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The 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship calendar was confirmed today.

For next season, it will consist of twelve rounds in total, all support events of the Formula One World Championship.

Eight rounds will be held in Europe, including new venue Le Castellet in France, and there will be four flyaway events to complete the calendar, with the addition of new venue Sochi in Russia.

The second season of the FIA F2 Championship will kick-off overseas at Bahrain International Circuit on April 06-08, and the paddock will then fly to Baku in Azerbaijan on April 27-29. The action will resume in Europe two weeks later, beginning with Barcelona on May 11-13 followed by Monte Carlo on May 24-26.

New venue Le Castellet on June 22-24 will open the busiest month of the year, with three back to back race events: France will be followed by first Spielberg in Austria on June 29 – 01 July, and then Silverstone in Great Britain on 06-08 July. There will be a two-week breather before Budapest on 27-29 July.

After a well-deserved summer break, the action will pick-up at Spa-Francorchamps on August 24-26 before going to Monza a week later on August 31- September 02.

The paddock will then fly to another new venue in Sochi, Russia on September 28-30, with the season finale taking place once again at Yas Marina on November 23-25.

FIA Formula 2 CEO Bruno Michel said: “I am pleased to announce that next year’s calendar will hold twelve events alongside Formula One."

"One of our mission statements is to prepare young drivers to the next step: F1. Having all of our race weekends take place with F1 will help our drivers to learn as many F1 tracks as possible, but also to prove their race crafts directly in front of the F1 paddock.

“The 2018 calendar includes two new venues: Le Castellet and Sochi. It features one more event compared to this year, and is a good balance between racing on F1 circuits in Europe and overseas.”

2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship Calendar*

Date

Venue

06-08 April

Sakhir, Bahrain

27-29 April

Baku, Azerbaijan

11-13 May

Barcelona, Spain

24-26 May

Monte Carlo, Monaco

22-24 June

Le Castellet, France

29 June – 01 July

Spielberg, Austria

06-08 July

Silverstone, Great Britain

27-29 July

Budapest, Hungary

24-26 August

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium

31 August – 02 September

Monza, Italy

28-30 September

Sochi, Russia

23-25 November

Yas Marina, UAE

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Charles Leclerc is the first FIA Formula 2 Drivers’ Champion after claiming victory in this afternoon’s feature race at the Circuito de Jerez, leading all race long apart from the pitstop crossover and hanging on despite slowing enormously on the last lap as his tyres gave up to cross the line 0.2s ahead of title rival Oliver Rowland and teammate Antonio Fuoco.

Temperatures soared as the grid formed behind poleman Leclerc, with the Ferrari Academy driver easily containing front row starter Luca Ghiotto into turn 1 ahead of Sergio Sette Camara and Alexander Albon, with Rowland clinically dispatching the pair as he fought for his slender shot at the title: the Briton closed on the Italian but was unable find a way by as Leclerc built a huge lead over the pair ahead of their pitstops.

As expected most of the field started on the soft compound tyres, with pitstops coming as early as lap 7: Sette Camara became the target man after stopping on lap 9, with Ghiotto in 2 laps later but unable to contain the Brazilian after a slow stop. Leclerc and Rowland came in next time by, with the Monegasque out in P5 and Rowland emerging 2 places back before also being passed by Sette Camara and Albon.

As Leclerc started to pass the medium shod drivers and headed back to the front, Rowland had to following suit, dispatching the pair on lap 15: the Monegasque driver finally reclaimed the lead from Nicholas Latifi, who waved him through on lap 19, with Rowland grabbing second 2 laps after fighting his way through the traffic, and Ghiotto finally re-joining the top 3 after battling his way past Fuoco, who was one of the last drivers to pit for fresh rubber.

Latifi and Fuoco were soon putting their new tyres to work, fighting their way up the grid against rivals on older rubber, but it looked to be an effort in vain until Santino Ferrucci and Nobuharu Matsushita came together at turn 1 with the American coming off second best, stopping in the barriers and prompting a safety car period to remove his car, closing the field in the process and turning the tyre strategy on its head.

Leclerc had a lapped Sean Gelael on fresh tyres between himself and Rowland as they toured around, and when the race went live on lap 35 the Monegasque driver eased away at the front of the field with the Briton slicing by the Indonesian to chase his rival for the closing laps.

Fuoco was soon charging towards them, easily passing Sette Camara, Latifi and Ghiotto to put himself on the podium.

On the final lap Leclerc tyres were spent: he slowed dramatically, bunching up his pursuers who also had to content with a battle between Gelael and Louis Deletraz as they looked in vain for a line past Leclerc, who had just enough left to lead the group over the line as he claimed his 6th victory of the season, and with it the 2017 title.

