2019 Yas Marina Feature Race

The 2019 Yas Marina Formula 2 Race 1, otherwise known as the 2019 Yas Marina Feature Race, was the twenty-second and penultimate round of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, held on 30 November 2019 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The race, held in support of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, would see Sérgio Sette Câmara claim victory for DAMS, a result which also secured the Teams' Championship for the French squad.

The Yas Marina Feature was heralded by news regarding the 2020 Season, the result of being held two months after the previous race in Sochi. The biggest news was that of a new team for the F2 Championship in the form of HWA Racelab, who would replace F2 giants Arden International, ending the British squad's fifteen year involvement in GP2/F2.

Into the race weekend itself and qualifying would see Sérgio Sette Câmara secure pole position for DAMS, who could secure the Teams' Championship with a strong result in the Feature Race. Callum Ilott was his closest challenger in second ahead of Louis Delétraz, while freshly crowned Champion Nyck de Vries, who had secured a move to the FIA Formula E Championship, could only muster sixth.

The start of the race would see both Câmara and Ilott struggle off the line, and hence allow Delétraz to charge between them to secure the lead. Ilott also emerged ahead of Câmara in the first corner, while behind Guanyu Zhou shot ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and de Vries to secure fourth.

The early stages saw those on the supersoft Pirelli tyres quickly show signs of degradation, and hence meant that the pace of those up front was fairly slow. That allowed Matsushita, the first of those on the alternate strategy, to make early progress, with successive moves on Zhou, Câmara and Ilott carrying him up to second.

Not long after Matsushita was diving past teammate Delétraz to claim the lead, and duly powered away, prompting Delétraz and Câmara to make their stops. Their hopes were aided by a Virtual Safety Car period, caused when Mahaveer Raghunathan stopped on track, meaning the pair were able to remain on the tail of the main pack.

With fresh rubber Delétraz and Câmara made quick work of those on worn tyres, and soon began eating away at Matsusita's advantage. The Japanese racer himself, meanwhile, appeared to have pushed his tyres too hard in the opening laps, and hence found himself under attack from Zhou, although Matsushita bailed for fresh tyres before Zhou could line-up a lunge.

When Zhou ducked into the pits for his stop the lead was handed to Câmara, who had caught and passed Delétraz to secure the de facto lead. Behind Matsushita and Zhou had dropped to fourth and fifth respectively, although they made quick work of Ilott to go charging off after Delétraz.

Delétraz struggled with his rear tyres in the closing stages, and hence was powerless to deny Matsushita and Zhou from sweeping ahead with time running out. With that they were off to hunt Câmara, although the Brazilian racer still had a healthy margin at the start of the final tour.

Indeed, time would run out for Matsushita and Zhou, as Câmara cruised through the final lap to secure victory and the Teams' Championship for DAMS. Matsushita and Zhou were nose-to-tail in second and third, while Delétraz finished a frustrated fourth. Luca Ghiotto was next ahead of Nicholas Latifi, Giuliano Alesi passed Mick Schumacher to secure eighth and pole position for the Sprint on the penultimate lap, while Nikita Mazepin claimed the final point.

Background
After two months off the FIA Formula 2 Championship arrived in Abu Dhabi and the Yas Marina Circuit for the 2019 season finale, supporting the final race of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship. The Yas Marina Circuit itself was unchanged ahead of the race weekend, with the two DRS zones remaining as they had before. However, there were revisions to the entry list ahead of the finale, as well as news of what was to come for the 2020 season.

Lundgaard Levy
Trident made a change to their entry ahead of the season finale, dropping Ralph Boschung after the Swiss racer's rather quiet campaign with them. In his place the Italian squad signed up FIA Formula 3 Championship front-runner and Renault Sport Academy member Christian Lundgaard to compete for them, handing the Dane his F2 debut. Lundgaard was positive about his chance to drive an F2 car before the 2019 Yas Marina Test, which would give him time to impress and secure a full F2 seat for the 2020 season.

