Piastri beats Zhou to Bahrain Formula 2 sprint race victory
Reigning Formula 3 champion Oscar Piastri claimed his first Formula 2 victory as he overtook Guanyu Zhou on the final lap in the second Bahrain sprint race.
Prema’s decision to pit Piastri under the second Safety Car period for fresh soft tyres proved to be pivotal as he made his way through the stack of cars that decided to stay out on their older rubber.
Zhou drove a strong race to second place - remarkably doing the whole race on the same set of soft tyres.
The Chinese driver couldn’t hold Piastri back on the final lap and inherited a place from Christian Lundgaard, who picked up a 10-second time penalty for an earlier collision with Lirim Zendeli, dropping to ninth in the final classification.
The race turned on its head on Lap 15 when the Safety Car was deployed as a result of the incident between Felipe Drugovich and Liam Lawson into Turn 4.
Piastri dived into the pits for fresh soft rubber, as did Juri Vips, who was running second and closing in on Zhou at the front of the field.
Vips looked favourite to take the victory but suffered a mechanical issue when running second behind Zhou, dropping him well down the order.
The Red Bull junior’s fate was finally sealed when he was handed a five-second time penalty for an infringement under the Virtual Safety Car period.
With Vips out of contention and Lundgaard picking up a penalty, this handed Jehan Daruvala his second podium finish of the weekend.
Richard Verschoor finished fourth for MP Motorsport ahead of ART's Theo Pourchaire.
Pourchaire stopped under the Safety Car one lap later than the rest, meaning he wasn’t able to make the most of the ‘free stop’.
David Beckmann finished sixth ahead of Marino Sato and Matteo Nannini, with the pair completing the points-paying positions.
Prema’s Robert Shwartzman retired on the opening lap following contact with Dan Ticktum on the run down to Turn 1.
Ticktum was also forced to retire on the opening lap.
The third and final race of the weekend - the feature race - takes place on Sunday morning.
Zhou will start from pole position ahead of Lundgaard and Drugovich.
Click here to find the full Formula 2 sprint race 2 results from Bahrain.
