Guanyu Zhou took his first Formula 2 win after a huge crash between Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken brought an early end to Sunday’s sprint race.
Both Ghiotto and Aitken walked away unharmed from the incident, which caused a red flag, but extensive repairs required to the barriers meant that the race was not restarted and a result declared after just five laps.
Virtuosi’s Zhou led the start of the race from reversed-grid pole despite a challenge from the fast starting Jack Aitken, who slotted into second, but the Campos driver soon lost out to Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin. Prema’s Mick Schumacher moved up from eighth to fourth after making another great getaway.
Further back, Aitken’s team-mate Guilherme Samaia bounced over the kerbs at turn two before colliding with F2 debutant Jake Hughes. Samaia spun to a halt, resulting in a brief virtual safety car period, while HWA’s Hughes also retired after returning to the pits.
Saturday’s feature race winner Schumacher continued to make up ground following the restart, taking third from Aitken.
Ghiotto then also set about trying to pass Aitken, lining up a move around the high speed turn three. But contact between the pair resulted in both cars crashing heavily into the barriers, with both drivers mercifully emerging from the wreckage swiftly, with Ghiotto’s Hitech car on fire.
After a red flag period to recover the cars and repair the barriers, the decision was taken not to restart the race, with the result put back to the lap before the incident and half points awarded.
Zhou therefore took victory ahead of Mazepin, with Schumacher taking his 10th podium of the season with third to extend his championship lead further.
Despite their collision, Aitken and Ghiotto were classified in fourth and fifth. Yuki Tsunoda took sixth for Carlin ahead of Virtuosi’s Callum Ilott and DAMS driver Dan Ticktum.
Race result (5 laps)
| 1 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | 10m01.184s |
| 2 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +0.818s |
| 3 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +4.816s |
| 4 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +6.459s |
| 5 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +7.670s |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +8.282s |
| 7 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +9.141s |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +9.769s |
| 9 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +10.506s |
| 10 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +11.244s |
| 11 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +11.988s |
| 12 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +12.438s |
| 13 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +13.536s |
| 14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +14.053s |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Trident | +14.611s |
| 16 | Giuliano Alesi | MP Motorsport | +15.032s |
| 17 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +15.717s |
| 18 | Juri Vips | DAMS | +17.100s |
| 19 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +17.757s |
| 20 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +38.002s |
| DNF | Jake Hughes | HWA | |
| DNF | Guilherme Samaia | Campos Racing |
Featured image credit: fiaformula2.com
