Brazilian driver Gabriel Borteleto claimed the 2024 championship on the season finale in after title rival dramatically stalled at the beginning.
Whereas Bortoleto cruised into the lead at lights out from second on the grid, French driver Hadjar (beginning in third) did not get off the mark.
Hadjar, who’s in competition for an F1 seat at ’s sister group RB in 2025, was wheeled again into the pits however did handle to get going once more. Nonetheless, he was two laps down within the 33-lap characteristic race.
Bortoleto, 20, in the end completed in second place, whereas Hadjar completed a lap down. Bortoleto turns into the primary driver since Oscar Piastri to win F3 and F2 back-to-back.
“Yeah I stalled, I want a proof, man,” Hadjar mentioned at the beginning. “I can’t imagine all this difficult work for that. The worst second of my life, proper now.”
His engineer replied: “Yeah I think about, yeah. Identical for me.”
Bortoleto, who’s driving in F1 for Sauber subsequent yr, led by 4.5 factors going into the ultimate race of the season and obtained off to a dream begin.
Nonetheless, after the primary spherical of pit-stops, he dropped all the way down to P10 and complained that he was struggling together with his brakes.
At this stage, his Invicta Racing have been making him conscious that each one he successfully needed to do to win the title was end the race, or a minimum of end within the top-10.
But Bortoleto did make some strikes and in the long run completed solely two seconds behind race winner Joshua Durksen.
“Let’s go, thanks for this season man, it was wonderful,” Bortoleto mentioned on group radio, after the chequered flag.
He added in his post-race interview: “Finest feeling on the earth, a lot adrenaline. Everyone seems to be right here to help me. I’m not pondering now, I’m on one other planet.
“I didn’t know if Isack was in and out, I used to be so targeted on the win.
“I couldn’t ask for extra. I achieved the whole lot I needed to, now I’ve a seat for subsequent yr. It’s the very best feeling ever, I’m tremendous proud.”
Bortoleto will drive alongside Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber subsequent yr – the primary Brazilian driver on the F1 grid since Felipe Massa in 2017.
Hadjar can also be in competition for a promotion to F1. Ought to Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda (as is predicted), Hadjar is the apparent candidate to affix RB.
