Maloney came out on top for Rodin by over five seconds in a sprint race that came to life in the closing stages as the soft tires dropped off a cliff, allowing those who had gambled on the hard compound into the mix.
It was Maloney’s first win in F2, after he endured a dreadful end to his rookie campaign last year, scoring points only three times in the final 16 races.
Jack Crawford made a perfect start from pole position and left second-placed starter Taylor Barnard in his wake. Things continued to get worse for the PHM AIX driver, as Barnard quickly dropped to the fringes of the top 10.
But Barnard’s loss was ART team-mates Victor Martins and Zak O’Sullivan’s gain as the pair quickly set about attacking Crawford’s DAMS.
While the majority of drivers elected to run the soft tire to complete the 23-lap sprint race, O’Sullivan ran the hard compound, playing the long game.
Following a brief virtual safety car intervention on the second lap to allow for the recovery of Amaury Cordeel’s Hitech, this strategy saw O’Sullivan drop backwards as his rivals made use of the early pace in their softer rubber.
Standing out from the pack was Maloney, who climbed from eighth on the grid to second by lap six, showing all the passing ability that took him close to the F3 title in 2022.
On lap eight, Maloney made his move, skillfully pulling off a textbook switchback move on Crawford at Turn four and cementing the position with better traction as the pair headed towards Turn 5-6-7 chicane.
Struggling for peace, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman both pitted to fit the soft tire, gamble on a safety car intervention. Compounding their problems, Bearman locked his left front moments after exiting the pits.
Further back, Franco Colapinto was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty for starting out of position, something Richard Verschoor was also under investigation for. This error had been caused after Joshua Durksen stalled on the grid and had to be wheeled back into the pits.
On lap 14, O’Sullivan began to make his recovery as the soft tires began to fade, with his first pass being made on Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto for eighth.
Barnard’s day went from bad to worse on lap 16, as he pulled into the pits to retire his car.
As the laps ticked down, Isaac Hadjar complained that his tires were completely gone, something that his Campos team-mate Pepe Marti, who had started in P11, took full advantage of with three laps to go as he battled past at Turn 4.
As drivers on the soft rubber faded, O’Sullivan and fellow hard tire-runner Bortoleto scythed through the order, with O’Sullivan besting team-mate Martins on the penultimate tour. On the last lap, O’Sullivan climbed one additional place to seventh, with Bortoleto sixth.
Joining the dominant Maloney on the podium were Crawford and Marti.
After being disqualified from qualifying, Kush Maini finished in P13.
Bortoleto will start Saturday’s feature race in pole position from Hadjar. Sprint race winner Maloney will line up in third.
