Prema’s Oscar Piastri snatched his maiden FIA Formula 2 victory on the last lap of a highly eventful second sprint race in Bahrain.
The reigning FIA Formula 3 champion came out on top in a three-way fight with fellow Alpine F1 juniors Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard on the final tour, having pitted for soft tyres during a late safety car period.
Virtuosi’s Zhou had to settle for third despite leading for most of the race, while a ten-second time penalty for ART’s Lundgaard, initially cost him second, but he was later reinstated.
The race was frenetic right from the start. Reversed-grid polesitter Juri Vips held on to the lead into the first corner despite a challenge from fellow front-row starter Lirim Zendelli. But there was chaos behind, as Prema’s Robert Shwartzman made a bid for the third up the inside of Lundgaard and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum. Ticktum was spun out after contact from Shwartzman, who also retired with car damage, with cars behind having to take evasive action.
Virtuousi’s Felipe Drugovich, who retired from Saturday’s first race, took advantage of the melee to move up to 7th from the near the back of the grid before the safety car was deployed.
When racing resumed, a great restart enabled Sunday’s feature race polesitter Zhou to immediately take second from MP Motorsport’s Zendelli. Zhou then passed Hitech’s Vips for the lead one lap later and built a small gap. Race one winner Liam Lawson (Hitech) and Drugovich soon passed Zendelli as well to move into third and fourth. Lundgaard tried to do the same but collision a turn one resulted in Zendelli suffering a puncture.
After being awarded a 10s time penalty for the incident, Lundgaard tried to make up as much time as possible, pulling an incredible double overtake on the squabbling Lawson and Drugovich. As he completed the move, Drugovich spun Lawson out of the race and was also awarded a time penalty, with the safety car appearing for a second time.
Several drivers used the caution period to pit to change from hard tyres to fresh softs, including Vips – who had been running second – as well as Lundgaard and Piastri.
The action got back underway with six laps to go, with Zhou continuing to lead, while Marcus Armstrong stormed past Drugovich into second for DAMS, having started the race on softs. But soon those on fresh tyres carved their way through the top ten, with Vips climbing to second. But he was denied a potential maiden win as his car broke down before he could catch Zhou.
That left Piasti and Lundgaard to take the fight to Zhou, having also made up ground on their new tyres. On the final lap the trio went three-wide down the pit-straight, with Piastri taking the lead, which he would hold on to until the chequered flag ahead of Lundgaard and Zhou. Lundgaard was initially relegated to ninth because of his penalty before it was overturned.
Carlin’s Yehan Daruvula was fourth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, ART’s Theo Pourchaire and Charouz driver David Beckmann. Marino Sato was eighth for Trident, while Matteo Nannini just missed out his first F2 point for HWA in ninth.
Drugovich dropped to 14th as a result of his penalty, while Armstrong slipped down the order in the final laps and finished 10th.
Race result (23 laps)
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | 46m19.610s |
| 2 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +2.076s |
| 3 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +2.494s |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +2.966s |
| 5 | Theo Pourchaire | ART | +3.759s |
| 6 | David Beckmann | Charouz | +6.387s |
| 7 | Marino Sato | Trident | +8.096s |
| 8 | Matteo Nannini | HWA | +9.733s |
| 9 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +10.774s |
| 10 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | +12.180s |
| 11 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +12.442s |
| 12 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +16.744s |
| 13 | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | +17.569s |
| 14 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +24.547s |
| 15 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | +27.471s |
| 16 | Juri Vips | Hitech | +36.980s |
| 17 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +48.466s |
| DNF | Alessio Deledda | HWA | |
| DNF | Liam Lawson | Hitech | |
| DNF | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | |
| DNF | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | |
| DNF | Robert Shwartzman | Prema |
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
