Josep Maria Marti was victorious in the Formula 2 Abu Dhabi Sprint race as Gabriel Bortoleto gained on his championship rival Isack Hadjar.
Bortoleto finished in second place after starting from ninth on the grid to take a five-and-a-half point lead in the Drivers’ Standings.
Paul Aron rounded off the top three on the road but was later disqualified, handing third to rookie Dino Beganovic.
Bortoleto increases F2 championship lead
The Prema Racing team announced before the F2 Sprint race that Andrea Kimi Antonelli “has been feeling unwell and, on doctor’s advice, he will not race,” but the team hopes he will be able to compete in tomorrow’s Feature race.
Antonelli was due to start from 11th on the grid, and his absence bumped everyone below him up one place in the starting order.
A frantic start to the race on Lap 1 of 23 saw Marti take the lead starting from fourth on the grid, heading into Turn 1.
Championship contenders Bortoleto and Hadjar were amongst the chaos at the start and the Frenchman suffered front wing damage.
Bortoleto’s team-mate Kush Maini got a great start and dived down the inside of Hadjar and made contact with his rear wheel to the Campos Racing driver’s front end plate.
On the same lap, Ritomo Miyata made contact with Sunday’s polesitter Victor Martins, sending the ART car spinning around as Martins eventually pitted coming back out onto the track in last place.
Miyata received a 10-second time penalty for his actions as Bortoleto gained four places amidst the carnage to take fifth place.
The championship leader kept climbing up the order and eventually overtook Joshua Durksen on Lap 3 for fourth.
The next lap Bortoleto got past Amaury Cordeel for third place before passing Maini for second place as he settled behind the race leader Marti.
Meanwhile, after contact at the start, Hadjar slipped down the order as far as 11th before recovering to ninth place.
On Lap 7, Aron took fifth place off Durksen before Cordeel got past Maini in third place.
Aron quickly overtook Maini for fourth on Lap 8 as Durksen followed him by also getting past Maini into fifth.
On Lap 9 Oliver Bearman, who started in 14th place, overtook Maini for sixth place as Beganovic breezed past at the same time into seventh.
Maini, who now held the final points-scoring position in eighth, found himself ahead of Hadjar again after their first lap contact.
Hadjar overtook Maini for eighth place before attempting to get past Beganovic on Lap 12, but the Swedish driver defended well to hold onto seventh place.
Aron managed to get past his Hitech team-mate Cordeel to occupy the final podium position.
By Lap 15, the order stood at Marti, Bortoleto, Aron, Cordeel, Durksen, Bearman, Beganovic and Hadjar rounding off the top eight.
Marti held the fastest lap and a lead of over three seconds before Bortoleto brought the gap down under three seconds on Lap 17.
With the positions held by the top two in the F2 Drivers’ Standings, the Brazillian racing driver would gain seven points on Hadjar.
This would mean the gap between Hadjar and Bortoleto would stand at seven and a half points heading into the final race of the season.
On Lap 18, Cordeel and Durksen made contact which saw the AIX Racing car drop down the order.
Bearman avoided the collision to take fourth, but the race stewards were investigating the British driver for track limits and he received a five-second time penalty.
Cordeel managed to continue in fifth place before Beganovic overtook him and Hadjar gained a place into seventh.
Miyata now occupied eighth and on Lap 21 Cordeel received a 10-second time penalty, which would bump Hadjar up another place into sixth.
On Lap 22, Hadjar climbed up into sixth ahead of Cordeel, who then fell behind Miyata into eighth place.
On the final lap, Marti still held a comfortable lead over Bortoleto, but the championship leader was set to gain five points on his rival Hadjar.
Marti crossed the line to take the Sprint race victory ahead of Bortoleto in second and Aron rounding off the podium places in third.
Beganovic claimed another spectacular result since his debut in Qatar to take fourth place ahead of Bearman in fifth – Bearman’s time penalty dropped him down the order after finishing fourth on the track.
Hadjar managed to finish in sixth place but had dropped five points back from Bortoleto in the championship standings.
Luke Browning took seventh place due to Miyata and Cordeel’s penalties and Richard Verschoor rounded off the point scorers in eighth place.
Bortoleto lines up from second on the grid for the Feature Race behind Martins, with Hadjar in fourth.
Aron loses P3 after disqualification
After the race, Aron was disqualified from the Sprint race for breaching Article 1.5.2 of the FIA F2 Technical Regulations.
This meant Beganovic inherited third, earning his first podium in F2, as Bearman moved up the order to fourth and Hadjar to fifth – gaining an extra point.
The gap in the standings between Bortoleto and Hadjar was reduced to four and a half points.
Browning moved up to sixth, Verschoor to seventh and Jak Crawford claimed the final point after Aron’s DSQ.
In a document released by the FIA, it read: “The DRS actuator had been modified to extend the length by one millimetre, allowing a wider opening of the DRS wing.
“Article 1.5.2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship Technical Regulations states that no parts may be modified in any way whatsoever once supplied to the competitor, except where
specifically permitted.
“The standard penalty for a technical infringement is disqualification.
“In this case, however, there is a strong presumption that the team was aware of the non conformity of the part (or at least should have been, if they had exercised due diligence).”
The race stewards determined that because of the “seriousness and nature of the offence” an additional penalty would be “appropriate”, therefore the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver will also start the Feature race from the pit lane.
With Aron now starting from the pit lane, Hadjar will start third behind his title rival Bortoleto in second as Martins lines up from pole position in the Feature race.
For the rest of the top 10, Beganovic gains a place into fourth, Maini fifth, Marti sixth, Miyata seventh, Durksen eighth, Cordeel ninth and Antonelli 10th if he is deemed well enough to race on Sunday.
If not, Oliver Goethe will complete the top 10 for the starting grid.
READ MORE: Victor Martins takes Abu Dhabi F2 pole ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto
