Oscar Piastri secures victory in the second and hectic Sprint Race in Bahrain

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Oscar Piastri becomes the second F2 rookie to win this season as the Aussie driver beat Christian Lundgaard in second and Guanyu Zhou in third.

Jehan Daruvala finished fourth with Richard Verschoor in fifth, Theor Pourchaire in sixth, David Beckmann in seventh and Marino Sato in the final points-scoring position in eighth.

Matteo Nannini finished ninth as Marcus Armstong rounded off the top 10. Guilherme Samaia was narrowly outside the top 10 in 11th with Bent Viscaal in 12th. Gianluca Petecof followed in 13th, Felipe Drugovich in 14th, Roy Nissany in 15th, Juri Vips in 16th and Ralph Boschung was the final finisher in 17th.

Alessio Deledda, Liam Lawson, Lirim Zendeli, Robert Shwartzman and Dan Ticktum all retired from the race after either tangling with someone or having issues with their car.

Starting Grid

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Vips started from pole position after he gained a reverse grid pole and alongside the Estonian was Zendeli. The Carlin of Ticktum is behind Ticktum the Hitech in third alongside Zhou in the Uni-Virtuosi in fourth.

Lundgaard started the third row in fifth with Piastri alongside the Dane in sixth. Shwartzman in seventh, Beckmann in eighth, Daruvala in ninth and afternoon’s Sprint Race winner Lawson in 10th.

Viscaal was just outside the top 10 in P11 with Samaia in 12th, Nissany in 13th, Nannini in 14th, Sato in 15th, Drugovich in 16th and Petecof in 17th.

Deledda will start from the pit-lane instead of 18th as he had a problem with his car. Pourchaire, Armstrong, Boschung and Verschoor started at the back of the grid after they retired in the first Sprint Race.

As It Happened

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Everyone got off the line well and cleanly but the Safety Car was released after turn one chaos ensued. Ticktum and Shwartzman tangled out of the exit of the first corner which subsequently meant the two drivers had to retire from the race.

On lap four, Vips led the drivers across the start/finish straight as the Safety Car returned to the pit-lane. Zhou overtook Zendeli as the Chinese driver looked to chase after Vips and the lead of the race.

Zendeli’s evening got even worse as he was overtaken by Lawson and Drugovich and retiring the car after getting a puncture from a collision with Lundgaard, for which the ART driver got a 10-second time penalty.

Beckmann, Nannini and Verschoor moved ahead of Petecof as the Brazillian struggled even more falling down to 15th.

At the halfway point of the race, Zhou was first ahead of Vips in second and Lawson in third. Drugovich followed in fourth as the Brazillian was in front of Lungaard in fifth and Piastri in sixth. The DAMS of Armstrong was seventh with Pourchaire in eighth, Viscaal in ninth and Daruvala in 10th.

Armstrong made a move on Piastri as the New Zealander took sixth away from the Australian. In a battle for third, Drugovich smashed into Lawson and ruined the Hitech driver’s race in the process as he retired. This allowed Lundgaard to pick up the piece and move up to third on the road, but the Dane had a 10-second penalty which was applied to his overall time at the end of the race.

The Safety Car was deployed again as the Dane’s chance of getting a podium were ruined. Most of the drivers dived into the pits to switch onto a new set of tyres late on.

After the drivers returned to green light racing, Drugovich fell down the order as he failed to make his strategy stick as the Brazillian leaked positions left, right and centre.

The Virtual Safety Car was out in force as Deledda retired from the Sprint Race. Vips’ engine cut out and he was given a five-second time penalty for a VSC infringement.

Piastri moved ahead of Zhou on the final lap of the race with Lundgaard able to do the same to finish second on the road. The ART driver was reinstated onto the podium and his second-place finish stood with Zhou dropping to third.

What’s Next?

The Chinese driver starts on pole position in tomorrow’s Feature Race after qualifying there on Friday. Zhou will be joined by Lundgaard on the front row with UNI-Virtuosi teammate Felipe Drugovich behind him in third.

25 points will be out for grabs for coming first in Sunday’s race and everyone on the grid will know that they have a chance of winning after today’s crazy Sprint Races.

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