Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto finishes in second place and becomes the Formula 2 Champion. Disaster for Hadjar, who stalls at the start.
Joshua Durksen wins the final Formula 2 race of the year, but Gabriel Bortoleto, in his rookie season, clinches the championship title ahead of his Formula 1 debut with Sauber in 2025! The 20-year-old Brazilian driver achieves a feat previously accomplished only by Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell: winning back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in their first attempts.
Disaster for Isack Hadjar, who stalled at the start due to a clutch release issue and finished the race in 19th position, a lap down. Despite this setback, the French driver could still have an opportunity in Formula 1 in 2025, driving for Racing Bulls.
Rounding out the podium is an impressive Richard Verschoor, who delivered a strong comeback race. The top ten is completed by Martins, Bearman, Martì, Beganovic, Cordeel, Goethe, and Miyata. Leonardo Fornaroli finishes 13th and will aim to replicate the feat of his former Trident teammate in the next season.
Feature Race F2 Abu Dhabi: the race report
The final round of the 2024 Formula 2 season: today we will find out who will be the World Champion of the category, with the battle narrowing down to just two drivers, Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar, with the former holding a 4.5-point lead.
After yesterday’s Sprint Race, the lead was 5.5 points, but late in the evening, news came of the disqualification of Paul Aron’s Hitech, which lost its podium finish, promoting Hadjar to fifth place.
Victor Martins will start from pole position, alongside the World Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto. Right behind them is Isack Hadjar, who has benefited once again from the technical irregularity of Paul Aron, who will be forced to start from the pit lane after qualifying in third. Next to him is the surprising Dino Beganovic, who finished in third place yesterday.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will not be racing today either, still suffering from a fever after health issues on Friday night. This benefits the other Italian driver, Leonardo Fornaroli, who will start from eleventh place.
Victor Martins stalls at the start, and Gabriel Bortoleto quickly takes advantage, moving into first position. Behind them, there’s wheel-to-wheel racing for the first five corners between Pepe Martì and Kush Maini; the Indian driver comes out on top and will try to support his teammate’s breakaway.
But what’s happening behind Victor Martins is astonishing: Isack Hadjar also stalls and is unable to restart. This could automatically crown Gabriel Bortoleto as the world champion of the category. The French driver resumes the race two laps down, but it will take a miracle for him to make his way back through the pack.
Hadjar returns to the track right behind Bortoleto, two laps down, and tries to attack to un-lap himself: this is certainly not the battle we expected to see ahead of this Feature Race. Meanwhile, behind them, there’s a great fight between Durksen and Maini for second place; Pepe Martì – the first driver on medium tires – takes advantage and moves up to third.
The first pit stops begin: Maini, Durksen, Martins, Goethe, Bearman, Mansell, and Fornaroli all come in.. Problemi
During the pit stop, the Indian driver Maini struggles to restart and exits the pit lane just ahead of Fornaroli. Meanwhile, exiting the pit lane, Durksen runs wide due to cold tires and is overtaken by Victor Martins, but he manages to regain the position shortly after.
In the next lap, Bortoleto, Beganovic, Miyata, and Bennett make their pit stops. The World Championship leader returns to the track under pressure from Joshua Durksen, who takes advantage of his rival’s cold tires to overtake him on the outside of Turn 9. A heavy lock-up from Bortoleto allows Martins to pass him as well. A risky move for the Brazilian driver, who should focus on bringing the car to the finish line.
On lap 18, Joshua Durksen and Victor Martins overtake Cian Shields, the last driver who has yet to make his pit stop. Meanwhile, there’s an exciting battle between Pepe Martì and Richard Verschoor, with the Dutch MP Motorsport driver temporarily taking the lead.
Meanwhile, despite being a lap down, Isack Hadjar’s performance is worth noting as he is consistently the fastest on track and is making his way through the field to un-lap himself.
Durksen struggles to get past Esterson, who is moving very slowly, losing the 1.8-second advantage he had over Victor Martins. However, the Paraguayan driver finally manages to get around Esterson, who heads to the pits to switch to soft tires. Durksen is quickly followed by Martins, and up ahead, Verschoor extends his lead over Martì to more than 7 seconds, setting faster lap times than both Durksen and Martì.
Pit stops for Martì and Cordeel, while Durksen, Martins, and Bortoleto easily pass Browning, who is struggling with his tires. On lap 27, leader Richard Verschoor also makes his stop, rejoining the track behind Ollie Bearman, around 10 seconds behind Durksen.
With 4 laps to go, Gabriel Bortoleto overtakes Victor Martins, who is struggling with his tires, and sets off in pursuit of Joshua Durksen to finish his Formula 2 career as World Champion in style. Meanwhile, Verschoor passes Bearman and moves up to fourth place, just 4 seconds behind the podium.
Durksen cuts through Turn 6 and sets the fastest second sector of the race. Bortoleto complains, hoping for a penalty. Meanwhile, Verschoor completes his comeback, passing Martins in Turn 1. Durksen wins, but all the attention is on Gabriel Bortoleto, who is the Formula 2 World Champion!
PHOTO: FIA Formula 2, Richard Verschoor, Joshua Durksen.