2019 Yas Marina Sprint Race

The 2019 Yas Marina Sprint Race, formally known as the 2019 Yas Marina Formula 2 Race 2, was the twenty-third and final race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 1 December 2019. The race, held in support of the season ending 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, would see Luca Ghiotto sweep to victory, in what proved to be the final F2 race for entrants Arden International, as well as drivers Nyck de Vries and Nicholas Latifi.

Giuliano Alesi would start the season finale from pole position, courtesy of finishing eighth in the 2019 Yas Marina Feature Race, and duly aced his start to claim an early lead. Behind, Ghiotto would hook up his start beautifully to charge into second ahead of Latifi, while in the midfield Guanyu Zhou made a miserable getaway and slumped to eleventh.

The early stages saw Alesi do his best to break clear, although after some initial success Ghiotto would begin to close back onto the back of the Trident. Behind, Mick Schumacher found himself squabbling with Nobuharu Matsushita and Louis Delétraz, only to be mugged by Sérgio Sette Câmara who was on a charge through the top ten.

Indeed, Câmara would be the main source of entertainment during the race, firing his DAMS past both Delétraz and Matsushita. The only thing to distract attention from his battles would be a change for the lead, with Ghiotto diving past Alesi with the aid of DRS, before charging away to leave the Frenchman in Latifi's sights.

Latifi duly caught and passed Alesi with ease a couple of laps later, followed by Callum Ilott on the following tour. Next to scream past the Frenchman would be Câmara's charging #5 DAMS, which swept ahead without issue, leaving Alesi in a little piece of no-man's land.

Into the closing stages and Câmara was sat in the wake of Ilott, although his charge was briefly halted by a Virtual Safety Car. The source of the VSC was a collision between Russian rookies Nikita Mazepin and Matevos Isaakyan, which had seen the latter spin and stall at the second chicane.

When the race resumed Câmara pounced, darting inside Ilott to secure third and get a shot at attacking his teammate. However, Latifi had a healthy margin over his teammate, and with two laps to go time was against Câmara to get onto terms with the Canadian racer.

Out front, meanwhile, Ghiotto delivered an imperious victory, escaping seven seconds up the road from Latifi as the Canadian secured second on track and in the Championship. Câmara rounded out the season in third ahead of Ilott, while Alesi held onto fifth ahead of Delétraz, Matsushita and Zhou, the latter claiming the final point of the season.

Background
There would be no changes to the Yas Marina Circuit ahead of the Sprint Race, although there were drastically different conditions compared to the Feature race, with the Sprint held in the heat of the afternoon. Regardless, it was Giuliano Alesi who would start the season finale in pole position having claimed eighth in the Feature, with no further revisions to the field. Indeed, Mahaveer Raghunathan was still allowed to compete, in-spite of having attained enough penalty points to earn a race ban due to a loop hole in the rules.

Yas Yes-men
Nyck de Vries had already secured the Championship title before arriving in Yas Marina, so his failure to score in the Feature race had no impact on title race. Behind, however, the fight for second had intensified, with race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara having closed to within six points of his second placed teammate Nicholas Latifi. Furthermore, Luca Ghiotto was still in the hunt despite slipping to fourth, heading into the final eight behind, while Jack Aitken was a secure fifth but out of the fight.

In the Teams' Championship DAMS would head into the season finale having already claimed the title, their tally of 394 an insurmountable tally for the chasing pack. UNI-Virtuosi would hence have to settle for second in their first season as a full entrant, while ART Grand Prix had secured third with a race to spare. Behind, Carlin had guaranteed themselves fourth ahead of Campos Racing, while the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz had moved ahead of MP Motorsport.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Grid
The grid for the final race of the 2019 campaign was formed from the finishing positions of the Feature Race, with the top eight reversed as per-FIA Formula 2 Championship rules:

Race
Temperatures were on the warmer side as the field assembled on the grid for the final race of the season on Sunday afternoon, with no threat of rain for the final 45 minute Sprint. There were also no changes to the grid ahead of the finale, meaning Giuliano Alesi would start from pole position as expected, while Nyck de Vries would start his final race from thirteenth.

Report
Alesi duly converted pole to the lead as the lights went out, storming into an unopposed lead at fellow front row starter Nicholas Latifi spun up his rear wheels. As a result the Canadian racer would slip behind a fast starting Luca Ghiotto, while behind Louis Delétraz tried to lunge around the outside of the #6 DAMS through turn one. Instead, the Swiss racer found himself elbowed out onto the astroturf as Callum Ilott forced his way down the inside of the #1 Carlin, with Delétraz forcing his way back onto the track on the exit.

Delétraz would, however, be compromised through the rest of the first sector, and was ultimately unsuccessful in fending off Ilott, the Brit out-braking the Swiss racer around the outside of turn five. Nobuharu Matsushita then moved up to challenge his teammate, the pair running side-by-side through turn seven, with the Japanese racer scrambling ahead on exit. Out front, meanwhile, Alesi was doing his best to escape from Ghiotto, while Mick Schumacher scrambled ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara to claim seventh on the brakes for turn eleven.

After that the race would quickly settle down, with Alesi establishing a one second lead over Ghiotto, while Ghiotto himself escaped from Latifi. Ilott, meanwhile, would find himself under attack from Matsushita and Delétraz, while Sette Câmara got his revenge on Schumacher on lap six, a measured lunge down the inside of the #9 Prema into turn eleven completing the job. Jordan King and Jack Aitken then completed the early top ten, while Guanyu Zhou inched towards them after making a miserable start.