Au revoir Arden
Elsewhere, there would be a major change to the F2 landscape for the 2020 season, as Arden International confirmed that they would not be competing in 2020, having raced in every single season of the GP2 Series and F2 since 2005. They had instead sold their entry and equipment to HWA Racelab, which had partnered with the British squad throughout 2019, as part of an exercise to expand into the series in 2020. An organisation long associated with Mercedes-Benz, HWA's formal move to F2 led to speculation that the Mercedes-Benz Junior Team would enjoy an expansion in the coming seasons.

Sochi Sentiments
Nyck de Vries had extended his title winning advantage in the Sochi Sprint Race, leaving Russia on 266 points and with a safe 72 point lead. Nicholas Latifi, meanwhile, led the charge to finish as runner-up, ten ahead of Luca Ghiotto, with those two set to duel for second at the season finale in Yas Marina. Sérgio Sette Câmara and Jack Aitken were both still in that fight, although they faced a nineteen and 24 point deficit to Ghiotto respectively.

In the Teams' Championship DAMS completed the Russian weekend on the verge of the crown, and could win the title in the Yas Marina Feature race. The French squad left Sochi with a 53 point lead over second placed UNI-Virtuosi, and with 78 points left to fight for only needed a handful of points in the penultimate race to beat the British effort. Behind, ART Grand Prix were mathematically out of the hunt in third, while Carlin had retained fourth ahead of Campos Racing.

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

Qualifying
Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report
There would be no threat of rain as the qualifying session opened, with Jordan King leading the field out onto the now floodlit circuit. The majority would join the Brit out on track in the first few seconds, while Champion Nyck de Vries, Nicholas Latifi and Jack Aitken were among five drivers to sit and wait for a clearer track. King hence became the first driver to record a time, a comparatively slow effort in the 2:11s, with the majority completing a warm-up lap before committing to a flying lap.

Louis Delétraz would set the initial pace when the first flying laps were being set, recording a 1:50.128 having chased King across the line. Callum Ilott then sneaked ahead of the Swiss racer to go fastest by a tenth, before the first fifteen all cruised back to the pits for fresh tyres. As they wound themselves down to enter the pits the five drivers who had waited for a gap ventured out of the pits, with Latifi leading the quintet.

Latifi hence became the first driver of the quintet to set a time, although he could only manage fourth. de Vries was next to record a time and slipped into fifth, before completing another flying lap to jump to fourth. Aitken chased them across the line and claimed sixth, while the other two late runners found themselves mired in the midfield.

As they came off track the rest of the field were beginning their second runs, with Sérgio Sette Câmara now lighting up the timing screens for DAMS. Indeed, the Brazilian racer would storm to the front of the field with a 1:49.751, with Ilott just falling shy of the benchmark when he delivered his second flying lap a few moments later. Elsewhere, Guanyu Zhou leapt up to fifth from tenth in the late shuffle, while de Vries, Latifi and Aitken were shuffled back down to sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

There would have been more changes to the order in the closing moments, had Sean Gelael not spun and stopped in the middle of the track at turn ten after clipping the inside kerb. That brought out a yellow flag and ended the hopes of improvement for those behind the Indonesian racer's incident, and hence ensured that Sette Câmara ended the evening on pole ahead of Ilott.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Mazepin served a fifteen place grid penalty for causing a collision at the 2019 Sochi Sprint Race.

Grid

 * * Raghunathan was forced to start from the pitlane after failing to comply with the practice start procedure during Free Practice.

Race
Conditions were still unsurprisingly dry and warm as the F2 field took to the Yas Marina Circuit for their annual night race, with no threat of rain for the 60 minute race. Furthermore, there were no changes to the front of the grid after qualifying, leaving Sérgio Sette Câmara on pole ahead of Callum Ilott, although Mahaveer Raghunathan was told to start from the pitlane after an infringement in practice.

