JOHN BENNETT SETS SIGHTS ON IMOLA AS LUCK EVADES HIM IN SAUDI ARABIA

John Bennett was out of luck during the third meeting of the 2025 FIA Formula 2 season in Saudi Arabia last weekend (18-20 April), where points deserted him at the Jeddah Corniche circuit ahead of the European summer run.

After flirting with the points-paying positions a week prior in Bahrain, the Salisbury-based talent quickly headed to a new venue in his burgeoning single-seater career - the high-speed Jeddah street circuit in Saudi Arabia.

Backed by partners Pangea Insurance, StreetSharp Ltd, Lonetree Limited and Lewco Holdings Limited, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver laid down his first laps of the weekend in Friday practice, finishing only just over a second from the ultimate pace in a tight session.

Gearing up for his push laps in qualifying, Bennett pumped in an initial effort just 1.5s from the pole time, with pace still very much to burn in his VAR machine. He unfortunately then suffered suspension damage against the wall coming out of the fast banked hairpin, meaning he was never able to show that speed in the final 10 minutes.

Bennett, who is part of the prestigious BRDC Rising Stars programme, would therefore start in an unrepresentative position on the final row of the grid for the weekend's two races. As the lights went out for the opener, Bennett neatly sidestepped Cian Shields crashing directly in front of him heading into Turn 1. He kept close in the DRS train ahead of him for much of the race, passing both Trident drivers Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif to move up to P18.

During a late safety car, Bennett briefly moved to the race lead as the field headed to the pits. It would prove accidental as he did not get the call to come through the pitlane as a debris-related precaution. This meant he was forced to relinquish the top spot to adhere to protocol, and lost vital ground under green flag running to come home P20.

Hopeful of utilising strategy to make forwards progress in Sunday's feature race, the action started in optimistic fashion again as Bennett immediately dispatched Shields and fought with a trio of competitors in his crosshairs. Unfortunately, the charge ended prematurely when he suffered front wing damage that required unscheduled pit stops, limiting him again to P20 on a weekend to forget for the exciting young talent in his debut full FIA Formula 2 season.

John Bennett: "Luck was just not on our side this weekend unfortunately! I guess it's just motor racing - these kind of weekends happen to everybody and on this occasion it was our turn to have one to put behind us.

"We'll come back stronger. A lot of the dramas in F2 can come from qualifying, and that's where it went wrong for us this weekend. We can hopefully put that right at Imola though, and I'm already looking forward to getting there next month.

"It's a historic and exciting place for any racer to compete at, so I'll go there determined and focused to go and get a result for us. Thank you to the team again, and to all my loyal backers and sponsors for their support."

Bennett is back in FIA Formula 2 action in just under a month's time, as the season next takes him to Imola, San Marino, over the weekend of 16-18 May for the Formula 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix event.

Images from James Gasperotti.