With tyre degradation a key issue at the Yas Marina Circuit, there was little surprise that drivers would soon focus on tyre conservation, with everyone having started on soft Pirellis. Indeed, Alesi would soon see his lead crumble, as Ghiotto managed to break into DRS range by pushing his softs slightly harder. On lap eight the Italian racer would make his bid for the lead, firing the #8 UNI-Virtuosi down the inside of the #20 Trident at turn eleven to secure the lead.

A lap later and Sette Câmara was on the move, firing down the inside of Feature foe Delétraz to claim sixth on the brakes for turn eleven, with Delétraz almost hanging on before bailing on the inside of turn twelve. He duly began clawing his way onto the back of Matsushita as, out ahead, teammate Latifi had moved up to challenge Alesi for second. With the aid of DRS the #6 DAMS would sweep down the inside of the Frenchman to claim second into the first chicane (turn eight/nine) on lap ten, with Alesi seeming to have issues with his tyres.

That move would end Alesi's hopes of victory, before a move from Ilott down the inside of turn eleven on the #20 Trident a lap later curtailed the Frenchman's hopes of a podium. Behind, Sette Câmara's charge continued as the Brazilian racer latched onto the back of Matsushita, before firing past the #2 Carlin on the brakes for the turn eight/nine chicane on lap thirteen. With that the #5 DAMS began to ease onto the tail of Alesi to challenge for fourth, while behind Artem Markelov retired with an issue.

Sette Câmara eased into fourth with the aid of DRS on lap sixteen, repeating his move on Matsushita to do so into turn eight/nine. Alesi tried to respond but a poor exit, made all the worse by a small flat-spot and heavily worn tyres, meant he was powerless to prevent the #5 DAMS from powering clear down the next straight. Elsewhere, Guanyu Zhou managed to muscle his way into the top ten by driving around the outside of Aitken at turn eight, before Aitken tried to get back ahead with a lunge around the outside of turn eleven. Aitken's lunge would work as he shot past the Chinese racer, only for both himself and Zhou to run wide and cut across to turn thirteen, with Aitken rejoining ahead.

As that fight continued Sean Gelael's season was to come to a premature end, the Indonesian racer stopping on track at the entry of turn eleven. That triggered a Virtual Safety Car to enable him to be dragged into the support pitlane with five laps to go, although it was cleared within a few moments. That ultimately meant that no-one could gamble on making a late stop for supersoft tyres without losing a lot of time, meaning the field would brave it out until the chequered flag on their starting softs.

Two laps later and the VSC was deployed again, this time to cover a stalled Matevos Isaakyan, after the Russian racer had spun and stalled on the exit of turn nine. The Russian rookie had been aided in his demise, after contact between himself and compatriot Nikita Mazepin while fighting in the lower half of the field. Indeed, Mazepin would lock-up while trying to squeeze down the inside of Isaakyan as the #12 Sauber Junior Team pilot turned in to the corner, resulting in Isaakyan spinning and Mazepin receiving front end damage having hit Isaakyan with his right front corner.

Moments before the VSC Aitken would fire around the outside of King for ninth, only to again run wide and cut across turn twelve, although with King also running off the Anglo-Korean racer decided to hold the position. Elsewhere, Sette Câmara aced the restart from the VSC to close right onto the tail of Ilott, and duly made his bid for third on the penultimate tour, getting a run on the #11 Sauber down the back-straight. Ilott moved to the inside line for the first chicane and almost lost the rear as his rear axle locked, although he would hang on to force Sette Câmara to complete the move on the exit of the chicane. Behind, Matsushita faced another attack from Delétraz to try and hold sixth, although the Swiss racer had the better line into turn eight and so fired past for the position.

Ghiotto, meanwhile, would be untroubled by all of that, with the Italian racer managing his tyres expertly to claim victory in what was expected to be his final F2 race. Latifi was next up ahead of Sette Câmara, with Ilott falling shy of the podium by a second. Alesi was next up ahead of Delétraz and Matsushita, while Aitken robbed Schumacher of the final point with a move around the outside of the #9 Prema at turn eleven on the final tour.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Aitken and Schumacher were awarded five second time penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
 * † Mazepin was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * Final F2 starts for Nyck de Vries and Nicholas Latifi.
 * Fifth career victory for Luca Ghiotto.
 * Also Ghiotto's sixth win at GP2/F2 level.
 * Virtuosi Racing scored their fourth win as an entrant.

Standings
Nyck de Vries ended the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship as the Drivers' Champion, scoring 266 points and four race wins across the campaign. Nicholas Latifi finished as runner-up after his podium on the final day, while Luca Ghiotto completed the top three on 207 points. Sérgio Sette Câmara and Jack Aitken were next, as twenty of the season's 27 drivers registered points during the season.

In the Teams' Championship it was DAMS who claimed the crown for 2019, scoring 418 points courtesy of the efforts of Latifi and Câmara. UNI-Virtuosi ended their maiden F2 campaign in second, 71 points behind the Champions, while ART Grand Prix completed the top three with 277. Carlin and Campos Racing then completed the top five, while the outgoing Arden International squad ended their F2 chapter in eighth with 77 points.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.