Reigning Formula 3 champion Oscar Piastri became the second rookie winner in as many races this season, completing a superb last-lap overtake on UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, to win a frenetic Sprint Race 2 in Sakhir. The Chinese driver also fell foul to a last gasp move from Christian Lundgaard, dropping to third on an all-Alpine Academy podium.
Winner of the first Sprint Race, Liam Lawson, started from 8th (reverse top 8 grid) and had climbed an incredible seven places to third. Unfortunately a three-way brawl ended with Lawson facing the wrong way and out of the race.
Fellow Kiwi Marcus Armstrong (main picture) had climbed 13 places to P7 then had to compete with others who had stopped for fresh tyres and faded to tenth overall.
It initially looked as though Zhou was set to pull off his second win in Formula 2, after boldly starting on softs, before two late Safety Cars turned the race on its head and allowed a number of the field to switch to soft Pirellis themselves. Zhou was then left to struggle to the line on heavily degraded tyres, just about holding on to third.
Piastri and Lundgaard were amongst those to change rubber, taking advantage of a late problem for Jüri Vips, who dropped out of contention, having previously looked to be Zhou’s biggest threat. Meanwhile, Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala just missed out on a second podium of Round 1, taking fourth.
The superb late battle took away from some incredible performances in behind as Richard Verschoor finished fifth, having started 22nd, and Théo Pourchaire sealed sixth, having started 19th.
Marino Sato and Matteo Nannini both started out of the top ten but finished in eight and ninth, behind David Beckmann.
Piastri now leads the Drivers’ Championship on 21 points, with Daruvala one point behind in second. Lundgaard and Zhou are tied in third on 16 points, with Lawson in fifth. PREMA lead the Teams’ standings on 29 points, ahead of Carlin on 21 and ART on 20. Virtuosi are fourth with 16 and Hitech fifth with 15.
Sprint Race 2 Result
Class. Driver, Entrant
1/ Oscar Piastri Prema Racing
2/ Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi
3/ Jehan Daruvala Carlin
4/ Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport
5/ Théo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix
6/ David Beckmann Charouz Racing System
7/ Marino Sato Trident
8/ Matteo Nannini HWA Racelab
9/ Christian Lundgaard ART
10/ Marcus Armstrong DAMS
11/ Guilherme Samaia Charouz Racing System
12/ Bent Viscaal Trident
13/ Gianluca Petecof Campos Racing
14/ Felipe Drugovich UNI-Virtuosi
15/ Roy Nissany DAMS
16/ Juri Vips Hitech Grand Prix
17/ Ralph Boschung Campos Racing
Alessio Deledda HWA Racelab
Liam Lawson Hitech Grand Prix
Lirim Zendeli MP Motorsport
Dan Ticktum Carlin
Robert Shwartzman Prema Racing
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