Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou took his first FIA Formula 2 feature race win after a tyre gamble paid off in an eventful encounter in Bahrain.
The Alpine academy driver started from pole on the hard tyres, leaving him vulnerable to rivals on the faster compound early on. But Zhou came on strong on the soft tyres after a mid-race safety car period, passing surprise leader Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) before resisting a late charge from Carlin’s Dan Ticktum to claim victory.
Ticktum took second despite a late collision with Prema’s Oscar Piastri – another who led the race – while Liam Lawson passed Verschoor in the closing stages to take his second podium of the weekend for Hitech.
Zhou lost the lead to fellow Alpine junior Lundgaard at the start, and lost a further position to Virtuosi team-mate Drugovich on the opening lap.
Pre-season favourite Robert Shwartzman’s miserable start to the season continued after his second opening-lap collision of the weekend. A bad start dropped the Prema driver down the order from 11th on the grid, and then rear-ended Roy Nissany at turn four on a very dusty track. Nissany retired after spinning and making further contact with Lirim Zendelli, triggering a safety car period – with Shwartzman awarded a drive-through penalty – while Alessio Deledda was another lap one casualty.
Racing resumed at the beginning of lap four, with Drugovich taking the lead, before fellow soft tyre-shod Lundgaard wrestled the position back exiting turn four. Saturday’s sprint race two winner Piastri made a bold move to take third from Zhou and took second from Drugovich two laps later.
After leading until lap 13, Lundgaard was passed around the outside by the impressive Piastri at turn one, with Drugovich almost following him through into second. Lundgaard was the first to pit at the end of the lap for hard tyres, with Drugovich rejoining behind him after pitting one lap later.
Piastri stayed out for another two laps before also pitting for the hards, and benefitted from a virtual safety car period slowing the field down just as he left the pitlane to rejoin in front of Lundgaard and Drugovich.
Gianluca Petecof was the cause of the VSC, after stopping at turn one when his fire extinguisher went off in the cockpit. A full safety car period then followed to recover his car, which had a big effect on race.
DAMS driver Marcus Armstrong, now in the lead, took advantage to make his mandatory stop and rejoin still in first place. But he was quickly shuffled down to third when the race resumed, as Piastri and Verschoor moved into first and second. Verschoor, who had started on hard tyres before switching to softs, used his tyre advantage to take the lead and pull away from Piastri.
Zhou, now also on softs, came on strong as well and passed Piastri for second. Despite being on hard tyres, Piastri held on in third behind the lead duo, while others on the hard tyres – like Lundgaard and Drugovich – tumbled down the order.
Zhou took the lead with five laps to go from Verschoor, while Piastri started to come under pressure from Ticktum – who had started from fourth on the grid on the same tyre strategy as Zhou. With three laps to go, Piastri was spun out after contact at turn two with Ticktum, who avoided any penalty for the incident.
After a brief virtual safety car to retrieve Piastri’s stricken car, Ticktum took second away from Verschoor on the penultimate lap, but couldn’t quite catch Zhou before the chequered flag. Lawson wrestled third from Verschoor on the final lap after a battle that lasted several corners.
Armstrong finished in fifth, ahead of Carlins’ Jehan Daruvala, while Shwartzman recovered from his early penalty to salvage seventh. Theo Pourchaire was eighth for ART, while Drugovich was classified ninth after a time penalty for a safety car infringement cost him one position. Matteo Nannini was the final point scorer in tenth for HWA, while a time penalty – also for a safety car infringement – dropped Lundgaard out of the points.
Race result (32 laps)
| 1 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | 1h02m27.858s |
| 2 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +0.482s |
| 3 | Liam Lawson | Hitech | +2.950s |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +4.095s |
| 5 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | +9.792s |
| 6 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +11.926s |
| 7 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +12.159s |
| 8 | Theo Pourchaire | ART | +18.479s |
| 9 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +19.764s |
| 10 | Matteo Nannini | HWA | +19.852s |
| 11 | David Beckmann | Charouz | +20.905s |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +21.256s |
| 13 | Juri Vips | Hitech | +27.385s |
| 14 | Marino Sato | Trident | +28.826s |
| 15 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +31.546s |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +40.620s |
| 17 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +48.452s |
| 18 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +1m01.952s |
| 19 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | +3 laps |
| DNF | Gianluca Petecof | Campos | |
| DNF | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | |
| DNF | Roy Nissany | DAMS |
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
