Pourchaire seals F2 title after intense battle with Vesti in Abu Dhabi

ART’s Theo Pourchaire has secured the Formula 2 world title after a gripping battle between himself and Prema’s Frederik Vesti at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

How the race unfolded…

It was an even start from the Alpine-backed drivers of Invicta Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan and ART’s Victor Martins. While Doohan was able to maintain the lead from pole position, Martins soon lost out on second as Campos’ Kush Maini moved up into second place.

Of the championship contenders, Vesit and Pourchaire managed to make their way through the opening corners without issue. However, the two drivers opted for differing strategies as Vesti went for the alternate Medium-Soft strategy whilst Pourchaire went for the expected Soft-Medium strategy.

After five laps, Doohan remained out in front two seconds ahead of Maini and Martins. The title challengers, Vesti and Pourchaire sat in eighth and 11th respectively having made up a handful of places since the race start.

Dams’ Ayumu Iwasa and Pourchaire peeled into the pit lane for their mandatory stops, at the end of lap six, both drivers swapped over from the soft compounds to the mediums.

By lap 12, the soft runners had already completed their mandatory stops which left all of the drivers out on the medium compounds. As such, it meant Martins was out in the race lead – yet to stop – ahead of Vesti and Verschoor who occupied the top three.

Four laps later, Williams-backed MP Motorsport driver, Franco Colapinto peeled into the pit lane to retire from the race with suspected problems but he was later back out a number of laps down.

However, Colapinto was not the only retirement as Oliver Bearman peeled into the pit lane on lap 18, with smoke seeping out the back of his Prema. The Briton stopped just inside the pit entry, inside the pit lane, which forced Race Control to close the pit entry.

Drama quickly unfolded as the marshals struggled to remove the car from any danger, inside the pit entry lane, as it seemed the car remained in gear. A recovery vehicle was called to clear the car away from danger.

As the race crossed into the 20s, in the lap count, the medium tyre runners finally started to filter into the pit lane to complete their stops. This was joined by Vesti on lap 23 who had a steady and clean stop. The Dane pulled into the pit lane from second in the race and returned to the circuit down in ninth, just behind Pourchaire who had moved up to eighth.

Two laps later, the fight was on between Vesti and Pourchaire. On the run down the back straight, Vesti made a lunge down the inside of turn six which forced his way by Pourchaire whilst Maini went off the road. The three tangled throughout the remaining corners until the final corner where the ART took fifth place, ahead of Vesti and Maini.

On lap 27, the championship contenders fought in a back-and-forth battle out on track but Vesti managed to get by Pourchaire on the run down to turn nine, aided by DRS. This was enough for the championship to be sealed by Pourchaire.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, on lap 30, as PHM Racing’s Josh Mason was found stranded by the side of the circuit in between turns eight and nine. A lap later, the VSC was lifted.

However, the race still had a dramatic moment on the final lap as both Vesti and Maloney banged wheels, on the exit of turn nine, which sent the Prema into the air while the latter spun out. Despite this, Vesti was able to continue on to take the final podium spot.

While Pourchaire went on to secure the title, as Doohan won the race, ART made it a double as both cars were in the points which was enough to give the team the team’s title.

Podium: 

1. Jack Doohan, Invicta Virtuosi
2. Victor Martins, ART
3. Frederik Vesti, Prema

That’s it for the article: Pourchaire seals F2 title after intense battle with Vesti in Abu Dhabi!

Read more Formula Two here:

• Vesti extends F2 championship to final day after Abu Dhabi Sprint win
• Bearman keeps Pourchaire at bay to secure Italian GP feature race win
• Formula 2 unveil new generation of car ahead of 2024 season
• Novalak secures Dutch GP Feature Race as championship contenders retire
• F2 Belgian GP: Doohan secures feature race win from 11th on the grid
• F2 Hungary GP: Doohan dominates feature race with lights-to-flag performance

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.