Louis ends his rookie F2 season in point-scoring form

Louis Delétraz showed impressive pace as he completed his rookie FIA Formula 2 Championship season with a point-scoring finish at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

The 20-year-old guided his ADS Securities-sponsored car to a P10 finish and a welcome championship point in Saturday’s Feature Race, before looking odds-on for an even more impressive result in the Sprint Race.

However, he received contact late in Sunday’s 21-lap race and, with a broken front-left wheel, he was forced to retire from P9 with only four laps remaining.

“I’m disappointed with the way the second race ended because it wasn’t my fault, but there are many, many positives to take from the weekend and I think we were one of the strongest cars on the grid,” the Swiss driver explained. “My pace was good and I’m pleased I could bring my season to a close with this feeling.”

Yas Marina was the first circuit of the year that Louis had previously raced in an F2 car. That meant he was looking forward to Friday’s qualifying session. Although he drove cleanly, he wasn’t able to improve on his earlier 1m 48.212s lap time and had to settle for P11 on the grid for the Feature Race – held under floodlights on Saturday evening.

Louis and his Rapax team chose the ‘alternative’ tyre strategy (starting with the soft Pirelli tyre and switching to the super-soft compound late in the race) for the Feature Race battle and the 20-year-old ran as high as P4 until he had to dash into the pits with six laps remaining.

Despite lapping the 5.55km consistently fast, the chosen strategy didn’t prove to be the quickest in the conditions and Louis had to be content with a P10 finish and a single championship point.

“We did a good job with the team to put everything together to try to find the best set up for race one,” he reflected. “We tried the alternative strategy to come back but it wasn’t the quickest. I think we managed to do a good race but we lost some time with the strategy and our qualifying position didn’t really help us.”

Starting Sunday’s Sprint Race from P10 on the grid, Louis was immediately on a charge towards the point-scoring positions. He impressively caught and passed Sergio Sette Camara for P9 and a string of superb lap times enabled him to close on a trio of cars just ahead. Louis was one of the fastest drivers on the track at this stage and looked certain to add to his points haul.

However, as he drew alongside Nyck de Vries and went to overtake for P8, the two cars came into contact and Louis’ front-left wheel was terminally damaged. Disappointingly, he had to withdraw from an F2 race for only the second time in 22 races.

“We had a good car and a good chance in the second race. I was one of the fastest guys on the track,” he said. “I used my DRS to catch de Vries and then as I went alongside him to pass, he didn’t brake and crashed into me. I couldn’t go anywhere. The front-left wheel was taken off with the impact and there was some broken carbon. I had to stop.”

It was a bitterly disappointing end to largely positive weekend for Louis and he felt he could have climbed even higher up the Sprint Race leader board if he’d been allowed to race cleanly.

“I really think I could have made even more progress in the last four laps, maybe by overtaking Rowland and Markelov – two of the quickest drivers in the championship,” he said. “It’s not the way I wanted the season to end, particularly as I had such fantastic support from the people at ADS Securities this weekend.

“But this season was all about learning and I’ve definitely done a lot of that this weekend. Looking at the 2017 season as a whole, I think we have some great experience to take to forward in the championship.”

RACE RESULTS