Eventful last feature race of the 2018 season as both drivers struggle with tyre degradation

PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing captured a fourth place in the last feature race of the 2018 FIA Formula 2 season today in Abu Dhabi. Lining-up for the final round of the year at the Yas Marina venue, the team scored valuable points in race 1 with Nyck De Vries. After qualifying on the front row, the 23-year-old Dutchman was brilliant at the start and took the lead before turn 1 and a multi-car crash that caused a long safety-car situation. As the race restarted though, he was undercut by George Russell during the pit stop window and later started suffering from tire degradation which caused him to drop a couple more spots.

Indonesian racer Sean Gelael was off to a tough start. After the early crash, the cars were forced to pass through the pit-lane multiple times: Gelael was assessed a 5-second penalty for speeding. After that he also suffered from degradation despite changing strategy early and stopping twice. He eventually ended up in P17. He will try to rebound in tomorrow’s race 2. PERTAMINA PREMA Theodore Racing wants to congratulate George Russell on winning the 2018 title.

Sean Gelael

“We were fighting for P11 and I was thinking it was going to be a good race and strategy-wise we had already done a good job. After the penalty though, even in terms of pace suddenly we were struggling with tires and I wasn’t even pushing so much. I think we need to improve a lot. Nyck also struggled, but we suffered even more. There is one more race to end the year tomorrow so we can do something even if it’s difficult.”

Nyck De Vries

“Tough race. We simply didn’t have the pace today. I think we did most of it right, we had a good start and led for a little while. Then we had too much right front tire degradation and that put us out of contention for a good result because the only thing I could do was to try surviving. It’s a shame we lost P3 when Ghiotto pitted for options right at the end in an alternative strategy. In the end we got P4 and hopefully we can make it up tomorrow.”