Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney made history as he did the double in Bahrain taking victory in the FIA Formula Two Feature Race - adding to his Sprint Race victory on Friday. The boy from Barbados was in another league this weekend as he managed race starts, safety car periods, tyre compounds and a pit stop to come out on top taking an early championship advantage. Ritomo Miyata was also on fine form, with the rookie once again showing off some great overtaking moves; the joint effor t ees the team leading the Teams’ Championship after the opening round.
Off the line, and starting on the softer of the two tyre compounds, Maloney launched brilliantly from third on the grid to sweep into the lead from the offset. An early safety car couldn’t halt his progress and when able to get back up to speed, he quickly pulled a gap over his rivals.
Miyata meanwhile was also making tracks and was one to watch in the top ten as he gained positions. Despite being a rookie in the field, the reigning Superformula Champion was on fine form and breezed through the mandatory pit stop period with ease.
As Maloney came in for his pit stop to change on to the harder compound, a second safety car brought racing to a slower pace and left the potential for the strategy to come crashing down. However, Maloney was impressive on the restart and quickly pulled a gap over Zak O’Sullivan who had switched to the softer compound tyre. From there, the Rodin Motorsport driver controlled the pace of the race and came under no pressure from behind to take two from two - a clean sweep of wins from the weekend.
Maloney said, “From the test we knew already we had very good pace but we didn’t expect to be winning two races by 5 seconds, that’s unbelievable. The team just gave me a great car. In general, both tyres felt great. Of course, when you have days like these, weekends like these you just need to stay in the moment. But also know that there are still many rounds left and many different tracks to also perform at. I will celebrate and then move on straight away to Jeddah.”
Miyata meanwhile shone on debut for the team crossing the line to finish ninth (adding to his ninth place finish on Friday) taking well-deserved points in his debut season.
The Rodin Motorsport drivers have little time to reflect as they head straight to Jeddah this weekend for round two of the 2024 FIA Formula Two Championship.
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