The final weekend of F2 has begun and today’s Sprint saw lots of action on track and the championship battle heat up.�
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend marks the final weekend of the 2024 Formula 2 season. Coming into this weekend, the championship fight is the closest it’s ever been in the series’ history.
Gabriel Bortoleto leads by half a point to Isack Hadjar. Paul Aron is 25.5 points behind Bortoleto, and the three of them qualified in P2, P3 and P4 respectively.
In today’s Sprint, there was, of course, the reverse grid, meaning that the championship contenders lined up in P9, P7 and P6. Kush Maini started the race in P8, between Bortoleto and Aron, after receiving a three-place grid penalty from Qualifying.
On pole for the Sprint was Amaury Cordeel ahead of Joshua Duerksen and Ritomo Miyata. Unfortunately for PREMA, Kimi Antonelli was withdrawn from the Sprint due to illness.
But for the championship contenders, the focus was on keeping it clean and outscoring their rivals.
However, the F2 Sprint Race saw Pepe Martí take his maiden F2 victory ahead of championship contenders, Gabriel Bortoleto and Paul Aron.
Let’s get into what happened during the final Formula 2 Sprint this season.
Lights Out
The lights went out and the race began. Cordeel got a good launch off the line, but Pepe Martí had an even better starter, getting the lead into Turn 1. Cordeel fell back to third as Duerksen got into P2. Maini was fighting Cordeel, getting ahead, whilst Yellow Flags were brought out.
Hadjar was reported to have received damage on the opening lap after being squeezed by Miyata and Maini. He fell back behind his championship contenders to 11th and Victor Martins also brought out yellow flags after he spun on the opening lap.
After the first lap, Martí was leading and Bortoleto and Aron were in fifth and sixth respectively. Oliver Bearman made up positions on the start as well, finding himself in seventh after the opening lap having moved up seven places.
LAP 1 / 23
It's a dream start for Gabriel Bortoleto as he finds himself ahead of his title rivals ?
Bortoleto P5
Aron P6
Hadjar P9 ?#F2 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/Mkh0AW6rGU— Formula 2 (@Formula2) December 7, 2024
Duerksen and Cordeel swapped places again and Maini overtook both cars. This meant Bortoleto was behind the AIX Racing car, which he attempted to overtake.
Bortoleto attempted another overtake and climbed to fourth. Hadjar’s recovery was going well as the Frenchman moved up two places to get back into the top ten.
Race Control noted the incident between Martins and Miyata as Martins came into the pits, but headed back out again. The result of the investigation was a 10-second penalty for Miyata.
Bortoleto looked to have strong pace and a fighting spirit as he overtook Cordeel to get into the podium positions. This put Bortoleto behind his teammate, Maini, however, in F2, there’s no team orders as each driver races for themselves.
Bortoleto overtook his teammate before the two Hitech Pulse-Eight drivers battled Duerksen and Cordeel. Cordeel overtook Maini and Aron overtook Duerksen, putting him three positions behind Bortoleto.
However, on lap eight, Aron made the move on Maini, putting him closer to the championship leader. He also overtook Duerksen. Meanwhile, Hadjar battled with Dino Beganovic to try and move up to eighth.
LAP 8 / 23
Hadjar is currently running P9 and has also lost his Endplate
There's still a long way to go though ?#F2 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/xAq4C6Pa36
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) December 7, 2024
The commentators then reported that both Duerksen and Cordeel have been noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Bearman overtook Maini, and Beganovic followed the British driver. Hadjar then replicated the move as well, getting into eighth. Unfortunately for Maini, his race went from bad to worse as he fell back to 14th.
Despite the damage, Hadjar attempted a move on Beganovic for seventh. Beganovic defended and although he locked up, Hadjar remained behind. Hadjar followed closely behind, needing to get this move complete, but he wasn’t quite close enough.
Half way through
Bearman, who was currently in sixth, received a black and white flag and had exceeded his track limits.
Hadjar was still behind Beganovic but within DRS range. Aron remained in fourth as his teammate locked up ahead of him, allowing Aron to get closer to Cordeel.
The battle for third was then on as it was Hitech vs Hitech. Aron managed to get past his teammate and into the podium positions, sitting in third, just behind Bortoleto.
LAP 17 / 23
Paul Aron moves up to P3 with a nice move on his team mate, Amaury Cordeel at turn 9 #F2 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/B83uRsVBn7
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) December 7, 2024
Yellow Flags were brought out on Lap 18 after Duerksen and Cordeel made contact. The AIX Racing driver spun on track and he fell back through the order. Cordeel, who locked up both fronts causing the collision, carried on but was now in fifth behind Bearman.
However, Bearman was now under investigation for going beyond track limits. The British driver received a five-second penalty. John Bennett also received the same penalty for the same reason.
Final few laps
With Bearman’s penalty, Hadjar could be in a good position to score more points. Hadjar was in seventh, but he was within five seconds of Bearman in fourth.
Meanwhile, Bortoleto found more pace and closed the gap to Martí to only two seconds. Beganovic made a move on Cordeel and moved up into the top five. This put Hadjar more than five seconds behind Bearman.
But, Cordeel received a 10-second penalty, which would put Hadjar in sixth at the end of the race.
Aron was 12 seconds behind Bortoleto, but Bearman was less than a second behind Aron. Hadjar overtook Cordeel, but needed to gain three seconds in order to be ahead of Bearman when the penalty is applied.
Results
The final F2 Sprint Race saw chaos on track, but it was Martí who took the victory ahead of Bortoleto and Aron.
In terms of the championship, Bortoleto beat his rivals in the number of points achieved today. The Brazilian scored eight points; Aron scored six and Hadjar scored three points.
Bortoleto remains the championship leader with 196.5 points. Hadjar is still in second with 191 and Aron is in third with 169 points.
The championship fight will go down to the final race tomorrow, but the top 10 of the Sprint were as follows:
1 – Pepe Martí
2 – Gabriel Bortoleto
3 – Paul Aron
4 – Dino Beganovic
5 – Oliver Bearman
6 – Isack Hadjar
7 – Luke Browning
8 – Richard Verschoor
9 – Jak Crawford
10 – Oliver Goethe
Headline image: X @Formula2