Jehan Daruvala led home a Carlin one-two as Mick Schumacher took the Formula 2 title in an incredibly tense season finale in Bahrain.
Dan Ticktum led the majority of the race in his final appearance for DAMS, but had to settle for third after being passed by both Daruvala and Yuki Tsunoda late on.
As Daruvala took his first F2 win, the title race provided plenty of drama behind. A flat spotted tyre resulted in Schumacher making an unscheduled stop and dropping out of the points.
This opened the door for Callum Ilott to steal the title, needing at least a top two finish, but the Virtuosi driver’s challenge faded in the closing stages, allowing Schumacher to take the crown despite finishing down in 18th.
Ticktum led away at the start from pole, while Schumacher another one of his great starts that have defined his season to move ahead of Daruvala into second.
But Schumacher locked up, almost hitting Ticktum, after braking too late. This flatspotted his tyres and put him under pressure from Daruvala and Ilott behind. Daruvala passed Schumacher into turn four, before closing in on Ticktum. The lead pair were able to pull out a 4s gap to Schumacher as he battled to hold on to third.
Ilott made several attempts to pass chief rival Schumacher, who had his Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman in close company too. Shwartzman pounced to pass Ilott for fourth, before Ilott swiftly retook the place.
Schumacher’s damaged tyres gave up after Ilott eventually got by, tumbling further down the order and then pitting for fresh rubber. This dropped Schumacher to the back of the field, and suddenly Ilott’s chances of overhauling the 14-point deficit looked a possibility. Ilott needed to win or finish second and take the fastest lap in order for this to happen.
But he was unable to close the 4s deficit to Ticktum and Daruvala, who were involved in a fierce lead battle. Ticktum defended as hard as he could for many laps, before Daruvala made a move stick into turn one with a few laps remaining.
By this stage Ilott had started to slip down the order after his tyres lost grip. Saturday’s feature race winner Tsunoda, who started from eighth, was first to overtake him, before Ilott also lost out to his Virtuosi team-mate Guanyu Zhou and Shwartzman, and eventually finished out of the points in 10th.
Once in third, Tsunoda closed the gap to Ticktum before passing him for second at the final corner of the race, with Ticktum just holding off Zhou at the line for third. Tsunoda takes third in the championship, securing him enough points to earn an F1 superlicence and a rumoured Alpha Tauri drive next season.
Shwartzman finished fifth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Guiliano Alesi and Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto. Alesi’s team-mate Felipe Drugovich took the final point in eighth despite a trip through the gravel.
Race result (34 laps)
| 1 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 37m26.570s |
| 2 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +3.561s |
| 3 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +3.902s |
| 4 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +5.615s |
| 5 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +7.585s |
| 6 | Giuliano Alesi | MP Motorsport | +9.040s |
| 7 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +11.093s |
| 8 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +13.878s |
| 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +14.536s |
| 10 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +16.023s |
| 11 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +16.157s |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +17.051s |
| 13 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +20.176s |
| 14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +21.844s |
| 15 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +23.639s |
| 16 | Marino Sato | Trident | +26.089s |
| 17 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | +26.759s |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +28.529s |
| 19 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +35.936s |
| 20 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +59.769s |
| 21 | Theo Pourchaire | HWA | +1 lap |
| DNF | Ralph Boschung | Campos |
Featured image credit: @fia_f2 official twitter
