Hitech’s Liam Lawson withstood late pressure from fellow Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala to win on his FIA Formula 2 debut in the opening reversed-grid sprint race in Bahrain.
After making a great start from third on the grid, Lawson led into the first corner ahead of fellow F2 rookies David Beckmann and Theo Pourchaire.
ART’s Pourchaire passed Beckmann’s Charouz for second before the opening lap was complete, and was able to remain within 1.5 seconds of Lawson in the early stages as Beckmann dropped back.
Daruvala passed Beckmann for third around the outside of turn four and inherited second at the halfway mark when Pourchaire retired after his car slowed with a problem.
As drivers started to struggle with tyre wear in the latter stages, Daruvala closed in on Lawson, who initially looked under pressure as he locked up and ran wide. That allowed his pursuer to get DRS, but Lawson regained his composure to drive a faultless final five laps and take victory by 0.9 seconds.
Beckmann took a distant third, 13s further behind, while Robert Shwartzman pipped Prema team-mate Oscar Piastri to fourth after a race-long battle between the pair. ART’s Christian Lundgaard was a further one second behind in sixth.
Shwartzman started 11th after a problem in qualifying, but moved up to 7th at the start, before passing Lundgaard and Piastri. Reigning FIA F3 champion Piastri was stronger in the latter stages, but couldn’t retake the place from his team-mate.
Carlin’s Dan Ticktum finished seventh on the road, but a 5s time penalty for an early collision with MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor dropped the Williams development driver one spot to eighth behind Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who made up places from tenth on the grid. Zhou starts Sunday’s feature race from pole after topping Friday’s qualifying session.
Gulherme Samaia finished ninth for Charouz, but was also awarded a 5s time penalty for an infringement during an early virtual safety car period which dropped him to 12th. The penalty also cost Samaia a front-row starting spot for Saturday afternoon’s second sprint race – which also has a top ten reversed-grid.
Juri Vips – who started last after being excluded from qualifying for a technical infringement with his car – will start the second sprint race from pole after charging to tenth place for Hitech, with Lirim Zendell’s ninth place for MP securing him a front-row spot.
Race result (23 laps)
| 1 | Liam Lawson | Hitech | 44m11.624s |
| 2 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +0.925s |
| 3 | David Beckmann | Charouz | +14.382s |
| 4 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +17.078s |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | +17.504s |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +18.552s |
| 7 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +22.289s |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +24.860s |
| 9 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +27.291s |
| 10 | Juri Vips | Hitech | +27.933s |
| 11 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +28.694s |
| 12 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +31.908s |
| 13 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | +32.305s |
| 14 | Matteo Nannini | HWA | +33.963s |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Trident | +46.885s |
| 16 | Alessio Deledda | HWA | +1m03.250s |
| 17 | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | +1m06.941s |
| 18 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +1m08.910s |
| DNF | Theo Pourchaire | ART | |
| DNF | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | |
| DNF | Ralph Boschung | Campos | |
| DNF | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport |
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