Report
Unfortunately for Sette Câmara he would make a mess of his final F2 pole start, getting a huge amount of wheelspin and hence was unable to claim the lead. Instead, Ilott would get the initial launch into the lead, despite some wheelspin of his own, only to have Louis Delétraz storm between himself and Sette Câmara to challenge into the first corner. Delétraz duly swept right around the outside of the Brit for the lead through the right-hander, while behind Sette Câmara used a similar move to keep ahead of Guanyu Zhou.

Behind it had been a very clean start, with no major issues through the rest of the pack. Furthermore, barring a late lunge by Artem Markelov down the inside of Mick Schumacher into turn sixteen, there would be no major changes to the order outside of the top ten on the opening tour. As a result Delétraz would complete the opening tour with a small lead over Ilott, while behind Sette Câmara held onto third ahead of Zhou and Nobuharu Matsushita.

The early laps saw Delétraz set about increasing his advantage over the #11 Charouz, while Ilott established his hold on second. Sette Câmara, meanwhile, would find himself on the defensive, as Matsushita first lunged past Zhou into the first chicane, before lining up a move on the #5 DAMS into turn eleven. Another lunge down the inside from the Japanese racer and the #2 Carlin was through to third, before quickly hunting down Ilott as they started lap four.

Matsushita would simply cruise past Ilott down the back straight with the aid of DRS, moving into second as the lead driver on the alternate soft-supersoft strategy. Elsewhere, Schumacher was on the offensive having reclaimed ninth from Markelov, and would ease ahead of Jack Aitken for eighth a few moments after Matsushita's move. That left him on the tail of new Champion Nyck de Vries, with the German youth duly driving right around the outside of the #4 ART Grand Prix into turn eleven to claim seventh.

Towards the end of lap four and Matsushita's superior tyres told, as the Japanese racer swept past teammate Delétraz into turn sixteen to claim the lead. With that the #2 Carlin was away to build a lead, while Delétraz had Ilott and Sette Câmara acting as a buffer between himself and the next soft equipped driver in the form of Zhou. As a result, a stalemate would develop across the field, with those on the supersoft tyres waiting until the pitwindow opened on lap seven.

Almost as one those on ultras would make their stops, with Delétraz leading the charge in ahead of Ilott and Sette Câmara. The Swiss racer duly scrambled out of the pits as the lead driver on fresh softs, while Sette Câmara got the jump on Ilott and shot out ahead of the Brit. Other changes saw Markelov jump Schumacher and de Vries, while quick work from DAMS saw them serve both Sette Câmara and Nicholas Latifi within moments of one another without delaying the Canadian racer.

As those stops were completed there was still fighting on-track, with Luca Ghiotto and Nikita Mazepin squabbling down the back straight for fourth on the soft tyres. Ghiotto won the battle heading into the first chicane, before having to fend off a resurgent Mazepin down the next straight into turn eleven. The Italian racer duly pulled away to hunt down Giuliano Alesi, as Matsushita led the charge ahead of Zhou. The order drivers on the soft-supersoft strategy were Christian Lundgaard, Marino Sato and Mahaveer Raghunathan, who were all running in the top eight after the first stops.

As half distance approached Ghiotto would catch and pass Alesi with ease, while behind the lead drivers on the fresh softs had caught those on old softs. Indeed, de facto leader Delétraz would ease past Sato, Lundgaard and Mazepin without issue, while closest challenger Sette Câmara got caught behind the Russian racer and dropped three seconds behind. Ilott, meanwhile, would get delayed and find himself fighting with Schumacher, while Latifi managed to scythe around the outside of de Vries into the first chicane to claim eleventh.

