Doohan farewells F2® with win in Abu Dhabi

Jack Doohan has dominated his final weekend in the FIA Formula 2® championship, the Australian taking his third win of the season and vaulting into the top three in the championship standings after a masterclass in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Starting from pole position, the 20-year-old was faultless across 33 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit in blazing sunshine, the Invicta Virtuosi Racing driver using the extra grip provided by his soft tyres to leave front-row starter and fellow Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins (ART) in his wake when the lights went out, and bolting to a 2.5-second lead over Indian driver Kush Maini (Campos) within six laps.

Doohan led until making his mandatory pit stop for medium tyres on lap nine, and then methodically picked up positions as his rivals made their own stops, taking back first place with eight laps to go and having plenty of pace in reserve to repel Martins, who rolled the dice on a medium-soft tyre strategy to no avail.

Doohan managed his pace perfectly, and despite a late-race virtual safety car scare when the PHM entry of British driver Josh Mason broke down trackside with three laps left, cruised home to win by 3.8secs, adding to his victories in the Hungary and Belgium feature races earlier this year.

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The 25 points for Doohan on Sunday saw him jump DAMS driver Ayumu Iwasa for third in the standings, the Japanese finishing in fourth place in the race, 26.2secs behind the Australian.

“I’m very happy to finish off my F2 campaign with a victory. P1 on Friday … and today to get the win,” he said.

“Option-prime (soft to medium tyres) was the perfect strategy, I was able to manage the tyre in the crucial part of that middle stint (of the race) and then hang on for the end.

“It was a little bit of a weird race because when I came out of the pits, Ayumu (Iwasa) was quite quick, he’d been three laps earlier on the tyre. I was managing and not pushing too hard … luckily the second half of the race I saved enough tyre to be able to respond to Victor (Martins), and in the end it was a steady race, you could say.”

Earlier in the weekend, Doohan took pole immediately after stepping out of the Alpine F1 car when he competed in opening practice and finished 13th place on the timesheets, deputising for Esteban Ocon.

“I had it last year, so I was able to be a bit more prepared and make sure I made it as easy as possible,” he said of switching between F1 and F2 machinery with only a 30-minute break between sessions.

“It’s still a difficult task, you are going from a lap time of a 1min 26secs to a 1:36 in a matter of 20 minutes or even less. For me I feel great coming back from the F1 to the F2, where I think others might struggle more. For me, it all worked out well.”

In Saturday’s Sprint over 23 laps, where the top 10 on the grid are reversed from qualifying, Doohan finished in seventh place, earning an extra two world championship points on top of the two he earned for taking pole 24 hours earlier.

Doohan concludes his time in F2 with six wins, 11 podiums and five poles from 60 starts, with this year’s third place his best championship finish.

Jack’s F2/Abu Dhabi weekend by the numbers

• Qualified: 1st
• Sprint (23 laps): Started 10th, finished 6th
• Feature (33 laps): Started 1st, finished 1st
• Points this event: 27
• Points this season: 168 (3rd in world championship)