Author: David Bodapati

Sakhir, 28 March 2021: UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou used all of his experience to take a hard-earned first Feature Race win from pole in Sakhir, but it wasn’t as simple as lights-to-flag. Initially tumbling down the order at the start, Zhou scythed his way back through the field, beating Carlin’s Dan Ticktum and Hitech Grand Prix’s Liam Lawson.

Indian racer Jehan Daruvala, who began on P6 managed to score 8 points from his sixth place in the Feature race and is currently in third position at the end of Round 1.

Starting on the hard tyre, Zhou couldn’t compete with those on the softs around him and fell out of the top 10, before a Safety Car gave the order a shake-up. Ticktum, Lawson and Richard Verschoor all benefitted, but the Chinese driver was imperious and won at a canter.

Verschoor – who briefly led the race – finished fourth and just missed out on a podium, after the MP Motorsport driver lost a late battle with tyre degradation.

DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong claimed an impressive eight scalps on his way to fifth, beating Jehan Daruvala and Robert Shwartzman, the latter doing well to fight back after an early drive-through penalty.

Théo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich finished eighth and ninth, ahead of HWA RACELAB’s Matteo Nannini, who took his first points in F2.

AS IT HAPPENED

After an intense late battle in Sprint Race 2, Zhou and Lundgaard reignited their fight at the start from the front row. Pounding off into a whirlwind of sand, Lundgaard got the better of his Alpine Academy rival at Turn 1, fighting against the gust and taking the inside line to come out in first place.

Having already lost P1, Zhou – who started on the hard compound – was then in a scrap for second with his Virtuosi teammate Drugovich, who eventually hauled himself ahead of the Chinese driver.

An early Safety Car brought a halt to the action after Roy Nissany was clipped by Shwarztman and forced to retire. Shwartzman survived the scrap but was handed a drive-through penalty.

Zhou lost another place at the restart and fell to fourth behind the in-form Oscar Piastri, who was still buoyant from his debut win in Sprint Race 2. The PREMA racer was far from finished, continuing his sparkling debut weekend with a fifth overtake, this time on Drugovich, braking late to take P2 at Turn 1.

Lundgaard complained of a “strange balance” on team radio, as Piastri started to reel him in too. Drugovich joined the battle and the trio went three-wide at the first corner, with the PREMA eventually coming out in P1.

Having lost first, Lundgaard opted to ditch the soft Pirellis on Lap 14 and jumped into the pits for a set of hards, returning 13th. Drugovich decided his softs had had enough as well one lap later, pitting for fresh boots and returning further back in 12th.

Piastri opted against a change, before his team sensed an opportunity when Gianluca Petecof retired. PREMA called in the Australian for fresh rubber just ahead of a Virtual Safety Car, and returned him in fourth place, with track position.

In the end, a full Safety Car was required and this shook up the order, with Armstrong leading Piastri and Verschoor. Though, the Kiwi dropped right down at the restart, with Verschoor dramatically taking the lead on the soft compound.

Also on the soft, Zhou had tussled his way back through and managed to nip past Piastri on the first corner of Lap 23 to put just one place between him and his first Feature Race win. In the background, Ticktum fired ahead of Lawson for fourth.

Lundgaard had lucked out in the Safety Car period, getting stuck down in 10th at the restart, before being handed a 5s time penalty for a SC infringement, along with a handful of drivers, including Drugovich, who was running seventh.

Verschoor was desperately trying to defend the lead from Zhou, but the Virtuosi man used all of his experience to take the better track position and drag himself in front.

The Dutchman’s attention switched straight to the dazzling red PREMA of Piastri in third, but thankfully for him, the Australian was busy defending from Ticktum. Their battle came to a heart-breaking conclusion, with the two coming together at Turn 2, spinning Piastri off the road and out of the race. Ticktum got away unscathed and a VSC brought the drama to a stop.

Racing resumed with two laps to go and Ticktum jumped Verschoor, who also lost third to Lawson and fell off the podium. Meanwhile, Zhou kept it calm out in front to run home as the winner.

Zhou now leads the Drivers’ Championship with 41 points, ahead of Lawson on 30 and Daruvala on 28. Piastri is fourth with 21 and Ticktum fifth with 19. In the Teams’ title fight, Carlin are first with 47 points, ahead of Virtuosi on 43 and PREMA on 37. Hitech are fourth on 30 points, ahead of ART on 24.

