Bahrain F2: Ghiotto wins sprint race as pitstop gamble pays off
Luca Ghiotto replicated Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc's 2017 Formula 2 victory in Bahrain by taking the unusual strategy of pitting to win the sprint race
Ghiotto - driving for the rebranded Virtuosi Racing team that won the same race last year by running Russian Time driver Artem Markelov - had clutch issues from pole position in the feature race and had to fight back to second.
He quickly rose from seventh on the grid to lead by lap four of 23, and built a gap of over five seconds over the DAMS drivers of Sergio Sette Camara and Saturday winner Nicholas Latifi.
Ghiotto then pitted at the end of lap 12, giving himself 10 laps to reel in a gap of over 20 seconds.
His initial pace did not appear threatening, but he soon came into his own and overtook Latifi and Sette Camara on consecutive laps to move back into the lead on lap 21.
"What a car guys, thanks for all the hard work," said Ghiotto, who was the man Leclerc beat to victory in 2017, over his team radio.
Ghiotto's team-mate and Renault junior Guan Yu Zhou pulled off a brilliant drive to take fourth from 10th on the grid, having struggled in qualifying and the feature race on his debut F2 weekend.
Louis Deletraz was part of a trio - with Nyck de Vries and Jack Aitken - who engaged in battle at Turn 4 on lap one, and dropped as low as seventh.
But he recovered well, battling and passing polesitter Mick Schumacher in the closing laps.
Ferrari junior Schumacher led from pole but lacked the pace of his more experienced F2 rivals and fell back quickly.
The Prema driver held on to finish sixth ahead of de Vries, who pitted but could not move back up to the fourth place he had given up in his ART Grand Prix-run car.
F2 returnee Jordan King took eighth, despite being hit mid-race by Juan Manuel Correa of the Sauber Junior Team.
Anthoine Hubert was the star of the feature race with Arden by finishing fourth, but his late sprint race pitstop did not proffer the pace he expected.
He took ninth ahead of Sean Gelael - another to pit, having started way down the order after his DRS stuck open and caused a crash the day before.
Front-row starter Aitken fell to 11th for Campos Racing.
Result - 23 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Luca Ghiotto | UNI-Virtuosi | 42m36.192s |
2 | Sergio Sette Camara | DAMS | 5.474s |
3 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 6.867s |
4 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 18.240s |
5 | Louis Deletraz | Carlin | 21.939s |
6 | Mick Schumacher | Prema Racing | 24.679s |
7 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 25.154s |
8 | Jordan King | MP Motorsport | 25.520s |
9 | Anthoine Hubert | BWT Arden | 30.514s |
10 | Sean Gelael | Prema Racing | 30.532s |
11 | Jack Aitken | Campos Racing | 32.224s |
12 | Nobuharu Matsushita | Carlin | 35.980s |
13 | Nikita Mazepin | ART Grand Prix | 40.541s |
14 | Ralph Boschung | Trident | 43.074s |
15 | Tatiana Calderon | BWT Arden | 46.006s |
16 | Callum Ilott | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 56.487s |
17 | Dorian Boccolacci | Campos Racing | 1m00.048s |
18 | Juan Manuel Correa | Sauber Junior Team by Charouz | 1m32.585s |
19 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | MP Motorsport | 1 Lap |
- | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | Disqualified |
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