Delétraz ends 2018 season on top

Louis Delétraz wrapped up his 2018 F2 season in style: the Swiss set the quickest laptime of the three days of post-season testing in today’s evening session at the Yas Marina Circuit. He clocked in a time of 1:49.638 with a Carlin car. Luca Ghiotto and Nicholas Latifi completed the top 3.

The final day of post-season testing in Abu Dhabi saw Carlin’s Nobuharu Matsushita set the early pace after all the drivers fed onto the track, eager to start their long run programmes for the next two hours and a half.

At the thirty minute mark, reigning GP3 Champion Anthoine Hubert improved on the Japanese’s best to move to the top of the timesheet with a laptime of a 1:51.323. Fifteen minutes later, Nicholas Latifi also found some pace to improve on the Frenchman’s time by 2 hundredths.

Nothing changed at the top of the timesheet until the chequered flag while Juan Manuel Correa moved up to P3 ahead of Sergio Sette Câmara, newcomer Richard Verschoor, returnee Tatiana Caldéron, Jack Aitken, Leonardo Pulcini, Matsushita and Delétraz.

Verschoor set the early pace in the evening session until Delétraz improved on the Dutchman’s laptime. Forty-five minutes in, Ghiotto broke the 1m50s barrier on new tyres to go top in a 1:49.904, but fifteen minutes later, Delétraz put his head down and lapped the track three tenths quicker. That was enough to keep the top honours until the chequered flag.

Behind the two men, Latifi, Guanyu Zhou, Sette Câmara, Giuliano Alesi, Matsushita, Nikita Mazepin, Verschoor and Mick Schumacher rounded the top 10.

This concludes the 2018 FIA Formula 2 season.