F2 – C1: Rowland dominates the first race in Abu Dhabi

The positions on the grid do not change for the leaders except for Antonio Fuoco (Prema Racing) who misses his start from 3^e place. After four laps, the drivers started on soft tires like Nyck de Vries (Racing Engineering) and Charles Leclerc (Prema Racing) are gaining pace against those who started on super-soft tires. The Monegasque begins his comeback after complicated qualifying while the Dutchman puts pressure on Artem Markelov (Russian Time) for the race lead. At the same time, Lando Norris (Campos Racing) abandons its first race F2 on an engine failure.

On the seventh lap, all the drivers who started with the super-soft tires stopped, including Artem Markelov, Oliver Rowland (DAMS) and Antonio Fuoco while the drivers who started on soft tires took control of the race. In their battle for 2^e place in the championship, Rowland passes Markelov while Leclerc is in the exhausts of De Vries and takes advantage of an error from the Dutchman to take the reins of the race.

At mid-race, Leclerc widened the gap with De Vries but drove slower than Rowland and Markelov, the Russian using his knowledge of Pirelli to get back on the Briton. Seven laps from the end, Leclerc and De Vries stopped to chase supersoft tires, the Monegasque coming out 5^e 16 seconds behind Rowland. Ultimately, the 2017 champion fails to threaten the leaders and even loses 3^e place in front of his teammate on the line.

Oliver Rowland wins his third race of the season ahead of Artem Markelov and Antonio Fuoco. Leclerc finishes 4^e for a hundredth on the line. Luca Ghiotto (Russian Time) finishes 5^e in front of de Vries, also in great pain with his premium tires at the end of the race. Nicholas latifi (DAMS) finishes 7^e and ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita (ART GP) who secures a reverse pole in front of his teammate Alex Albon. Jordan King (MP Motorsport) completes the top 10 while Norman Nato finishes 15^e after a bad pit stop.

Race 1 ranking