The final race weekend of the season for MP Motorsport

The final round of the season was held in Abu Dhabi again, after last year’s finale was in Bahrain due to COVID. The weekend started with a promising practice session, with Jack setting the second-fastest time and Clément the 5th fastest time. Qualifying was as successful for Jack as the practice session, where he set a mega lap which got him to P2, meaning he could start from the front row on Sunday’s Feature Race. Clément had a tougher qualifying session and couldn’t set down a full lap, he qualified on P20.

Qualifying results:

P2 Jack Doohan
P20 Clément Novalak

Sprint Race 1

A good start for Jack and Clément, but Jack went wide in the opening lap and lost 2 positions. Clément remained on the same position during the opening lap. Jack stayed close to Armstrong who was driving in front of him on P10. By the 17th lap, Clément was driving on P17, gaining 3 positions. Not much has changed for the midfield during the race, Jack finished on P11, just missing out one reversed pole position, and Clément on P17.

Sprint Race 2

In the second Sprint Race, a lot more happened compared to the first race. The opening laps were chaotic with many attacks on the grid. At some point, Jack was driving with 3 other drivers next to him going into turn 6. It gained Jack one position, driving on P10. Clément lost two positions in the chaotic opening and found himself on P19. In lap 4, the safety car had to come out when Deledda and Caldwell crashed, and Deledda couldn’t continue. After 3 laps the safety car went back in, and Jack overtook Pourchaire for P9. After Nissany, Vips, and Piastri made contact, we had another safety car. During the restart, race leader Armstrong had technical issues and couldn’t continue. This brought Jack to P8 and Clément to P17.

Jack was fighting with Lawson and Nissany for P7, but he ended on the dirty side of the track, therefore both Lawson and Nissany were able to overtake Jack. Nissany and Lundgaard made contact, and Nissany had to pit. Bringing Jack back to P8, Clément was now driving on P14 when he overtook Caldwell. Both Clément and Jack gained 3 positions during the race, finishing on P14 and P8, which meant Jack finished in the points again!

Feature Race

Jack started from P2 for the Feature Race, both he and Clément started on medium tyres, while most other cars in the top 10 started on soft tyres. Jack defended his second position against Zhou, which wasn’t the easiest to do with the cold tyres but he held on and stayed ahead. Jack went wide during the opening lap, while still defending Zhou, and lost his car. Fortunately, he was doing well, after hitting the wall at a high-speed moment on the track.

Clément had a very good few opening laps and was quickly driving on P13 by lap 5 when we went back racing after Jack’s incident. By lap 10, most cars who were driving on soft tyres came in for their pitstop, this got Clément to P6. With 9 more laps to go, Clément came in for a pit stop and changed to the soft tyres. He rejoined the track on P18. Within 2 laps, he overtook 2 cars and was driving on P16. In the final laps he overtook 2 more cars and finished on P14!