KEY QUOTE – GUANYU ZHOU (UNI-VIRTUOSI)

“My first Feature Race win and a great comeback from yesterday. Amazing. Today was a bit messy, especially towards the end. I saw the Safety Car coming out and thought ‘no, not again.’

“Richard (Verschoor) had a clean pit stop and I had to do everything on track. It felt good to come through the field – congrats to the whole team, we fully deserved it.”

Sakhir, 27 March 2021: Hitech Grand Prix’s Liam Lawson drove like a seasoned pro on his Formula 2 debut, brushing off a stern challenge from second year Jehan Daruvala to take the opening win of season in Sprint Race 1 at Sakhir. Charouz Racing System rookie David Beckmann hung onto third to complete a youthful podium.

Scampering ahead of Théo Pourchaire at the start, Lawson spent the majority of the race in a to-and-fro with his former Formula 3 rival, before seeing the ART Grand Prix driver retire. This handed the Kiwi a more experienced challenger, as Daruvala – up from fifth – lined up behind him. However, the Carlin driver had no answer to his Red Bull academy teammates’ defensive masterclass and was forced to settle for second.

Impressively leaping from 11th to fifth at the start, Robert Shwarztman had a podium in his sights when Pourchaire retired and handed him fourth, but the PREMA’s attack was stalled by his teammate, Oscar Piastri. The reigning F3 champion had jumped ahead of Christian Lundgaard and kept Shwartzman occupied in the closing laps, before eventually settling for fifth.

UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou – who will begin Sunday’s Feature Race on pole – got his weekend off to a solid start, rising to seventh, ahead of Dan Ticktum. MP Motorsport’s Lirim Zendeli and Lawson’s Hitech teammate, Jüri Vips, completed the top 10.

AS IT HAPPENED

Lawson nailed his first race start in F2, launching from third to first off the line and making the most of a sluggish getaway from Pourchaire. The reverse polesitter briefly dropped down to third at the first corner, but managed to claw his way back ahead of Beckmann and into P2.

Title-favourite Shwarztman endured a difficult return to the track on Friday, as mechanical troubles left him unable to set a laptime in the second run of Qualifying and had him starting back in 11th. Determined to make amends, the Russian gallantly flung his PREMA up to fifth inside of the opening lap.

A daring move from Ticktum failed to come off in the opening lap as the Carlin driver attempted a double overtake down the inside of Felipe Drugovich and Richard Verschoor, but clipped the back of the MP Motorsport and spun it backwards.

Ticktum somehow got away unscathed, but Drugovich was caught up in the collision and suffered damage. The Brazilian was forced into the pits for repairs and plummeted to last. Ticktum was later handed a 5s penalty for his troubles and fell to P8.

Two further retirements in the opening five laps decreased the field to 19, as Marcus Armstrong pulled over onto the gravel with mechanical issues. The Kiwi’s retirement also spelled the end for Ralph Boschung, who tagged the back of the slowing DAMS and spun off.

Pourchaire was keeping up with Lawson at the front, remaining within 2s of the Hitech driver, but Beckmann was struggling to hold on to third behind him. He locked up and momentarily went skidding off track, flinging dirt into the pathway of those immediately behind him.

The Charouz managed to return to the track, but the mistake cost him precious grip and handed an opportunity to Daruvala behind him. The Carlin took a hit of DRS and passed the German around the outside of Turn 4.

The Red Bull junior was then handed another position as Pourchaire lost power and fell out of the points. The Frenchman attempted to keep his ART going, but eventually conceded his race was run and pulled over.

Daruvala’s experience was beginning to show. The Carlin racer’s tyres were in better shape than Lawson’s and he had eaten into the gap between the two of them. With two laps to go, Lawson was just about clinging on. Their battle continued into the final lap, but Daruvala just couldn’t find any way past and crossed the line in second.

There was little change behind them, though Piastri had managed to tussle ahead of Lundgaard for fifth place, directly behind his teammate Shwartzman. The Australian started to harry the back of the PREMA and chanced his arm with a brave move down the left, but was forced to back off as he ran out of space, allowing Shwartzman to hold onto fourth. The duo’s battle allowed Beckmann to retain the final podium spot.

THE KEY QUOTE – LIAM LAWSON (HITECH GRAND PRIX)

“That was pretty awesome. Starting third, I had a pretty good start and led from that moment onwards. I had massive pressure from Jehan (Daruvala) towards the end of the race and learned a lot. I’m excited to get into the night race later today.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Lawson’s Hitech teammate Vips will start from reverse grid pole, ahead of MP’s Zendeli later today in Sprint Race 2 at 10.40pm IST (7.40pm local time).