John Bennett once again put in an impressive performance to fight forward in both races and set front-running pace on his second outing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi last weekend (07/08 December).
The Salisbury-based racer arrived at the conclusion of his fantastic season of racing with confidence high after a whirlwind maiden F2 outing just a week prior in Qatar, where he scored points with an exceptional eighth place finish on debut for the Van Amersfoort Racing team.
Continuing his rapid rise through motorsport's single-seater categories, Bennett returned to the technical Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi with experience from racing there in Formula Regional Middle East at the start of the year. He got reacquainted with the track in free practice and showed strong pace against the experienced season regulars.
A tight qualifying session was the first serious action of the weekend on Friday afternoon. The rookie, fresh from fighting for the GB3 Championship title where he was a regular race winner en-route to vice-champion honours, again upped his pace and would line up on row ten for the weekend's two races.
A 23-lap sprint race on Saturday was incident-free for Bennett, who kept his nose clean in a strong first lap. A spinning rival ahead of him at the chicane separating the back straights played into his hands, with sharp reactions helping him gain four places by the end of lap one.
He soon latched onto the rear of his VAR team-mate Rafael Villagómez as the race drew on, before passing Kush Maini to secure 15th place and a net gain of five positions by the time he saw the chequered flag.
Sunday played host to a 33-lap feature race to round out the season, with Bennett a place better off on the grid on this occasion. The VAR driver evaded the squabbling successfully in the early stages, before setting a blistering pace as he progressed through the field with the top-ten in his sights.
After pulling off a great move on current FIA Formula 3 champion Leonardo Fornaroli, Bennett sadly lost some time due to a wheel nut issue in the pitstop. He shook that off though and impressively lapped as one of the fastest cars on track en-route to a 14th place finish ahead of F1 test driver Luke Browning.
It brings down the curtain on what has been a memorable year for the youngster from Salisbury, whose GB3 vice-champion success came with three wins and 11 podium finishes, alongside a points-scoring debut weekend in FIA Formula 2 and impressive drives in Formula Regional Middle East.
John Bennett: “A strong way to end what's been a very successful year for me. I was delighted to finish as GB3 vice-champion with three race wins, then official F3 post-season testing could not really have gone any better which led to me being given this huge opportunity in F2.
"Qatar showed that we had good race pace, and I think that we did that again over the course of the weekend in Abu Dhabi. We pushed forward in both races and to end up gaining a total of 24 places across the four races I contested is a really positive result for me.
“To have been matching the pace of the leading contenders in the final race is great and I’m proud of how far I’ve come having driven the car for the first time just nine days prior. We’ve had to learn a lot in a short space of time and with that experience, I’m ready to look ahead and see what 2025 brings.”
Image from James Gasperotti.
Comments