Marti claims first F2 win ahead of Bortoleto in Abu Dhabi sprint

Photo: Red Bull

Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti claimed his maiden Formula 2 win in dominant fashion in a hectic sprint race at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The Spaniard took first place in the first corner of the race and soon built a gap that allowed him to cruise to victory.

Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who finished second, heads into the last race with a five-and-a-half point advantage over Campos’s Isack Hadjar. Despite rounding off the podium, Hitech GP’s Paul Aron is no longer in contention for the title as he sits 27.5 points behind Bortoleto in the standings.

Marti enjoyed a blistering start from fourth place on the grid and braked late into turn one to take the lead. Behind, Hadjar got squeezed between Invicta’s Kush Maini and Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata and lost the left endplate of his front wing.

Maini went deep on the brakes at turn six and overtook both Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel and AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen to claim second place. Meanwhile, Miyata missed his braking point and spun round ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins, receiving a 10-second time penalty for it.

All three title contenders showed strong pace and soon moved up in the order in the early stages of the race. Bortoleto was second by lap six of 23, but the gap to Marti in first was almost four seconds. On lap eight, Aron took fourth place from Maini, who then plummeted down the order, and Hadjar ran in ninth position despite the damage to his front win and having dropped from sixth to 12th in the first lap.

The race then stabilised and Bortoleto was barely able to reduce the gap to Marti in the lead. Further down the order, Hadjar attempted to get past DAMS’ Dino Beganovic, but the Ferrari junior held him off.

On lap 16, Cordeel locked up into turn 12 and ran wide, losing his advantage in third place to teammate Aron. The Estonian drove past him at turn nine the next lap and then he fell under attack of Duerksen. The AIX Racing driver opted for the outside line into turn six, but Cordeel in the inside missed his braking point and spun him round. Duerksen was forced to retire from the race as a consequence of the incident, while Cordeel was handed a 10-second time penalty.

That moved Prema’s Ollie Bearman, who started the race from 14th place, up to fourth position. He was classified fifth in the end as he received a five-second time penalty for exceeding the track limits.

Beganovic benefitted from Bearman’s penalty to finish fourth, while Hadjar was sixth. Penalties to Miyata and Cordeel upped ART Grand Prix’s Luke Browning and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor into the last points awarding positions.

Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been feeling unwell and sat out the race on doctor’s orders.

Race results (23 laps)