gamble on slicks, and sadly it didn't work out. We don't regret it though - anything can happen in those situations so we felt it was worth a shot.

"I'm really looking forward to Canada next up. It's another new circuit not just for me but for Formula 2 in general, so it's a clean slate and a chance to prove ourselves."

The Salisbury star driver will tackle two races around the famous Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve street circuit in Montreal in three weeks' time (22-24 May).

Images from Dutch Photo Agency.