In his debut year, the Brazilian clinched the title after winning the F3 Championship in 2023.

This Sunday (8), the Formula 2 World Championship came to an end, and in a spectacular fashion, Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto secured the most prestigious title in a category leading to Formula 1. Competing in his rookie year, the 20-year-old joined the ranks of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri by winning back-to-back F3 and F2 World Championships as a rookie.
Bortoleto arrived in Abu Dhabi, the venue for the championship finale, with a narrow half-point lead over French driver Isac Hadjar. Highly focused and aware of what needed to be done throughout the weekend, Bortoleto and the Invicta Racing team worked together to optimize the setup for car #10 for both qualifying and race conditions.

After a strong performance in the sole practice session, where he clocked a best lap of 1m38.046s, Bortoleto finished as the second-fastest driver on the track. In qualifying, held later that day, Gabriel set a time of 1m35.780s, narrowly missing out on pole position by just 35 thousandths of a second. This result secured him a front-row start for Sunday’s feature race and a ninth-place start for the Sprint Race, which took place on Saturday afternoon.

In a sensational race on Saturday, Gabriel climbed from ninth on the grid with impressive determination, moving through the field to finish in a celebrated second place after 25 laps. This extended his championship lead to 5.5 points over the runner-up, allowing him to better strategize for the feature race.
With strong support from Brazilian fans, Bortoleto lined up his car for the season’s decisive race. His goal was straightforward: finish ahead of Isac Hadjar. With an excellent start, the Brazilian surged into first place while Hadjar stalled his car and had to be towed to the pits. At that moment, the championship was effectively decided, as although Hadjar returned to the track, he was a lap down and unable to pose a threat to Bortoleto under normal conditions. Gabriel calmly completed his race, crossing the finish line in second place. With a total of 214.5 points, he celebrated the title with a 22.5-point advantage over the runner-up.

“Many people doubted me when I was in FRECA… I won F3 and F2 back-to-back in my rookie year. This shows that Brazilians never give up; we have a lot of resilience, and we overcome any barrier. Thank you to all Brazilians, to everyone who supports me on social media, and to those who meet me in person. This title is for you, much more than it is for me. It shows how strong Brazil is, and I will be back to represent you in Formula 1,” Gabriel celebrated as he stepped out of the car, welcomed by his family, friends, and the entire team.

Pictures: Disclosure

Press office of Gabriel Bortoleto
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick