John Bennett returned to the top of the field in style, claiming an “amazing” maiden Formula 2 victory at the Red Bull Ring.
Since making his F2 debut, Bennett has not had the fairytale many drivers hope for in the series. Whilst showing incredible pace and race craft, the Briton often struggled to competitively match his rivals at the front of the field. But Saturday’s sprint race in Austria changed his luck.
Not only did Bennett claim his maiden series victory, but he ended an unwanted streak for TRIDENT. The Italian team have had a winless run stretching back to Richard Verschoor’s triumph in Baku in 2024.
After the race, when speaking about his emotions, the 22-year-old highlighted his excitement about the result.
“Yeah, thank you. It feels amazing. I’m really just trying to enjoy every second of this,” Bennett told the media, including Motorsport Week.
“I think we’ve been waiting a long time for a strong result. This year, we’ve been showing a lot of pace, but things just haven’t quite gone our way. So to have a race like this is a really good feeling.”
Tyre management crucial in scorching temperatures
Amidst heatwaves across Europe, track temperatures soared above 50 degrees Celsius. Thus, tyre degradation around the short circuit was pivotal for drivers to manage throughout the race. Without proper tyre management, drivers risked losing places in the latter stages of the race.
Importantly for Bennett, he nailed his strategy from the green lights, allowing him to pull off a final lap dash to the line.
Whilst immediately concealing the lead into Turn 1 on the race start, Bennett highlighted that an early battle for the lead was never on his mind,
“Going into the race, I knew it was going to be a lot about managing the tyres. In FP, the pace just went off straight away, and today was super hot,” he explained.
“I got the lead off the line, which was nice, but I wasn’t super worried about keeping it. When Montoya overtook, I didn’t defend too hard. I just thought, manage the race, stay in DRS, keep the tyres under control and maybe I could make something happen at the end.”
Bennett did exactly that. After a mid-race VSC, Montoya appeared to be struggling, allowing Bennett to gain closer to his rival. In the final lap of the race, the Briton pulled off a brilliant move on his Colombian rival to secure the race lead, then defended his lead until the chequered flag.
“The last three or four laps after the VSC, I started to see him struggle. And then on the last lap, I just said to myself, like, it’s now or never. Got a good exit out of one, put him under pressure into T3, got a good exit out of three, had the run into four, was on the outside, just got slightly ahead in the braking zone, and I knew he was going to brake late.
“So I went for the switchback and just had quite enough traction to make it work, then led to the line.”
Bennett will start today’s Feature Race from ninth, aiming to cap off an already amazing weekend for himself and TRIDENT.
READ MORE: John Bennett takes outstanding maiden victory in Austrian F2 Sprint
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