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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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