Pepe Marti took victory from P11 on the grid in an frenetic and entertaining F2 sprint race at the Bahrain International Circuit, leading home Richard Verschoor by less than a second.
The Dino Beganovic took the lead from pole-sitter Joshua Durksen with a move into Turn 4 on lap 11 of 23, who subsequently reclaimed the advantage at a safety car restart on lap 18. From there, they fought the whole way to the chequered flag.
On lap 22, Marti managed to wrestle past Verschoor and Beganovic and into second, before taking the lead from Durksen heading onto the final lap.
The Paraguayan had to settle for completing the podium positions, whilst Beganovic and Oliver Goethe rounded out the top five in Sakhir as chaos ensued across the top few places.
Sebastian Montoya caused a first lap safety car after spinning on the inside of the exit of Turn 8, losing his Prema's engine in the process.
Max Esterson retiring on lap 16 brought out a second safety car, at which point several drivers pitted for fresh rubber to embark on a charge up the field, which many did.
Update: Durksen was later disqualified from the race after the diffuser strake 1 on his AIX Racing car was 2mm below the specified tolerance. All drivers who finished below him moved up one position.
Dunne was also handed a post-race five second penalty. He dropped from P18 to P19.
Check out the full results from the F2 sprint race at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
Sakhir F2 Sprint Race Results
Position | Driver | Team |
---|---|---|
1 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing |
2 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport |
3 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech TGR |
4 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport |
5 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing |
6 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing |
7 | Gabriele Mini | Prema Racing |
8 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing |
9 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix |
10 | Luke Browning | Hitech TGR |
11 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin Motorsport |
12 | Jak Crawford | DAMS Lucas Oil |
13 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident |
14 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix |
15 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing |
16 | Kush Maini | DAMS Lucas Oil |
17 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing |
18 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing |
19 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport |
OUT | Max Esterson | Trident |
OUT | Sebastian Montoya | Prema Racing |
DSQ | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing |
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Join RacingNews365’s Ian Parkes and Nick Golding as they reflect on the opening day of on-track running ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix!
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