Brit receives half points in Spa with Pommer and Mirocha on podium

Luciano Bacheta was awarded his fifth victory during Sunday's  second Formula Two race at Spa which was forced to be abandoned due to severe rain, with the top 10 receiving half points.

Markus Pommer finished second with Kevin Mirocha in third with just three racing laps being run at the Belgian F1 track before the race stewards took the difficult decision to call a halt to proceedings.

Due to the adverse weather conditions, the race was started behind the safety car with 22-year-old Bacheta making a god start followed by Pommer, with Mirocha moving into third after passing Alex Fontana on the inside of La Source. Christopher Zanella was also looking racy, taking Vittorio Ghirelli and then Fontana to lie fourth before the safety car was deployed following a crash by Daniel McKenzie going into the hairpin of Turn 1.

As the rain continued to pour down, Zanella went into the back of Mirocha on the run up to Eau Rouge under safety car conditions causing the Swiss to retire and Mirocha to limp around to the pits - subsequently promoting Fontana into third.

There was further drama to come with Brits Hector Hurst and Dino Zamparelli making contact with the two heading straight for the pits. However, with visibility deteriorating, the race director was forced to deploy the red flag and suspend the race for driver safety.

Unfortunately, the 40-minute time limit expired before conditions improved with the result declared final and drivers awarded half points. Due to the regulations the classification was taken from the lap before the red flag came out.

Zanella finished fourth ahead of fellow countryman Fontana with newcomer Ghirelli in sixth and Axcil Jefferies picking up a deserved seventh place. Mathéo Tuscher drove well from his P11 grid slot to finish eighth with Hurst and Zamparelli completing the top 10 of the enthralling race.

Speaking afterwards Bacheta said: "It helped so much being at the front and having better visibility in the spray and my plan was just to get my head down and build up a gap. I was actually really enjoying it and there was only one place where the track was really bad where there was quite a lot of aquaplaning, but the rest of it for me was ok. I understand though that the rest of the guys had a lot of spray to deal with. From my point of view I would have loved to of carried on rather than stop the race because I was enjoying driving and the car felt really good thanks to my engineer who had down a cracking job. I was happy to carry on and the more cars that drove on the track the more water would have gone away but I understand the decision and I'm still happy with the points and the win."

The next rounds of the 2012 FIA Formula Two Championship take place at Brands Hatch on 13-15 July.

F2 Results: Spa - Race 2:

1. Luciano Bacheta, 3 laps2. Markus Pommer, +2.398s3. Kevin Mirocha, +3.297s   4. Christopher Zanella, +4.580s  5. Alex Fontana, +5.894s 6. Vittorio Ghirelli, +9.397s   7. Axcil Jefferies, +12.249s 8. Mathéo Tuscher, +14.875s  9. Hector Hurst, +20.828s  10. Dino Zamparelli, +23.600s11. Parthiva Sureshwaren, +33.484s12. Mihai Marinescu, +34.078s13. David Zhu, +35.578s14. Mauro Calamia, +36.398s 15. Kourosh Khani, +39.868s16. Max Snegirev, +41.726s17. Plamen Kralev, +43.810s 18. Daniel McKenzie, +1lap

F2 Results Drivers’ Standings – After Rd 8:

1. Luciano Bacheta, 138.5pts2. Christopher Zanella, 98pts3. Mathéo Tuscher, 96pts4. Mihai Marinescu, 86pts5. Markus Pommer, 85pts 6. Alex Fontana, 64pts 7. Daniel McKenzie, 56pts 8. Kevin Mirocha, 39.5pts 9. Dino Zamparelli, 36.5pts10. David Zhu, 21pts