Gabriel Bortoleto has followed in the footsteps of Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Charles Leclerc by winning back-to-back championships in Formula 3 and Formula 2 - having finished runner-up to Joshua Durksen in the Abu Dhabi F2 feature race.
The title outcome was all but sealed on the opening lap when Bortoleto took the lead as polesitter Victor Martins (ART) struggled and title rival Isack Hadjar (Campos) stalled from third.
Heading into the season-ending weekend, Bortoleto led Hadjar by half-a-point before the 20-year-old extended that margin to four-and-a-half points following Saturday’s sprint race.
To seal the title, Bortoleto finished 1.7s behind Durksen (AIX), who benefitted from an undercut to leap past the lead pack on the favoured strategy, starting on super soft tyres before switching to the mediums.
The biggest drama for Sauber-bound Bortoleto came on his out-lap from his lap seven pit for medium rubber. Struggling to generate heat, the Invicta driver was passed by both Durksen and Martins having reported his brakes were not working, an issue that cleared relatively quickly.
To his credit, Hadjar refused to give up on his constantly fading title hopes, returning to the track a lap down after his stall, knowing that a safety car would give him the lap back and he could still seal the crown should Bortoleto fail to finish.
Having described the stall on team radio as “the worst moment of my life,” Hadjar’s never-say-die attitude was highlighted by his request for Campos to inform him of the gap to Bortoleto every lap.
On the alternate strategy, Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) established a 7.5s lead over Pepe Marti (Campos) before switching to the super soft tyres for the closing few laps, exiting the pits in fifth.
With the stops complete, Bortoleto entered DRS range of Martins on lap 29 and overtook for second at Turn 9, sweeping around the outside of the ART driver.
At Turn 1 on the closing tour, Verschoor took the reward for making the alternative strategy work, passing Martins for the final spot on the podium.
Durksen held on to take his first F2 feature race victory having won this year’s sprint event in Baku.
F2 Abu Dhabi feature race result
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| Cla | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Pits | Points | Retirement | Bonus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
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24 | 33 |
- |
1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
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10 | 33 |
+1.700 1.7 |
1.700 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 |  R. Verschoor MP Motorsport |
11 | 33 |
+5.300 5.3 |
3.600 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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