Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou won Formula 2’s Bahrain feature race from pole position, but was made to work hard for it by several of his rivals.
However Zhou had to fight back after being passed by fellow Alpine junior Christian Lundgaard for the lead at the start of the race. He lost another position to his Virtuosi team mate Felipe Drugovich too before the Safety Car interrupted proceedings after Prema’s Robert Shwartzman skated into DAMS’ Roy Nissany on the sandy track surface.Drugovich passed ART driver Lundgaard after the restart, with Prema’s Oscar Piastri clearing MP’s Richard Verschoor and then Zhou for third place. As Zhou was on the slower hard compound tyre, he didn’t put up too strong a fight against with the drivers around him, knowing he would have the faster soft tyre later in the race.
The pole winner had sunk to fifth by the time he pitted for softs. He emerged in ninth, but a net third among those who had already taken their compulsory stops. The other two ahead had started on softs, and didn’t have the pace to rival Zhou in the second stint of the race.
More victory contenders appeared, however, DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong and early struggler Verschoor were handed a break when the Safety Car reappeared, allowing them to pit from first and second place and remain at the front. The latest interruption was caused by the fire extinguisher going off in Gianluca Petecof’s Campos car.
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Piastri and Verschoor passed Armstrong at the restart, and the flying Verschoor then passed Piastri for the lead. He immediately pulled away, but the strategy advantage that Zhou and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum had started to come into play in the closing laps and they closed on the top three.
As Zhou moved back into the lead, Ticktum had drew within range of third-placed Piastri. Their battle got too close, however, and they collided at turn two with two laps to go, Piastri stalling. That led to a Virtual Safety Car period which temporarily neutralised the action.
In the final lap-and-a-half sprint to the flag, Ticktum and Hitech’s Liam Lawson also demoted Verschoor, but there was no beating Zhou. It was a tough end to the race for Verschoor, who is not set to return to the series having only signed a one-round deal with MP.
Armstrong finished a distant fifth after fighting with Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala, while Shwartzman overcame a drive-through penalty for his early crash to also benefit from the safety car period and charge from the back to seventh.
ART rookie Theo Pourchaire came eighth ahead of Drugovich, who faded late on, and HWA’s Matteo Nannini did well to stay with the cars ahead to finish 10th and claim the final point.
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Bahrain race three result
| Position | Driver |
|---|---|
| 1 | Guanyu Zhou |
| 2 | Dan Ticktum |
| 3 | Liam Lawson |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor |
| 5 | Marcus Armstrong |
| 6 | Jehan Daruvala |
| 7 | Robert Shwartzman |
| 8 | Theo Pourchaire |
| 9 | Felipe Drugovich |
| 10 | Matteo Nannini |
| 11 | David Beckmann |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard |
| 13 | Juri Vips |
| 14 | Marino Sato |
| 15 | Ralph Boschung |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia |
| 17 | Bent Viscaal |
| 18 | Lirim Zendeli |
| 19 | Oscar Piastri |
| 20 | Gianluca Petecof |
| 21 | Alessio Deledda |
| 22 | Roy Nissany |
Formula 2
- “This morning it was obviously much worse”: Why F1 had to call off its Imola race
- Formula 1 drivers and teams back decision to call off Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
- F1 cancels the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix due to flooding in Imola
- Bearman completes domination of F2’s Baku weekend with second victory
- Bearman leads Prema one-two after double crash eliminates race leaders
Jere (@jerejj)
28th March 2021, 13:55
Good racing once again.
Dave
28th March 2021, 17:04
Starting F2 off with a bang. Now I’m waiting for F3.