Yuki Tsunoda won a thrilling Formula 2 feature race in Bahrain, as Mick Schumacher recovered from 18th on the grid to finish seventh.
Prema’s Schumacher also scored points for fastest lap on the ‘outer loop’ circuit, giving him a 14-point lead over Callum Ilott, who finished one place ahead of him in sixth, heading into to Sunday’s final race.
Despite his win, Tsunoda’s title hopes came to an end, as did Mazepin’s after finishing third, having led the race twice.
Formula 1-bound Mazepin took the lead at start with a bold move up the inside of polesitter Tsunoda into turn one, with Prema’s Robert Shwartzman also capitalising to take second from the Honda protege.
The front three ran were able to pull a small gap to Artem Markelov, who had made a great start to move into fourth. The HWA driver was able keep the position for several laps despite pressure from behind, but would eventually slip down the order.
Schumacher, starting on the hard tyre, fought his way through the field from the ninth row to 8th place by lap 15, one place behind Virtuosi’s Ilott, who soon pitted to get rid of his soft tyres.
After the leading trio, also on softs, made their mandatory stops, it was Tsunoda who emerged ahead of Mazepin and Shwartzman. But, having pitted a lap later than his rivals, Tsunoda lost positions to the pair on cold tyres on his out-lap.
Drugovich briefly led, before also stopping. emerging behind Tsunoda. Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, the leading driver to start on hard tyres, led the race for the next seven laps before stopping for softs, giving Schumacher a brief spell out in front before doing the same.
Mazepin took back over the lead of the race, but was under pressure from behind, with Tsunoda, Shwartzman and Drugovich making it a four-way battle. Having passed Shwartzman for second Tsunoda eventually took the lead despite a desperate defence from Mazepin.
As Tsunoda pulled clear to take victory by 5.6 seconds, Mazepin fought hard to try and keep hold of second. Zhou, carrying a 5s penalty for speeding in the pitlane found his way by, with Drugovich relegating Mazepin to fourth.
Mazepin refused to give up and took back third through the middle sector, and held on to take the final podium spot, just ahead of Drugovich. The pair’s fierce battle allowed Zhou to build the 5s gap he needed, meaning he took second place, despite his penalty.
Shwartzman finished in fifth, with Ilott having to settle for sixth. Despite a strong charge from Schumacher after his stop, he couldn’t quite catch Ilott, finishing 2s behind his rival in seventh.
Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala finished eighth to secure pole for Sunday’s sprint race. Dan Ticktum took ninth for DAMS, with Pedro Piquet scoring the final point in tenth.
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