F2 season comes to an end in Barcelona

01/11/2011

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Mirko Bortolotti has taken the FIA Formula Two Championship win record with victory in the final race of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. His seventh victory in 2011 matches Andy Soucek's record from 2009, the year Bortolotti took his first of what has now become eight wins.

Spaniard Ramon Pinero finished just behind the Italian during the final race of the season but narrowly missed out on second place in the championship by just four points to Swiss driver Christopher Zanella who finished seventh.

Romanian Mihai Marinescu secured his fourth podium from the last six races with third spot, just ahead of local driver Miki Monras who ended his debut F2 season fourth overall.

As the 22-lap race got underway, Pineiro made a superb start from second on the grid and looked to take the lead of the race as he held the inside line into Turn 1. However, 21-year-old Bortolotti drove around the outside of the Spaniard to take the lead into the left-hander at Turn 2. The move was decisive to Bortolotti's race and he set about breaking his opponent's resolve in a similar manner to yesterday's race.

Meanwhile Pineiro was aware of an early challenge from Marinescu, who had stolen third place from Miki Monras, but the Romanian was to progress no further up the field as the race settled down after a frantic first lap that saw Tobias Hegewald spin down the order.

As Bortolotti pulled out several tenths on each lap, Pineiro kept up the pace to secure his second place. Behind Marinescu and Monras, Alex Brundle, Kelvin Snoeks and Christopher Zanella enjoyed a race-long tussle for fifth place.

Danish driver Mikkel Mac impressed once again by working his way past Brit Jack Clarke for eighth place, before Benjamin Lariche put the Englishman under intense pressure for the remainder of the race. However, he was also aware of a charging Hegewald, who had worked his way up the order and nearly challenged for the final points position as the race drew to a conclusion.

On taking his seventh win of the season, Bortolotti slowed as he crossed the finish line to show his appreciation to his F2 engineers and rounding off what has been a dominant season in fine style.

Speaking afterwards Bortolotti said: "I knew it [the race] was going to be decided on the start but my start was very bad. I'm disappointed about that, but I managed to brake really late into Turn 1 and passed Ramon on the outside, which is not easy! That was the key for this win as once you get your position, it's difficult for the guy behind to get a run to overtake you, so I knew it was going to be very important to be first at the end of the first lap. I wanted to win this race because I wanted to make it eight as I said yesterday, so it's eight Formula Two wins, I'm very proud about this and winning the last two races in Formula Two is fantastic and that's my way to say goodbye to all these people I had the pleasure to work with these two seasons, so I'm delighted and I'm very happy."

Comma has been Technical Partner to FIA Formula Two, and the exclusive supplier of engine oils, coolants and maintenance chemicals to the Championship since it was launched in 2009. All 24 of the identical 500bhp Williams F1 designed Formula Two race cars are lubricated, cooled and serviced with maintenance products supplied by Comma. 

You can read detailed race reports; view the final 2011 Championship standings and keep up with all the other latest FIA Formula Two news at the excellent official Formula Two website.