Having lost a win in Saturday’s opener to a post-race penalty, Campos driver Hadjar got redemption in the 33-lap contest on Sunday as he took the checked flag by 4.4s from Paul Aron.
Hadjar had made little progress in the first-thirds of the race after starting from eighth on the grid, but a crash from polesitter Hauger on lap 11 went in his favor, allowing him to leapfrog a number of cars in the pits and take an unlikely win .
At the start of the race, Hauger got a brilliant getaway from pole to lead into Turn 1, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Zane Maloney holding on to second and third respectively.
At Turn 12, Mercedes junior Antonelli made a bold pass on Hauger at Turn 12 to snatch the lead, but the MP Motorsport driver was able to retake the position at Turn 9 on lap 2.
As the race wore on, Kush Maini started showing his speed on the more durable medium tires, moving up to fifth when Pepe Martin ran wide on lap 5 and overtaking both Richard Verschoor and Maloney on the following tour.
The Invicta driver was also able to make a pass on Antonelli for second, before breezing past Hauger at Turn 13 on lap 9 to sensationally claim the lead.
This triggered the mandatory round of pitstops, with Hauger leading a train of cars into the lane at the end of the 10th tour, leaving Maini, Hadjar and Juan Manuel Correa out in front.
But coming out of the pits, Hauger lost control of his MP Motorsport-run Dallara at Turn 6, likely due to an issue with the front left-tire, smashing the barriers at the next left-hander and dropping immediately out of the race.
This led race control to show the VSC, before deploying a full safety car to assist with the recovery of his car.
It turned out to be the decisive moment of the race as Hadjar was already in the pitlane when the caution was announced. Losing less time relative to the competition who were crawling at VSC speeds, Hadjar rejoined the track ahead of Antonelli in seventh, effectively putting him in the lead.
At the restart, Hadjar not only kept Antonelli at bay but also managed to pass a number of cars ahead that were yet to pit, before easing to a dominant win and marking himself out as a title contender.
Aron snatched second place from Antonelli on lap 20, with Maloney also getting past him at Turn 9 later in the race to record the final spot on the podium.
Toyota protects Ritomo Miyata scored yet another fifth-place finish at Albert Park for Rodin, leading Trident’s Richard Verschoor and the sole-surviving MP entry of Franco Colapinto.
Van Amersfoot’s Rafael Villagomez survived a wide moment on lap 19 to bag eighth, as Victor Martins completed a stunning recovery from the back of the grid to take ninth for ART.
Prema’s Oliver Bearman bagged his first point of the season in 10th despite completing a 360-degree spin coming out of Turn 2 on the final lap.
Maini, who led the race until the safety car compromised his strategy, dropped to 13th after finally making his pitstop on lap 31, behind Jak Crawford and Amaury Cordeel.