Rowland just held out Fuoco for P2, with Latifi breathing down their necks in 4th, while Markelov was a fine P5 after a first lap tangle ahead of Jordan King, who made the alternate strategy work for him after mugging Ghiotto on spent tyres late in the race.

Alex Palou was a splendid 8th on his debut, picking up the reverse pole for tomorrow’s sprint race, ahead of a strong drive by Nabil Jeffri for P9 and a distraught Sette Camara who also ran out of rubber in 10th.

Preliminary Feature Race Classification

 Pos  

Driver

Team

Gap

1

 

Charles LECLERC

PREMA Racing

 

2

 

Oliver ROWLAND

DAMS

+0.230

3

 

Antonio FUOCO

PREMA Racing

+0.917

4

 

Nicholas LATIFI

DAMS

+1.236

5

 

Artem MARKELOV

RUSSIAN TIME

+2.685

6

 

Jordan KING

MP Motorsport

+6.744

7

 

Luca GHIOTTO

RUSSIAN TIME

+8.017

8

 

Alex PALOU

Campos Racing

+8.262

9

 

Nabil JEFFRI

Trident

+14.483

10

 

Sergio SETTE CAMARA

MP Motorsport

+16.226

11

 

Norman NATO

Pertamina Arden

+16.256

12

 

Alexander ALBON

ART Grand Prix

+17.122

13

 

Nyck DE VRIES

Racing Engineering

+17.657

14

 

Gustav MALJA

Racing Engineering

+24.855

15

 

René BINDER

Rapax

+26.942

16

 

Sean GELAEL

Pertamina Arden

1 Lap

17

 

Louis DELÉTRAZ

Rapax

1 Lap

18

 

Nobuharu MATSUSHITA

ART Grand Prix

1 Lap

         
   

Not Classified

   

19

 

Santino FERRUCCI

Trident

 

20

 

Ralph BOSCHUNG

Campos Racing

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Artem Markelov bided his time before attacking late in the race to claim his fourth FIA Formula 2 victory in this afternoon’s sprint race at the Circuito de Jerez, preserving his tyres on a day were most of his rivals were losing theirs before making the race-winning move on lap 22 and flying away for the win by over 11 seconds from DAMS pair Nicholas Latifi and Oliver Rowland.

Temperatures were hot once again as the grid formed behind newcomer and poleman Alex Palou, who soaked up a pre-race delay for a technical issue with the safety car before soaring into the lead ahead of fellow front row starter Luca Ghiotto, who had his mirrors filled by Jordan King: the pair came together and the Italian was in the gravel at turn 2, re-emerging at the back of the field as King led Latifi, Markelov, Rowland, Charles Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco as they chased after the leader.

The path to Palou was soon clearer when King’s engine let go, but the local driver was clearly enjoying his time in the car and building a substantial gap back to Latifi in P2, whose teammate dropped back behind the PREMA pair on lap 2, undoing his good work at the start.

Behind them all Ghiotto was on a charge, clearly furious at his misfortune and looking to bring home any reward he could find as he sliced his way back up the grid.

Pitstops were flagged as a possibility ahead of the race, and on lap 12 Fuoco came in for fresh rubber, followed next time through by his teammate: the pair emerged in P15 and 16 and were soon on the hunt to return to the points as Ghiotto moved up to P8.

Leclerc was setting the pace, running some 2-3s faster than the front runners, and his rivals along the pitlane were quickly doing the maths to see if they needed to make the call too.

On lap 18 Ghiotto followed their lead and pitted for tyres, just as Leclerc mugged his teammate at Dry Sac for P13, but with Latifi closing on Palou attention returned to the front of the race, with Markelov sitting behind the pair and waiting to see what happened. The trio circulated together for a few laps before Markelov made his move: on lap 22 he sliced by Latifi at turn 1, blew past Palou at Dry Sac, and was gone.

Latifi and Rowland mugged Palou next time by, the local clearly out of tyres, but were unable to do anything about the pace of Markelov out front.

The Russian wound up as the laps fell away to grab his 4th win by almost 12s from Latifi, who held off teammate Rowland to the flag. Behind them Ghiotto just missed a podium after an astonishing recovery drive to P4, leading countryman Fuoco past a slowing Leclerc on the final lap, with Nyck De Vries outdragging the Monegasque driver, who had nothing left on his tyres after using them in qualifying, to the flag and P6, and Palou hanging on for the final points position in 8th.

