Jehan Daruvala won the opening sprint race at the FIA Formula 2 finale at Yas Marina as Oscar Piastri took the title in style by climbing from 10th to third.
Carlin’s Daruvala withstood pressure from Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich throughout the 23-lap encounter to take a lights-to-flag victory from pole.
Needing a fifth place to secure the crown, Piastri made a late pass on chief rival and Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman to finish on the podium.
It’s the Australian’s third single-seater triumph in as many years, adding to his 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup and 2020 FIA Formula 3 successes.
Daruvala led away at the start, as Carlin team-mate Dan Ticktum dropped two places to fourth behind Drugovich and Hitech’s Liam Lawson.
With the top ten positions from Friday’s qualifying reversed, Piastri made immediate progress from tenth on the grid to move into sixth behind team-mate Shwartzman.
The Prema pair both passed Ticktum and then Lawson during the first few laps before catching Daruvala and Drugovich at the front.
At the halfway stage, a small mistake from Daruvala allowed Drugovich an opportunity to take the lead but, after going side-by-side, the former held on.
From there, Drugovich did not get another chance, as Daruvala edged clear to win by two seconds. Piastri passed Shwartzman with four laps to go before fending off a fightback from his team-mate to take third.
Lawson finished 7.6s further back in fifth, as Ticktum held off a train of six cars to come home sixth.
Just behind the Briton were Theo Pourchaire (ART), Guanyu Zhou (Virtuosi), Ralph Boschung (Campos), Marcus Armstrong (DAMS), Jack Doohan (MP Motorsport) and Juri Vips (Hitech).
Having impressed with second in qualifying, Doohan just missed out on a top ten finish from 9th on the grid, with Amstrong pipping him to reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s second sprint race.
Trident’s Bent Viscaal finished 12th, despite late contact with Christian Lundgaard that spun the ART driver down to 15th.
F2 returnees Richard Verschoor (Charouz) and Jake Hughes (HWA) both retired, while Olli Caldwell was the last finisher in 18th after contact forced the Campos driver to pit for a new front wing.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
