F2 Abu Dhabi: Iwasa beats Drugovich in finale, Sargeant set for F1

The Japanese DAMS driver had taken pole on Friday, beating team-mate Roy Nissany to the punch in the dying stages of the session. Iwasa led from the off and despite briefly slipping behind second-place starter and team-mate Roy Nissany, the Red Bull and Honda junior held the lead into the opening laps.

He came under little pressure in the early stages, as Nissany had to absorb an assault from the already-crowned F2 champion Felipe Drugovich, who after clearing Theo Pourchaire early on eventually battled past the Israeli at Turn 9 on the seventh lap of the race.

This set up an encounter between Iwasa and Drugovich for the win, although the battle would have to wait until after the mandatory pit phase; Iwasa remained ahead of the Brazilian following their pitlane visit to collect the medium-compound tyres.

Rather than focus on Drugovich behind, Iwasa instead had to spend the middle portion of the race keeping on top of the gap to Jack Doohan, who had assumed the lead of the race after starting on the alternate strategy.

The Virtuosi driver had built a commanding lead over Marcus Armstrong as Iwasa led those who had pitted as they moved through the field, and the gap between Doohan and Iwasa remained relatively static at around 24 seconds.

Doohan finally pitted on lap 25 and looked set to use his fresh tyre advantage to cut through the pack but, as he rejoined the track, his front left tyre detached, flying back across the track and forcing several drivers to take evasive action.

This forced Doohan to drag his car back to the support pitlane, the Australian retiring and dropping to sixth in the drivers’ standings overall.

The VSC was briefly deployed for marshals to recover the rogue wheel and, once racing resumed, Drugovich looked set to jump Iwasa, but had to shed speed to meet his minimum arrival time - which gave Iwasa a reprieve.

Logan Sargeant, Carlin

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Drugovich hit back and began to close Iwasa down again, but was unable to find a way through with DRS despite looming large in the leader's mirrors.

Another VSC punctuated the final laps, as Olli Caldwell came to a stop at the side of the road, but this time Drugovich was poised to attack Iwasa at the close of the yellow-flag period.

Drugovich then mounted his strongest assault yet on the final lap, and tried to hang his MP Motorsport-run car around the outside of Iwasa at Turn 9 - but Iwasa offered Drugovich the run-off area and held on to claim a second win of 2022.

Liam Lawson claimed the final podium position, ahead of Dennis Hauger - who had been battling with Pourchaire throughout the race before the Frenchman suffered a terminal mechanical issue, dropping him down the order and killing off ART's slim chances of beating MP to the teams' title.

Sargeant now looks set to graduate to Formula 1 with Williams next season after a fifth-place finish was enough to secure him the necessary superlicence points, taking fourth in the drivers’ standings behind Lawson.

The American spent much of the race stuck behind Nissany, with the chasing pack of Amaury Cordeel and Juri Vips closing the pair down after their stops, but Sargeant's stunning move around the outside of the F2 veteran at Turn 9 gave him the chance to breathe more easily.

Cordeel finished sixth for VAR after showing much improved form throughout the Abu Dhabi weekend, with Richard Verschoor in seventh for Trident.

The Hitech pair of Juri Vips and Armstrong finished eighth and ninth - despite Armstrong taking a penalty for track limits violations, with Nissany rounding off the points.

Formula 2 Abu Dhabi feature race results - 33 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	-
2	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	0.8	0.800
3	Liam Lawson	Carlin	1.3	1.300
4	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	13.4	13.400
5	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	14.0	14.000
6	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	15.7	15.700
7	Richard Verschoor	Trident	18.1	18.100
8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	20.2	20.200
9	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	20.6	20.600
10	Roy Nissany	DAMS	22.1	22.100
11	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	22.7	22.700
12	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	23.4	23.400
13	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	24.2	24.200
14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	27.6	27.600
15	Marino Sato	UNI-Virtuosi	28.2	28.200
16	Zane Maloney	Trident	31.7	31.700
17	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	32.4	32.400
18	Tatiana Calderon	Charouz Racing System	45.1	45.100
19	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	2 laps
20	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	4 laps
	Jack Doohan	UNI-Virtuosi	8 laps
	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	33 laps
View full results