New F2 champion Leclerc dedicates title to his late father

Charles Leclerc sealed the 2017 F2 title with a dominant win in the series' feature race earlier today in Jerez.

It was a lights to flag triumph for the Ferrari junior who has blitzed the opposition in his first year in F2 which is also the first for the FIA-sanctioned series.

Leclerc easily contained his rivals although all afternoon, relinquishing the lead only for a brief moment during the inevitable pitstop crossover period.

His only alert was in the closing stages of the race, when his tyres went off and forced the Prema driver to slow, which in turn allowed his follwoers to catch up.

But there was no last lap drama, except down the field, and Leclerc crossed the checkered flag in front of Dams Oliver Rowland and his Prema team mate Antonio Fuocco.

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It was an emotional moment for the 19-year-old Monegasque who dedicated his win to his later father, Hervé, who passed away in June, just a few days before the F2 round in Baku.

"Winning the championship is an amazing way to honour him," the 19-year-old said.

"For him, racing was absolutely everything. He had followed every lap I had done in my career and he had analysed them.

"He was extremely passionate and any time I won a race he was the happiest of father of all.

"There was no question of me coming to Baku or not - I wanted to go there, try to do the best job possible and try to win the race for him, to honour him.
"It was a way to thank him for everything he had done until that moment and luckily I had the chance to do that."

Leclerc's outstanding season makes his graduation to Formula 1 all the more compelling, and indeed it's likely Ferrari will place its talented junior with Sauber for 2018 as widely expected.

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