Strong pace and points despite mixed Barcelona

Colton combined his F2 programme with his first Formula 1 Free Practice 1 on Friday morning before securing P8 in Qualifying for the Formula 2 Feature Race. Ritomo Miyata’s session was disrupted when he spun off track and was deemed to have caused a red flag, resulting in a penalty that placed him at the back of the grid for both races.

Sprint Race

Saturday’s 26-lap Sprint Race saw Colton line up P3 for the start thanks to the reverse-grid format. After early position changes in the opening laps, he remained in touch with the lead pack and built momentum through the opening phase, positioning himself to attack in the closing stages.

Ritomo was also on the move, gaining five places to run P17 in the opening laps.

On Lap 14, Colton began his charge back to the podium places, taking Leon for fourth place and closing in on the battle for third, before passing Tsolov down the inside at Turn 7 and moving on to challenge for P2. The American was absolutely flying in the closing laps after having managed his tyres well, but a late lock-up took him off track and dropped him out of podium contention. He did well to recover and preserve P5 and four important points towards his debut campaign.

Ritomo crossed the line in P14 with a net gain of eight places.

Feature Race

Colton lined up P8 on the Soft tyre and made a strong launch off the line to move immediately into P7 by the end of the opening lap. He remained in the front group through the opening stint and ran as high as P5 during the first phase of the race.

After pitting at the end of Lap 13, he rejoined in the points positions as strategies played out across the field. With no safety car interruptions later in the race, there were limited opportunities for the race to come back to him, and he finished P15.

Ritomo moved through the field in the opening stages and ran as high as P2 during the pit cycle phase. After stopping at the end of Lap 23, he rejoined in the midfield group and finished P18.