Salisbury Racer with Season-Best Result And Fastest Lap In Barcelona

John Bennett has put in his best performance of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 Championship season to date, with a phenomenal drive through the field to seventh place and fastest lap in the feature race in Barcelona (13/14 June).

The Salisbury-based racer headed to the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona for the fifth event of the campaign alongside F1's Spanish Grand Prix. The signs were promising from the off, as the Trident driver used his pre-season testing knowledge to great effect to be right in the mix in what was set to be a mightily close weekend across the competitive field.

With data under his belt from a good free practice outing on Friday morning, the Brit went into qualifying hopeful of challenging the front-runners. A red flag forced him to abort a promising lap that was set to place him inside the top six. His earlier push lap was only 0.9s from overall pole position, but such was the tightness of the timesheets he would have to start from 18th on the grid for the sprint race the following day.

It did not deter him, however, and he put in a brilliant comeback drive on Saturday afternoon in the 26-lap opener. A strong start moved him two places higher than his grid spot by the end of the first lap, and he could have even been more had he not been squeezed slightly wide heading through the second corner while braving a double passing attempt on the outside.

He kept up the pressure on a swarming pack of cars ahead of him and swiftly drafted his way past Mari Boya to move up into the top 15. At the chequered flag, he was classified five places better off, finishing 13th and with optimism ahead of Sunday's longer race.

Under sunny Spanish skies the following morning, Bennett looked to continue that theme and put on another charge in front of the flocking F1 crowds in the feature race. Bennett again made an electric getaway to gain two places and went into close combat with a rival through Turn 1 before a safety car emerged at the end of the first lap.

On the restart, he chased and then passed sprint race winner Kush Maini with a neat move, before setting off after Sebastian Montoya's Prema car as mandatory pitstops began to cycle through. Once he pitted for the softer compound tyre for the final 15 laps, Bennett really came into his own and swiftly passed Montoya.

The strategy was paying off handsomely for the Trident driver, and he was the fastest driver on the circuit as he soon disposed of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and then Martinius Stenshorne to be on the brink of points and the top 10. IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta was next up, and he dived inside the American driver at the hairpin, before advancing to ninth on the struggling Nico Varrone.

Bennett's momentum did not stop there as he scythed his way past both Rafael Villagomez and then Noel Leon to climb up to seventh place, taking the chequered flag a phenomenal 11 places better off than his starting spot for some healthy championship points in Spain. It was his best result of the season, and he ended up with the additional accolade of achieving the fastest lap of the race.

John Bennett: "A fantastic end to the weekend for us as a whole team! We felt like we were out of position after qualifying, which set us back a bit, but we made up for it with our race pace across the two races for sure.

"We made a lot of ground up in the sprint race, but it's still a tough circuit to overtake at without the help of DRS. Then on Sunday, the car was absolutely planted. To move up so many places, achieve fastest lap and a great points haul, shows a lot more of what we are capable of.

"We'll take that into the next few races, where I hope we can be really strong once again, particularly with the British Grand Prix on the horizon and where we really want to bring home a tremendous result for the fans."

Bennett is next in action in two weeks' time, when the FIA F2 series supports the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg over the weekend of 26-28 June.