Romanian claims second win ahead of Zanella and Zamparelli

Mihai Marinescu drove a controlled race from start-to-finish to secure his second Formula Two win of the season during today’s (Sunday) dry race at Brands Hatch.

Starting from pole, the 23-year-old made a lightning start to pull away early on and maintained the gap to Christopher Zanella, including a safety car interruption, to take the chequered flag. Third place went to Dino Zamparelli who capitalised from a slow starting Markus Pommer to claim a maiden F2 podium and end as the top Brit.

Marinescu stormed off the line as the lights went out to lead from Zanella while third-placed Pommer got bogged down to drop to sixth with Kevin Mirocha in fourth and Mathéo Tuscher fifth.

On the opening few laps, the Romanian had already carved out more than a second lead as the Boost Zones became active, with the closest battle lying for ninth place as a train of four cars lined up behind Hector Hurst. That battle ended badly for Kralev as the Bulgarian tried to pass Hurst on the inside of Hawthorns with the two touching and Kralev having a sizeable impact into the barrier.

Meanwhile, the leaders had now opened up a gap to Zamparelli while fifth placed Tuscher appeared to catch the underside of his car exiting Paddock Hill Bend to spin into the barrier, bringing out the safety car on lap 10 – eroding Marinescu’s lead.

Marinescu got away cleanly at the restart and looked at ease as he set about building his advantage, pushing all the way to the flag to end with a gap of almost four seconds. "It feels really good and I am happy that I won," said Marinescu. "I made up some points on the other guys in the championship and that is what I’m aiming for. I had some difficulty in race two at Spa when I crashed in qualifying where I could have made a pole but it doesn’t matter anymore. This is bouncing back!"

Despite sustained pressure from Pommer, Mirocha hung onto his fourth place to complete a strong points haul for the Pole with championship leader Luciano Bacheta finishing sixth ahead of Alex Fontana.

Daniel McKenzie finished ninth in front of Zimbabwean Axcil Jefferies who claimed his third successive points finish with Kourosh Khani taking consolation from his race one crash to claim the final points position.

The next Formula Two rounds take place in one week’s time (20-22 July) at Paul Ricard, France, with full coverage on www.formulatwo.com

F2 Results: Brands Hatch – Race 2:

1. Mihai Marinescu, 28 laps
2. Christopher Zanella, +3.887s
3. Dino Zamparelli, +14.327s
4. Kevin Mirocha, +15.201s
5. Markus Pommer, +16.009s
6. Luciano Bacheta, +17.181s
7. Alex Fontana, +17.515s
8. Daniel McKenzie, +19.306s
9. Axcil Jefferies, +20.996s
10. Kourosh Khani, +21.872s
F2 Drivers’ standings – After Rd 10:
1. Luciano Bacheta, 165.5 pts
2. Christopher Zanella, 124 pts
3. Mihai Marinescu, 123 pts
4. Matheo Tuscher, 114 pts
5. Markus Pommer, 105 pts
6. Kevin Mirocha, 76.5 pts
7. Alex Fontana, 70 pts
8. Daniel McKenzie, 61 pts
9. Dino Zamparelli, 51.5 pts
10. Hector Hurst, 25 pts