Camara beats Ilott to Abu Dhabi F2 pole

Sergio Sette Camara pipped Callum Ilott to pole position in Formula 2 qualifying on Friday night in Abu Dhabi, edging DAMS closer toward the teams' championship.

Ferrari Formula 1 junior Ilott set the early pace in qualifying, heading the field going into the final runs before Camara managed to overhaul the Briton with his final lap.

McLaren youngster Camara set a fastest lap time of 1m49.751s to edge out Ilott by just 0.089 seconds, scooping the four additional bonus points for pole position.

This puts DAMS 57 points clear of UNI-Virtuosi Racing in the teams' standings heading into Saturday's Feature Race, where Camara and teammate Nicholas Latifi - who qualified P7 - will look to wrap up the title.

Carlin teammates Louis Deletraz and Nobuharu Matsushita took third and fourth respectively ahead of Guanyu Zhou, while 2019 champion Nyck de Vries qualified sixth for ART Grand Prix.

Recently confirmed in a Williams F1 seat for 2020, Latifi paid the price for a mistake at Turn 1 on his final lap in qualifying, leaving him down in seventh for his final Feature Race appearance in F2.

Behind Latifi came Jack Aitken and Nikita Mazepin, with Mick Schumacher rounding out the top 10 for Prema Racing as teammate Sean Gelael spun at the final corner near the end of the session, preventing a number of drivers from improving late on.

Mahaveer Raghunathan will start Saturday's race from the pit lane after receiving a penalty for an illegal practice start earlier on Friday. The MP Motorsport driver qualified P20.

The F2 Feature Race in Abu Dhabi will take place at 1845 local time on Saturday (1445 GMT).