Aron wins F2 race as Hadjar cuts the gap to Bortoleto to just half a point

F2 title comes down to Abu Dhabi final

Coming into the penultimate sprint race of the season, championship leader Bortoleto held a three-and-a-half point lead over Red Bull junior driver Hadjar. The Frenchman closed the gap by one point after the sprint race, but Bortoleto, who will join Sauber on the F1 grid for the 2025 season, started in P2 behind pole-sitter Paul Aron, while Hadjar started much further back in ninth place. Sprint race winner Ollie Bearman started in P10, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli started behind his Prema teammate in P11.

The race start was delayed by 15 minutes due to a crash barrier needing some repair, with these repair works also canceling the second F1 Academy race, with that junior formula series won by Abbi Pulling yesterday. When the race got underway, Bortoleto got the perfect start, with the Brazilian jumping Aron down into turn 1 to take the lead, while Hadjar lost out to Bearman and Antonelli, dropping to P10.

Lap 8 of 32 was the first round of pit stops, and Aron was one of the many drivers to come in as he looked for the undercut on Bortoleto, with Hadjar also staying out along with Bearman, who was the lead car on the alternate strategy after starting on the hard.

However, on the same lap, Antonelli went into the gravel with a steering issue that was picked up after colliding with Richard Verschoor in the pitlane, with the Dutchman getting a ten-second penalty as the result of an unsafe release. Antonelli's retirement brought the virtual safety car out, and Bortoleto had brilliant reactions to keep himself out of the pitlane, as pitting under the VSC is not allowed in F2, meaning a penalty would have been given to the Brazilian.

But while he avoided going into the pits, Bortoleto did pass the pit lane bollard, meaning he would receive a penalty for passing the bollard and then not entering the pit lane, and a five-second penalty was given to the championship leader. A full safety car came out just a lap later, allowing Bortoleto and Hadjar both to pit, meaning the Brazilian game out ahead of Aron, while Hadjar was the big winner, coming out behind Aaron for a net P3.

Bortoleto was given his five-second penalty just before the race restarted, and as the race got back underway, Bearman held onto the lead, while the championship leader dropped down to P7 after crashing through a polystyrene brake-meter board. But on the same lap, the safety car was back out again after Jak Crawford clipped and spun Rafael Villagomez, with both cars receiving enough damage to retire from the race.

Lap 17 was when the race got back underway from the second safety car, and Bearman couldn't get his tires back up to temperature, meaning he went wide and let Joshua Dirksen lead. Dirksen was forced to give the place back as they had not crossed the line, and as a result, he dropped down to P4 as Kush Maini and Jake Browning both went through.

Bortoleto showed his class on the restart, moving up from P7 to P5 with some fantastic moves to take a net-race lead as the top four still hadn't pitted, while Hadjar was stuck down in P8. However, with the penalty given to the Brazilian, he knew he had to put a five-second gap between himself and the Frenchman if he wanted to extend his championship lead.

As a result of the two safety cars, the race would not reach its 32 laps, meaning a timer replaced the lap counter. Bortoleto then moved up to P4, and then he asked teammate Maini to let him through and block cars behind to give him the gap needed. However, instead of doing that, the Indian driver came in for his mandatory stop, not hindering any cars to help his teammate.

With eight minutes remaining, Bortoleto got up to P3, but both Aron and Hadjar followed right behind. However, the Brazilian found some pace that Hadjar could not find, putting a two-second gap between the two drivers. with five minutes left, Bortoleto then made a move on Dirksen in P2, giving him free air to put the five-second gap between himself and Hadjar.

With two-and-a-half minutes left, Bearman came in from P1 to make his mandatory stop, as did Dirksen, giving Bortoleto more free air to increase the gap between himself and Hadjar, and with a minute remaining plus one extra lap, the gap was four seconds. Hadjar was then forced to defend from Oliver Goethe as the timer ticked down to zero, meaning there was one final lap for Bortoleto to try and put enough distance between himself and his title rival.

As the checked flag fell, Aron finished in P2 1.7 seconds behind Bortoleto, meaning he took his first F2 race win of the season. Hadjar then set his personal best lap of the race to just finish within five seconds of the Brazilian, meaning he jumped up to P2 and closed the gap to half point in the championship before the final race weekend in Abu Dhabi.