Campos Racing’s Pepe Martí took a long-awaited maiden victory in the sprint race of Formula 2’s season finale at Abu Dhabi to become the 18th winner of the 2024 season. After the race, he spoke with Feeder Series and selected media about his achievement.

By Michael McClure

Martí started the sprint race fourth after qualifying seventh, his joint-highest position of the year. Thanks to a lightning start, he was already in the lead upon arriving at the first corner and never looked back.

By the end of the first lap, Martí had a 1.5-second lead over Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini. On lap six, when points leader Gabriel Bortoleto overtook teammate Maini for second, the Spaniard had a lead of almost four seconds.

Bortoleto closed the gap down to 2.286 seconds by the end of the 23-lap race, but Martí sailed to victory untroubled. His gap over third-placed Paul Aron was nearly 14 seconds.

“Today is just a great day where everything has come together and come my way,” Martí told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference.

The victory comes at the tail end of a trying rookie season for Martí, a member of the Red Bull Junior Team since last year.

Having finished fifth in F3 in 2023, Martí made an immediate impression upon stepping up to F2 by finishing third and second in his first two races of 2024 in Bahrain. His sole other podium this season, however, came from a second-place finish in Spielberg in June, and he scored points on only four occasions outside of that.

“Today is maybe a statement to never give up,” the 19-year-old said. “I’ve had hardships also in my career. In 2022, I had a terrible year in F3. So far this year, we had three podiums, but honestly, it was a terrible year, and we haven’t been the quickest.

“I haven’t been enjoying the process so much because you give your everything every weekend and at home to be as ready as you can be, and it was just not going our way.

“And also, going to the grid, going through the pit lane and you have an engine failure, and that is also [something] nobody would like. We’ve had a lot of that this season, technical issues and things, being completely crashed into sometimes.”

Last weekend in Qatar, Martí missed the sprint race, which he was due to start 11th, after suffering a mechanical failure on the way to the grid.

In total, he has failed to finish nine races of 27 this year. No other driver has racked up more than six retirements.

“It’s hard to say for the balance and say the season has been great, the season has been terrible, because I have been seeing improvements on my side,” he said. “I hope that from now on, I can keep this level of driving and start next year with a good mark.”

While Martí has struggled this year, teammate Isack Hadjar sits second in the championship, 5.5 points behind Bortoleto. Those two will fight for the drivers’ title in tomorrow’s season-ending feature race, while Campos chases Invicta, 25.5 points ahead, for the teams’ title.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool