DAMS’ Sergio Sette Camara won FIA Formula 2 (F2) Championship feature race from Carlin’s Nobuharu Matsushita and UNI-Virtuosi Racing’s Guanyu Zhou.
Pole-sitter DAMS’ Sergio Sette Camara did not have a good start to F2 feature race in Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina circuit under the floodlights as he lost the lead to Carlin’s Louis Deletraz and also second place to Sauber Junior Team by Charouz’s Callum Ilott.
In fact, Deletraz made up two places to lead the F2 race as teammate Nobuharu Matsushita was fourth with ART Grand Prix’s Nyck de Vries sixth, followed by Campos Racing’s Jack Aitken and UNI-virtuosi Racing’s Guanyu Zhou in the leading pack.
The Top 10 had DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi in eighth from Prema’s Mick Schumacher and BWT Arden’s Artem Markelov. As Deletraz led the way, some of the drivers started to have issues as Zhou made up two places on Aitken and de Vries to be fifth.
It caught up the front pack as well as Matsushita assumed lead from Deletraz and Ilott as pit stops kicked in with the Japanese driver leading from the UNI-Virtuosi Racing’s Zhou and Luca Ghiotto, who were on the alternate strategy.
There was a VSC period to recover the stricken MP Motorsport of Mahaveer Raghunathan, which caught out Trident’s Giuliano Alesi and Prema’s Sean Gelael as they were handed five-second penalties for infringement.
Even Markelov was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane but he retired soon due to mechanical issue. It became a waiting game then on, especially with the alternate runners but Deletraz had it covered after quick laps early on.
He assumed the lead but not for long as Camara passed him quickly with Matsushita getting past Ilott to be third. The British racer lost out to Zhou as well, who came out behind but passed him for fourth as Latifi was sixth and Ghiotto seventh.
Alesi got the better of Schumacher as well to be eighth with Aitken in 10th. Meanwhile, at the front, McLaren junior Camara fought back to win the Abu Dhabi feature race, his second of the 2019 F2 season as Matsushita ended up second.
The fight for third was on as Zhou pushed Deletraz and after a back and forth fight, the Chinese racer got the better of the Swiss racer to be third as Ilott was fifth ahead of Ghiotto, who passed Latifi towards the end, with Alesi in eighth.
The Frenchman has reverse-grid pole for the final race of the 2019 F2 season as Schumacher and ART’s Nikita Mazepin rounded out the Top 10. The Russian passed Aitken on the final lap to take away the final point.
The win for Camara and a seventh for Latifi also sealed the teams’ F1 title in favour of DAMS as they take it with a healthy lead over UNI-Virtuosi Racing. Among others, F2 newcomer Christian Lundgaard was 14th in the Trident.
Position 11-18: Aitken, Jordan King, Nyck de Vries, Lundgaard, Matevos Isaakyan, Tatiana Calderon, Gelael, Marino Sato. DNF: Markelov, Raghunathan.