JOHN BENNETT CELEBRATES MAIDEN FIA FORMULA 2 POLE POSITION

John Bennett showcased his huge potential once again by claiming a maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship pole position and his best qualifying performance of the season to date at the Red Bull Ring in Austria last weekend (27-29 June).

The Salisbury-based young charger travelled to Spielberg with his Van Amersfoort Racing team ready to push up the grid as the end of the first half of the season approached. Two strong race performances were on his agenda, and the BRDC Rising Star duly made an impressive start to the week once he hit the track on Friday.

Bennett - backed by partners Pangea Insurance, StreetSharp Ltd, Lonetree Limited and Lewco Holdings Limited - took to the short 2.6-mile circuit for free practice and was close to the ultimate pace. He made another step forward in qualifying that afternoon, impressively storming up the order with a rapid time of 1m15.525s.

It was good enough to come within just a mere two tenths of a second from the overall pole position time, closing out the session tenth fastest in a tightly-contested affair. The best news was that the reverse grid system applied for the sprint race takes the top 10 finishers into account, meaning Bennett would secure his first pole position in FIA Formula 2 for the opening race of the weekend.

A manic race would unfold, with Bennett unfortunately unable to maintain his pole advantage off the line as a clutch problem dropped him to fifth when the lights went out. A multi-car incident behind forced a red flag race stoppage and a subsequent safety car restart, after which he held his own with strong pace to challenge for the top spots in the leading train of cars.

Bennett so nearly found an opportunity to slip inside his rivals ahead as they held each other up fighting for success, but Richard Verschoor and Gabriele Mini soon swept by with Bennett powerless against the DRS-advantaged cars behind. With a personal best result within his grasp, heartbreak took it away from him on the final lap as he could do nothing to avoid a spinning car at the hairpin and was removed alongside two other innocent rivals in a multi-car incident.

A second chance to bag some crucial points arrived in Sunday morning's 40-lap Feature race, for which Bennett set off from ninth place on the grid. Despite losing out initially, he charged around the outside of Sebastian Montoya to recover his starting position and then climbed to eighth ahead of Joshua Durksen.

He left his mandatory pitstop and quickly went into battle with Dino Beganovic, the duo trading places. While he unfortunately lost ground as others emerged on fresher tyres from their later stops, and he nursed slight damage from contact on track, Bennett battled past multiple race-winner Arvid Lindbland in a late fight and ended up 14th in the final result.

John Bennett: "A weekend of plenty of ups and downs. I'm really happy with how we did on Friday in qualifying, and to get the pole position and our best starting spot of the season was a good moment for us, and it showed what we know we can do.

"The start didn't go our way unfortunately in the sprint, but we kept our cool and I thought we were able to keep good speed with the pack around us. It was a case of bad luck in the end with the accident. It was something myself and others ahead of me just couldn't do anything to avoid, which was frustrating because it was out of our hands when we should have scored good points and our best FIA Formula 2 result.

"Now we can really look forward to the coming week as it's the British Grand Prix event. Silverstone is a circuit I've had a lot of strong showings at since moving into single seaters, so hopefully that experience and the amazing support of the British crowds can give us that extra little boost that will bring the best out of us."

This weekend is a big one on the FIA Formula 2 racing calendar for the Salisbury racer, as the series travels home to Silverstone for two races in support of the British Grand Prix over the dates of 04-06 July.

Images from James Gasperotti.