Bearman takes Sprint Race win for PREMA
PREMA Racing achieved the team's fifth win of the year as the FIA Formula 2 Championship got underway in Qatar with the Sprint Race. Ollie Bearman took off from the front end of the pack, and while he had to surrender the point to a competitor who had started on softer tyres, he patiently maximized his pace before eventually fighting back to the lead on lap 21 out of 23.
From that point, he was virtually untouchable to post his victory number three for 2024 under safety car conditions.
Kimi Antonelli had a much more troubled race. Early contact cost him track position early, and that locked him in the middle of a fighting pack. A chain reaction then caused him to suffer from more contact and forced him to stop for good in the final stages.
#3 - Ollie Bearman
"Very nice race today. For a lot of the time, I didn't lead it because there was Hadjar in front of me with the mediums performing really well in the early stages. Luckily for me, I had hard tyres which gave me the advantage as the race progressed. I'm very grateful to PREMA for giving me a great car to take the win again. We still have three races together and I want to finish on a high. I'm very excited for tomorrow."
#4 - Kimi Antonelli
"It was a pretty messy race. I lost three places for a contact on lap 1, then I got stuck in a DRS train from which it was very difficult to get out. Then another contact forced me to stop. We need to reset and refocus on tomorrow because there will be more to play for."