F2 Abu Dhabi: Zhou victorious as champion Piastri retires after eventful sprint

Zhou, who will drive for Alfa Romeo in Formula 1 next year, secured his first podium since Monza in September with a faultless drive at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The UNI-Virtuosi driver climbed from third to second early in the race before inheriting the lead when Marcus Armstrong retired from the head of the field with a mechanical issue on lap 11.

Once ahead, Zhou made no mistakes to clinch the victory comfortably from Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman, with Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung in third.

The race was halted twice by the safety car with the second stoppage triggered by a clash between Roy Nissany, newly crowned champion Oscar Piastri and Juri Vips - which put the latter two out of the race.

Reversed-grid polesitter Armstrong converted the position into the lead as the field streamed into Turn 1. Boschung followed the Kiwi through into second with Zhou in third.

However, there was plenty of action behind with Piastri in the thick of it. The Australian dived down the inside of his teammate Shwartzman and Liam Lawson as the trio battle over fifth at the first corner.

Piastri then lunged again up the inside of Lawson at Turn 5 forcing the New Zealander off the road, resulting in a five-second penalty for the former, who dropped down the order to 14th at the end of the opening lap.

Lawson recovered from almost glancing the wall to emerge back on track in eighth position.

At the front, Zhou managed to climb to second with a clean pass on Boschung at the Turn 6-7 chicane.

The race was soon neutralised when Olli Caldwell made contact with Alessio Deledda, forcing the pair into a spin at the Turn 9 hairpin that initially drew a virtual safety Car, before it was upgraded to a full safety car. Caldwell was able to continue while Deledda was left stranded on circuit.

Racing resumed on lap 7 but it was short-lived as the safety car was deployed again for an incident that involved Nissany, Vips and Piastri.

Recovering from his opening lap clash with Lawson, Piastri pulled off a head-turning two-for-one pass on Nissany and Vips into the Turn 6-7.

But on the run to Turn 9 Nissany surprised Piastri by diving up his inside while Vips was on the outside of Piastri. It resulted in contact putting both Piastri and Vips out of the race. The incident was to be investigated after the race.

On the restart, leader Armstrong pulled off the road at Turn 2 with a suspected mechanical issues handing Zhou the lead, the incident triggering a virtual safety car.

Shwartzman made the most of a quick reaction to the green flag allowing the Russian to pass Boschung for second on the restart.

Zhou soon quickly opened up a gap to Shwartzman while Boschung fell into the grasp of Dan Ticktum, while Felipe Drugovich and Jehan Daruvala fought over fifth. Drugovich secured the spot courtesy of an impressive move around the outside at Turn 9.

The top three remained unchanged as Zhou took the win from Shwartzman and Boschung, while Ticktum was forced to out-drag Drugovich to the line for fourth.

The remaining points-paying places were filled by Lawson, Daruvala and rookie Jack Doohan.

Christian Lundgaard hit trouble in the race late on after suffering contact from Nissany which necessitated a visit to the pits for the pair.

The field will return on Sunday for the final F2 feature race of the season at 1300 local time and 1000 GMT.

F2 Abu Dhabi sprint race 2 - 23 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	-
2	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	3.400	3.400
3	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	9.700	9.700
4	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	14.200	14.200
5	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	14.500	14.500
6	Liam Lawson	HitechGP	17.000	17.000
7	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	19.800	19.800
8	Jack Doohan	MP Motorsport	21.000	21.000
9	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	21.900	21.900
10	Bent Viscaal	Trident	22.700	22.700
11	Richard Verschoor	Charouz Racing System	25.800	25.800
12	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	30.800	30.800
13	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	31.400	31.400
14	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	31.800	31.800
15	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	32.200	32.200
16	Marino Sato	Trident	37.000	37.000
17	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1'06.700	1'06.700
18	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1 lap
	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	13 laps
	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	17 laps
	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam	17 laps
	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	21 laps
View full results