Preliminary Sprint Race Classification

 Pos

Driver

Team

Gap

1

Artem MARKELOV

RUSSIAN TIME

43:01.086

2

Nicholas LATIFI

DAMS

+11.840

3

Oliver ROWLAND

DAMS

+13.286

4

Luca GHIOTTO

RUSSIAN TIME

+14.691

5

Antonio FUOCO

PREMA Racing

+16.497

6

Nyck DE VRIES

Racing Engineering

+20.201

7

Charles LECLERC

PREMA Racing

+20.510

8

Alex PALOU

Campos Racing

+25.027

9

Alexander ALBON

ART Grand Prix

+25.613

10

Norman NATO

Pertamina Arden

+30.411

11

Nobuharu MATSUSHITA

ART Grand Prix

+34.059

12

Louis DELÉTRAZ

Rapax

+38.074

13

Santino FERRUCCI

Trident

+44.257

14

Sergio SETTE CAMARA

MP Motorsport

+52.036

15

Nabil JEFFRI

Trident

+52.395

16

Sean GELAEL

Pertamina Arden

+52.516

17

René BINDER

Rapax

+52.658

18

Gustav MALJA

Racing Engineering

+1:04.836

19

Ralph BOSCHUNG

 Campos Racing

+1 lap  

 

Not Classified

 

  

 

Jordan KING

MP Motorsport

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Charles Leclerc has resumed his normal service in this afternoon’s qualifying session by claiming his 8th pole position of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship season at the Circuito de Jerez, easily grabbing the top spot with a time of 1:24.682 late in the session to deny the honours to Luca Ghiotto and Sergio Sette Camara.

Temperatures had soared from the morning’s free practice session when the green lights shone to allow the drivers to be released, with Sette Camara leading his rivals onto the track: Nyck De Vries set the first competitive time at the 5 minute mark before Leclerc grabbed P1 from him, with Ghiotto and newcomer Alex Palou swapping 2nd place between them over the next few laps before Oliver Rowland displaced the local driver in the top 3.

Leclerc improved on his best time at the halfway mark in the session before joining most of his rivals in the pits: Sette Camara was running an alternate strategy and had the entire circuit to himself with 10 minutes remaining, allowing the Brazilian to reclaim his P3 before returning to the pits as his rivals re-emerged to continue the battle.

With 3 minutes remaining Ghiotto improved his time as Rowland returned to the pits, but so too did Leclerc: the Ferrari Academy driver knew he had it in the bag and came back to the pits with Ghiotto trying in vain to improve once again before accepting his fate and joining a rapidly filling pitlane as the clock wound down to zero.

Rowland was hoping for more but will have to make do with P4, out of the top 3 but ahead of Artem Markelov, Alexander Albon, Nobuharu Matusushita, Nyck De Vries, Nicholas Latifi and Norman Nato, all of whom were within a second of the top spot and will be hoping for better luck in tomorrow’s feature race.

Preliminary Qualifying Classification

 Pos

Driver

 

Team

Time

Gap

 

Laps

1

Charles LECLERC

 

PREMA Racing

1:24.682

--

 

11

2

Luca GHIOTTO

 

RUSSIAN TIME

1:24.942

0.260

 

10

3

Sergio SETTE CAMARA

 

MP Motorsport

1:25.257

0.575

 

9

4

Oliver ROWLAND

 

DAMS

1:25.316

0.634

 

10

5

Artem MARKELOV

 

RUSSIAN TIME

1:25.422

0.740

 

11

6

Alexander ALBON

 

ART Grand Prix

1:25.426

0.744

 

9

7

Nobuharu MATSUSHITA

 

ART Grand Prix

1:25.450

0.768

 

11

8

Nyck DE VRIES

 

Racing Engineering

1:25.470

0.788

 

11

9

Nicholas LATIFI

 

DAMS

1:25.477

0.795

 

14

10

Norman NATO

 

Pertamina Arden

1:25.583

0.901

 

11

11

Alex PALOU

 

Campos Racing

1:25.600

0.918

 

11

12

Louis DELÉTRAZ

 

Rapax

1:25.627

0.945

 

11

13

Santino FERRUCCI

 

Trident

1:25.632

0.950

 

11

14

Jordan KING

 

MP Motorsport

1:25.653

0.971

 

10

15

Antonio FUOCO

 

PREMA Racing

1:25.738

1.057

 

11

16

Gustav MALJA

 

Racing Engineering

1:25.916

1.234

 

11

17

René BINDER

 

Rapax

1:26.121

1.439

 

10

18

Nabil JEFFRI

 

Trident

1:26.148

1.466

 

11

19

Sean GELAEL

 

Pertamina Arden

1:26.163

1.481

 

11

20

Ralph BOSCHUNG

 

Campos Racing

1:26.647

1.965

 

13

 

         

 

 

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