Oscar Piastri ended his FIA Formula 2 championship winning year in style by clinching the Feature Race victory in Abu Dhabi.
The Alpine Academy driver was hardly troubled throughout and took a convincing sixth win of the year in front of Alfa Romeo-bound Guanyu Zhou in second position.
Piastri protected his lead from pole and whilst jostling for position with Zhou, Jack Doohan spun in to the barrier at Turn 10, which was enough to bring out the Safety Car.
The top ten before the race got back underway was Piastri leading Zhou, Robert Shwartzman, Ralph Boschung, Theo Pourchaire, Dan Ticktum, Liam Lawson, Felipe Drugovich, Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala.
The pit window opened on Lap 6 with Lawson pitting before Shwartzman and Ticktum came in two laps later. With Lawson able to generate temperature into his new tyres sooner than Ticktum, the Kiwi was able to pass him easily.
Piastri and Zhou came into the pits on Lap 9 and would not swap positions in their battle during their stops.
After 12 laps, Pourchaire temporarily led Drugovich, Armstrong, Juri Vips, Daruvala, Clement Novalak, Bent Viscaal, Jake Hughes, Olli Caldwell and Alessio Deledda. All ten of them were on the alternate strategy.
Lap 27 and race leader Pourchaire entered the pits for the super-soft compound to complete the final six laps on. He re-joined in sixth behind Shwartzman.
Drugovich came in for his mandatory stop a lap later and briefly got out in front of Pourchaire prior to the Frenchman moving in front on tyres that have generated more temperature by pitting the lap before.
Four laps remained and Piastri led Zhou, Shwartzman, Pourchaire, Drugovich, Ticktum, Armstrong, Lawson, Boschung and Richard Verschoor in the top ten.
Lawson slowed from eighth and parked at Turn 10 with some kind of mechanical problem. Just after Drugovich dived to the inside of Pourchaire for fourth at Turn 5 on Lap 31, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed for approximately a minute to move Lawson’s Hitech off the race track.
On the penultimate lap, Drugovich nipped by ahead of Shwartzman for third at Turn 6 and the Russian would fall further down the order at the expense of Pourchaire three corners later.
There was not enough time for either Drugovich or Pourchaire to make a chase on the top two, thus Piastri came home to win his fourth Feature Race in a row ahead of Zhou by more than three seconds.
Drugovich crossed the line third in front of Pourchaire, who claimed the points for the fastest lap.
Shwartzman ended what looks to be his last F2 race in fifth, with Ticktum in sixth and leaving the series to go to Formula E in 2022.
Armstrong was seventh, with Vips, Boschung and Verschoor rounding out the top ten point-scorers.
The Drivers’ Standings conclude with Piastri as champion by 60.5 points over second-place Shwartzman. Zhou finished his final F2 campaign before heading up to Formula 1 with Alfa Romeo in third.
PREMA sign off from 2021 with their second consecutive Teams’ Championship in F2 ahead of UNI-Virtuosi in second and Carlin in third overall.
The 2022 season is set to begin in Bahrain, part of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend on 18-20 March.
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