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Why MP Motorsport experienced a day of smiles and tears in Australia

Why MP Motorsport experienced a day of smiles and tears in Australia

01-04-2023 14:46 Last update: 16:51
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GPblog.com

For Dutch MP Motorsport, Saturday in Australia had two faces. Dennis Hauger won the sprint race in Formula 2 and Franco Colapinto thought he had done the same in Formula 3. However, the Argentinian driver was disqualified by race control afterwards, as were the other MP Motorsport drivers.

Formula 2

Hauger had qualified tenth for the Australian GP, but because the sprint race starts with a reversed grid, the Red Bull junior was allowed to start from pole position. Despite there was the necessary pressure from behind, Hauger managed to gain a little more distance lap by lap. He seemed on his way to a relatively easy victory until Jack Doohan was launched into his 'own' Australia by Van Amersfoort Racing driver Juan Manuel Correa.

A safety car was the result, as Doohan's car had stalled. At that time, however, it also started to rain, leaving the drivers with a choice: continue on slicks or go in for full wets (in Formula 2, they don't use intermediates) and hope the rain continued and got a bit worse. The rain did not continue and so all the top drivers were right.

Hauger crossed the finish line first, followed by Jak Crawford and Kush Maini. Richard Verschoor, who had started eighteenth on the Albert Park Circuit, took advantage of the fact that a lot of drivers had gambled wrongly with the rain tyres. He crossed the line in tenth place.

Formula 3

Franco Colapinto won the Formula 3 sprint race, but a post-race inspection found a technical infringement on his car. For Colapinto, it was his first victory, but so now a thick cross goes through that. Parts of the bodywork were found to be outside the regulation limits.

Incidentally, this also applied to Mari Boya and Jonny Edgar, MP Motorsport's other drivers. They were also disqualified for committing the same offence. It meant that Zak O'Sullivan (Prema) took the sprint victory. Sebastián Montoya (Hitech) rises to second and Paul Aron (Prema) completes the podium.