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Dan Mason

Christian Mansell Concludes Standout 2024 Season In Abu Dhabi

Australian rising star Christian Mansell ended his special 2024 season with a strong showing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship finale in Abu Dhabi last weekend (07/08 December), coming up just short of adding more points to his F2 tally.


Fresh from a sensational comeback display at Qatar only a week ago in his second F2 weekend with the Trident Racing squad, Mansell arrived in Abu Dhabi looking to add to his 10-point haul and superb pole position on his debut in Baku.


His third outing in the Formula 1-supporting single-seater category came on the renowned Yas Marina Circuit. It was a track that the New South Wales racer had not competed at previously, but he was quick to find his feet in the early free practice runs on Friday morning.


The crucial 30-minute qualifying session that followed in the afternoon was tainted by a late red flag for a stranded car, stopping the action with Mansell on a critical push lap that would have jumped him up the timing screens. Unfortunately, with tyre temperatures low in the frenetic last rush for an improvement, Mansell was left with it all to do from 21st.


With the Qatar fightback still firmly on his mind, Mansell - backed by AJM Transport, Castrol, Vawdrey Trailers, Sargeant Transport and Ultimate Driving Tours - headed into the 23-lap sprint race on Saturday ready to put on another fighting display in front of the F1 crowds.


During a hectic opening lap, Mansell followed his Trident team-mate Max Esterson through the pack and was able to dodge a spinning Victor Martins to improve his position early doors. As the race drew on, Mansell's pace brought him up into the fierce mid-pack battles, and he was able to find his way by Kush Maini late on to ensure a net gain of five places from his original starting spot by the chequered flag.


The feature race on Sunday was the final chance for the Rush Performance, Infinity Sports Management, IOR Petroleum, AMSL Diabetes Australia and NTI-backed rising star to grab a result, with 33 laps and mandatory pit stops thrown into the mix to assist in his fightback attempts.


During a phenomenal opening lap, Mansell climbed the order from row ten up onto the fringes of the top ten. A fabulous launch from the grid - coupled with some opportunistic overtaking and evasive action to miss a stalled car ahead - put him up to 12th spot early on.


It would be where he remained when split strategies leveled out in the latter laps of the race, Mansell having opted to take his stop early. Others attempted to make their rubber last longer and bolt on the Super Soft compound for a final burst, and some of those found their way by the Aussie who was powerless to defend on his way to an improvement of 15th place by the end.


Sunday's action brough the curtain down on a hectic and highly successful season for Mansell; the Aussie ace having also bagged himself five podium finishes in FIA Formula 3 for ART Grand Prix on his way to a great fifth place in the Drivers' Championship.


Christian Mansell: “It's been a great season for me personally. To be a title contender in Formula 3 and then instantly a points scorer in Formula 2 was exactly what we wanted to prove, so it gives us ammunition to go into 2025 with a lot to be excited about.


"The final round all really stemmed back to qualifying. It didn't go the way we wanted unfortunately, and again it wasn't helped by the timing of red flags. That meant it left us with a lot of work to do in the races, and the sprint race proved that it's not easy to overtake around this circuit.


"On Sunday it was a bit more of a strategy game, and we didn't think the softer tyres would last for us at the end of the race. Some made it work, others didn't, but we made more ground through what we did and the first lap was really key for us.


"Thank you so much to the Trident and ART teams that have supported me all season, and I'm already looking forward to a new chapter next year in F2." 


Mansell will now focus his attentions towards 2025, when he will tackle a first full season in FIA Formula 2 with the Rodin Motorsport squad - a team that he previously won races with when competing in British F4 and the GB3 Championship.


Image from Dutch Photo Agency.

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