Posted on 16th April 2017
In the sprint race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Bahrain yesterday Charles Leclerc took a brilliant win ahead of Luca Ghiotto and Oliver Rowland at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Monegasque driver had to overtake 13 cars after deciding to take an unusual mid-race pitstop in the 23-lap event, and passed Oliver Rowland and Ghiotto on the last lap to seal a dramatic victory.
At the start, Ghiotto got a poor getaway from an effective pole position after mechanical problems forced Nobuharu Matsushita to start from the pitlane, and Alexander Albon shot into the lead on the run to Turn 1.
But Albon did not close the door sufficiently and Ghiotto retook the lead on the brakes at the tight right hander as Leclerc surged from sixth on the grid to third.
The field bunched up behind and as they ran side by side down to Turn 5 with Norman Nato picking up a puncture fighting with DAMS driver Rowland and spun off into retirement at the exit of Turn 6 a few moments later.
The safety car was then deployed as Nato’s Arden was recovered and when the race resumed on Lap four, Leclerc drove around the outside of Albon to take second place in sweeping move at the right hander.
Ghiotto held the lead until he began to struggle with his medium compound Pirelli tyres a third of the way into the race and Leclerc breezed past to take the lead at the start of Lap nine.
At the same time, Saturday's feature race winner Artem Markelov became the first driver to switch tyres, which is not mandatory in the shorter sprint event. At this stage of the race, Prema told Leclerc he should switch to “plan b” and pit, so he set about using all the life in his medium tyres before pitting with a 9.4s lead on Lap 14.
After his pitstop, Leclerc rejoined in fourteenth place, 24 seconds behind Rowland, who was now leading the race after passing Ghiotto the lap before.
Throughout the second half of the sprint race, Leclerc was able to lap four seconds quicker than his rivals and he rapidly picked them off one-by-one before catching Rowland (now back behind Ghiotto after a fierce scrap at the first two corners) midway through the penultimate lap.
Leclerc used DRS to dispatch Rowland on the main straight and then took the lead when Ghiotto locked up and ran wide at Turn 4 on the final tour.
But it was Charles Leclerc who took the sprint race win ahead of Luca Ghiotto in second place who was 1.569 seconds behind and ahead of Oliver Rowland who was 2.898 seconds behind Leclerc.
Nicholas Latifi finished in fourth place ahead of Jordan King in fifth place, Nyck de Vries in sixth place, Alexander Albon in seventh place, Artem Markelov came home in eighth place, Johnny Cecotto Jr finished in ninth place and Antonio Fuoco rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.
The classification of the Sprint Race for the Bahrain F2 series is as follows:-
1. Charles Leclerc, Prema Racing, 43.01.023s
2. Luca Ghiotto, RUSSIAN TIME, 1.569s
3. Oliver Rowland, DAMS, 2.898s
4. Nicholas Latifi, DAMS, 7.575s
5. Jordan King, MP Motorsport, 10.865s
6. Nyck de Vyres, Rapax, 10.865s
7. Alexander Albion, ART Grand Prix, 11.382s
8. Artem Markelov, RUSSIAN TIME, 18.853s
9. Johnny Cecotto Jr, Rapax, 19.150s
10. Antonio Fuoco, Prema Racing, 19.983s
Picture supplied by the FIA Formula 2 World Championship
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
