STRONG FIA FORMULA 2 QUALIFYING FOR JOHN BENNETT IN QATAR

Rising British motorsport star John Bennett made his long-awaited return to the cockpit as the FIA Formula 2 Championship visited Qatar this past weekend (29/30 November) to kick off back-to-back season-concluding events.

The Salisbury-based youngster returned to action after a lengthy break since the previous round of the season in Azerbaijan, hopeful of ending his first full FIA Formula 2 season in style. The final double-header would begin with a trip to Qatar, and two races held around the Lusail circuit in Doha.

Bennett, who is backed by partners Pangea Insurance, StreetSharp Ltd, Lonetree Limited, Lewco Holdings Limited and FIS Facades, made his debut at the same venue 12 months prior, and with it came away with his first ever FIA F2 points after scoring an eighth place finish on only his second race in the series.

A year later, he ventured out on track with the same Van Amersfoort Racing squad hopeful of adding to his points tally, with intent on moving up the Drivers' Championship table in the process. First on his agenda was free practice, and Bennett lapped just outside the top 10 after one hour of on-track running on the flat 3.6-mile desert layout.

He hoped to challenge for the top 10 later that Friday afternoon in qualifying, and it almost came to fruition for the 2024 GB3 vice-champion. Bennett's pace was not far from that of his rivals up at the sharp end of the grid, and he settled into a final finishing position of 13th for the weekend's pair of races.

A Saturday spectacular under the floodlights at Lusail would follow, with Bennett starting from the seventh row of the grid for the 23-lap sprint contest. He would endure a difficult opening lap however, dropping back to as low as 19th after evading the inevitable squeeze for position at the first turn.

A late safety car gave him the chance to switch strategy, as he was one of seven drivers to visit the pit lane for a switch to soft tyres in place of the hard compound which he started the race on. The softer, fresher rubber did give Bennett the chance to move forward in the final six laps, passing the likes of Ritoma Miyata, Laurens Van Hoepen and then Arvid Lindblad to complete a mini charge from the rear up into 15th position at the chequered flag.

Sunday was a second chance to compete for points in the slightly longer feature race, which would include a mandatory stop to change tyres along the way. With that came a strategic call to make even before the lights went out, with Bennett among those to select the harder of the Pirelli tyre compounds for what would be a lengthy initial stint.

The Brit was given an additional call to make during the first half of the encounter, when the safety car was called to remove a stricken rival's car from the side of the road. Bennett had again lost ground at the start heading into the first hairpin which left him chasing places, and this gave the VAR driver a decision to make while soft tyre runners pitted early.

Bennett opted to stay out on track for the restart with his older hard tyres, but the soft runners were able to just catch the pack in what turned out to be a green flag run to the chequered flag. Despite this, the call did allow Bennett to stretch a gap in clear air during a period in which he ran impressively as high as second place, eventually pitting for new rubber and coming out in his eventual finishing position of 17th - gaining a place from where he had been prior to the safety car interruption.

John Bennett: "It felt good to be back in the car after a long period in which we weren't part of the Formula 1 support package. I've spent it keeping myself sharp and training hard to be ready after earning some strong results prior to the break, and it was a circuit that we had knowledge from competing here last year.

"Again it was very close, but the team gave us both a strong car and the qualifying performance seemed to manifest that optimism. We weren't far off the top 10 reverse grid that I'd been chasing, but it gave us a platform to work from.

"Unfortunately the starts in both races were what cost us. It's then obviously a very flat circuit and difficult to find a way around each other cleanly without DRS which wasn't quite strong enough without the fresher rubber on the car, so it meant that the safety cars in both races were what we used to try something alternative - and that gained us places, especially on Saturday.

"We want to end the season on a high in Abu Dhabi, just to give us the push going into the off season. Thank you once again to the team and all of our loyal supporters and sponsors for their backing."

The FIA Formula 2 Championship comes to its conclusion this coming weekend (05-07 December) with the final two races of the season taking place at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

Images from James Gasperotti.