Guanyu Zhou took victory in an eventful second sprint race in Abu Dhabi after Marcus Armstrong retired from the lead.
The Virtuosi driver cruised to his fourth win of the year ahead of Prema’s Robert Shwartzman and Campos driver Ralph Boschung.
Newly-crowned champion Oscar Piastri was another to not see the chequered flag after an early collison with Roy Nissany and Juri Vips.
Armstrong led away from pole at the start for DAMS from Boschung and Zhou, while Piastri tried to move up the inside of Hitech’s Liam Lawson and Prema team-mate Shwartzman for sixth.
Having failed to make the move stick, Piastri tried to pass Lawson again a couple of corners later, but contact pushed the latter off track, with Piastri then losing out in a four-wide battle to drop to 14th before being handed a five-second penalty for the incident with Lawson.
Zhou passed Boschung for second before Alessio Deledda (HWA) spun to a halt in a collision with Olli Caldwell (Campos), causing an early safety car period.
Piastri swept past Hitech’s Vips and DAMS driver Nissany after the restart, but his race ended at the next corner after an optimistic lunge from Nissany that also put the Vips out – resulting in the second appearance of the safety car.
The drama continued when action resumed on lap 11 of 23, with Armstrong pulling off from the lead at the first corner with an issue, allowing an apologetic Zhou to move to the front.
From there, the recently announced 2022 Alfa Romeo Formula 1 driver controlled proceedings to take victory by 3.4 seconds from Shwartzman, who still holds the advantage over Zhou in the battle for runner-up spot in the championship heading into Sunday’s finale.
Boschung was a further 3s behind, taking his second podium finish in three races.
Having spent the whole of Saturday’s earlier race in a close second behind Jehan Daruvala, Drugovich again found himself behind the Carlin driver, but finally made his way by with a spectacular overtake around the outside of the new banked corner to take fifth.
Drugovich caught Dan Ticktum in the closing stages, with the Carlin driver holding on to finish fourth after a thrilling last-lap battle.
Lawson pulled off a late overtake on fellow Red Bull junior Daruvala to snatch sixth, with Jack Doohan (MP Motorsport), Theo Pourchaire (ART) and Bent Viscaal (Trident) completing the top ten.
After his early incident with Piastri and Vips, Nissany’s eventful race continued by making contact with ART’s Christian Lundgaard – who was forced to pit with damage – and then visited the pits himself for a new front wing.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
