プレスリリース - Luka Jerman wins maiden F1 Championship

Luka Jerman wins maiden F1 Championship

Luka Jerman became F1 world champion in a thrilling finale at Yas Marina.

The Slovenian led the championship from teammate Moore by a mere 10 points going into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with the stage set for an exciting finale to a season that had everything.

Qualifying
Jerman took pole position ahead of Alex Cooper’s McLaren, with title rival and teammate Gregory Moore in P3. Tadej Ozbolt was 4th ahead of Brazilian Tony Hoffman II, who had performed well throughout the season. Red Bull had a shocker, with only Wozipiwo through to Q3, whilst Corinne de Saint-Germain, who is set to be replaced by Felipe Campolargo at the French outfit, was knocked out in Q2, finishing dead last in the 2nd session of qualifying. With Jerman’s pole, Moore had a mountain to climb, needing the win and fastest lap with Jerman 3rd or worse to win the title.

Raceday
Alex Cooper snatched the lead from Jerman going into the Turn 6/7 chicane on Lap 4 and the battle began, whilst Moore lurked just behind, waiting for his chance. On Lap 9, Moore lost P3 to McLaren’s Ozbolt, whilst their respective teammates continued their battle for the lead of the Grand Prix. Xalonna then got the Canadian, but Moore took P4 back the next lap, now 3 seconds off the lead. The leading pair then came in for their pitstops, propelling Ozbolt into the lead. Ernie Beales had a suspension problem and sadly retired from his final Grand Prix. When most of the leading cars had boxed, Moore came out behind Asen’s Ferrari, who took advantage of the powerful undercut at Yas Marina to put himself in a net P4 position as Hoffman II inherited the lead. Cooper then lost two positions on one straight to Jerman and Ozbolt as Moore made his way past Asen. The order stayed like this for a few laps with the McLarens battling each other whilst De Saint-Germain crashed out in her miserable final race for Red Bull. This was until Lap 37, where Ozbolt overtook for the lead. Then chaos ensued on Lap 39, where Ozbolt lost the somehow managed to lose 4 positions in 3 corners after making a mistake going into Turn 1. In all of that, Moore took P2 from Cooper, and started to pressure Jerman. After another round of pitstops, it stayed like that with Asen the victim of the undercut this time. Cooper battled Moore and made his move stick, before passing Jerman on the penultimate lap. The order stayed like that and Jerman became world champion in only his second season.

Post-race
Richard Dickson (who was interviewing for ITV F1 after being called out by V8 Supercars racer Craig Gardner and subsequently suspended from his race director role) congratulated champion Luka Jerman, who responded with:
‘Thanks, it was an awesome season. For us, it was more important to finish 1-2 and beat the RB. At Porsche and McLaren we work together and help each other. It was nice to win, but I would have been happy even if DD won with Moore.’