The Delétraz charge began to stall after half-distance, with the Swiss racer switching to conserving his tyres after his first speculative lunge at Alesi into turn one at the start of lap 20 failed. Behind, Sette Câmara finally dealt with Mazepin and began to ease onto the #1 Carlin's tail, while behind Ilott caught Lundgaard and the Danish debutante caught Mazepin. Indeed, everyone seemed to be in a similar position with regards to tyre wear, although given the fade in the supersofts in the early stages, there would be no early calls from those who started on softs to abandon their rubber.

With seven laps to go Ilott was in striking position behind Lundgaard, although the Dane himself had managed to get tucked right under Mazepin's rear wing as they entered the back straight. That combined with DRS saw the #21 Trident cruise past the #3 ART, only to lock-up on the brakes for the chicane and run straight off the circuit. He hence rejoined behind both Mazepin and Ilott as the Brit moved up onto the tail of the #3 ART, with the #11 Charouz duly easing ahead of the Russian racer with ease into turn eleven.

Two laps later and Matsushita's pace had collapsed, with the Japanese racer abandoning the lead having lost all of his lead of Zhou, while also surrendering almost two seconds in a single lap to Delétraz and Sette Câmara. They were 21 seconds behind the #2 Carlin as it swept into the pitlane, while Zhou opted to stay out and complete an additional lap on the softs. The Japanese racer duly emerged in fifth ahead of Latifi, Alesi having already stopped while Ghiotto joined him in the pits, while, out front, all eyes were on Zhou's pace.

As the #2 Carlin rejoined there would be a fight for second and the de facto lead, with Sette Câmara having now fully demolished Delétraz's advantage. With four laps to go the #5 DAMS was armed with DRS down the back straight, and duly darted right around the #1 Carlin before they reached the turn eight/nine chicane to claim second. Delétraz's hopes of an immediate response were then scuppered by a poor exit from the chicane, meaning Sette Câmara was able to establish a small advantage over the Swiss racer.

A few moments later and Sette Câmara was in the lead ahead of Delétraz, with Zhou finally making his stop with three full laps to go. Yet, the decision to delay the #7 UNI-Virtuosi's stop would prove to be a poor one, as Zhou emerged some six seconds behind Matsushita. Indeed, barring Alesi the Japanese racer was the fastest man on circuit, and after getting his tyres up to temperature recorded a final sector some 2.2 seconds faster than Delétraz in second.

Indeed, the final laps saw those on fresh supersofts had almost seven seconds in hand over those on old softs, with Matsushita charging onto the back of Delétraz with ease. With two laps to go the #2 Carlin was on the back of the sister #1 car, although Delétraz valiantly defended second from his teammate into the turn eleven chicane. Yet it would be in vain, for the superior grip of Matsushita's tyres meant that the Japanese racer was able to simply out drive the sister car out of the chicane and into turn fourteen to claim second, before bolting after Sette Câmara.

Onto the final lap and Sette Câmara had a five second advantage over Matsushita, while Delétraz had a three second hold over Zhou in third. Zhou duly tired to drive around the outside of the Swiss racer at the turn six hairpin, only to be elbowed out wide, before darting around the #1 Carlin down the back straight. However, Delétraz would again try to hold his ground against a car on superior tyres, and duly managed to briefly re-pass the #7 Virtuosi on the brakes for the first chicane, before Zhou simply drove right past him on the exit.

Out front, meanwhile, Sette Câmara had enough in hand to keep Matsushita at bay, sweeping to his third F2 victory with four seconds in hand over the Japanese racer. Zhou was next up ahead of Delétraz after their late fight, while Ilott held fifth ahead of a charging Ghiotto. Latifi claimed seventh ahead of Alesi, who claimed reverse-grid pole for the Sprint Race, while Schumacher and Mazepin claimed the final points.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

 * DAMS secured the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Teams Championship.
 * This was DAMS' first F2 Championship title.
 * Also their third title at GP2/F2 level.
 * Debut race for Christian Lundgaard.
 * Third career victory for Sérgio Sette Câmara.
 * DAMS secured their fourteenth win as an entrant.
 * The French squad also scored their 39th win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
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.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.