Rafael Villagómez, F2, 2024, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

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Driver Power Rankings – Saudi Arabian domination blows F2 fight wide open

Who took advantage of Ollie Bearman's surprise Saudi F2 absense?

Jim Kimberley

Monday 11 March 2024 02:00

Saudi Arabia saw the second round of Formula 2 crossover with Formula 1 as Ollie Bearman bridged the gap between the two championships by excelling in both.

The Brit made his F1 debut with Ferrari, replacing Carlos Sainz, after storming to F2 pole position at the longest street circuit on the calendar.

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Even though the championship raced without one of its star drivers, there was plenty to see over F2's two races as the best grid in many years saw two new 2024 winners — and a third disqualified victor.

Without F3 in support, here are the F2 stars who shined in Saudi Arabia.

Formula 2

As his 2023 teammate Zane Maloney was one week earlier, Enzo Fittipaldi seemed a quicker driver than nearly everyone he shared the track with at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

Fittipaldi seems at home in the 2024 F2 chassis and performed jaw-dropping overtakes over the weekend after getting to grips with the car better than others.

His Feature Race win came with an eight-second gap on P2, even though there were only a handful of laps after the final Safety Car, to show how ahead of the game he was on the Saudi streets.

'Little Shark' surges to second in the championship standings thanks to his Jeddah heroics and will head to Melbourne hoping for a better weekend than his 2023 trip.

Dennis Hauger - A-

Dennis Hauger appears to be flying without academy backing after an underwhelming second season in F2 last year, perhaps because he's without Red Bull Junior Team shackles.

He spent six seasons representing the Austrian outfit but hasn't found much joy in two years of Formula 2, but he seemed like the 2021 F3-winning version of Hauger in Saudi Arabia.

We'll find out whether that's coincidental to his academy freedom as 2024 progresses.

Nonetheless, he was quick enough to benefit from Richard Verschoor's Sprint Race disqualification to inherit the win and he dragraced his way to the Feature Race podium in a grandstand finish on Saturday.

Kush Maini - B+

Tellingly, this is another week with the Feature Race podium finishes as my trio of F2 drivers, yet these are all-new names compared to those featured in my Bahrain best.

The depth of F2 talent in 2024 means a dozen drivers might be in with a shot at the title, and Maini showed he should be considered one of those names after his Jeddah qualifying performance.

He was just 0.025s away from F1 point-scoring Bearman on Thursday, and he enjoyed a front-row start that he converted to a P2 Feature Race finish.

That's despite those running the contrary strategy benefitting from the Safety Car's appearance and advancing the order with a free pit stop.