Oliver Rowland claimed his third victory of the year in the final Formula 2 feature race of the 2017 season, beating polesitter Artem Markelov in Abu Dhabi.
F2 champion Charles Leclerc seemed destined for his ninth podium of the season but was bizarrely beaten to the line by Antonio Fuoco after slowing just yards from the finish line.
Rowland, who started fourth on the super-soft tyre, vaulted to third on the opening lap. On the same strategy, Markelov led the race until lap 6.
Following their pitstops on lap 7 of 31, Rowland caught and passed Markelov at Turn 8. The pair demonstrated supreme pace on the soft tyre to close in on Leclerc and de Vries who were yet to make their mandatory pitstop.
Losing one second per lap by the end of the stint, Leclerc emerged from his pitstop in third place, but 16 seconds behind Rowland. He was unable to catch the leading duo.
Rowland’s third victory of 2017 was his first since the Hungary feature race in July. Beating Markelov, the result means that Rowland is now a near insurmountable 15 points clear of the Russian in the race to finish second in the championship.
With Leclerc grounding to a near halt just yards before the finish line, his team-mate Fuoco stole the final step on the podium in a photo finish. The result means that Prema retains the lead of the team’s championship heading into the final race of the season.
Luca Ghiotto finished fifth for Russian Time while de Vries struggled with tyre degradation in the closing laps and could only manage sixth.
Nobuharu Matsushita secured reverse grid pole with eighth place. He survived a late charge from his ART Grand Prix team-mate Alexander Albon, who secured the fastest lap in the closing stages but finished ninth.
McLaren’s Formula 1 protege Lando Norris had his F2 debut curtailed by an engine failure on lap 6. Trident’s Nabil Jeffri was the only other retirement. The Malaysian stalled at the start and did not rejoin the race.
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