F2 Bahrain: Verschoor triumphs in season-opening sprint race

The Dutchman, a late addition to the Trident lineup after switching from MP Motorsport for his second season in the series, took advantage of polesitter Felipe Drugovich’s poor start to score his second series win, having broken his duck at Silverstone last year.

The result marks Trident’s first F2 win since Luca Ghiotto took the top step of the podium in Sepang in 2016.

MP Motorsport’s Drugovich tumbled out the top three after struggling off the line, with Ralph Boschung (Campos) and Jehan Daruvala (Prema) also taking advantage as the Brazilian dropped to an eventual fifth-place finish.

After a laps-long battle between Boschung and Daruvala, the Indian Red Bull junior emerged in front to finish second, with Liam Lawson snatching the final podium position from Boschung with just two laps to go.

Behind Boschung and Drugovich, Lawson's Carlin team-mate Logan Sargeant took sixth after passing a struggling Juri Vips (Hitech Grand Prix) in the closing laps.

As Drugovich struggled off the line and dropped to fourth, Verschoor took the lead from Boschung and Daruvala. The polesitter then lost a further place to ART Grand Prix driver Theo Pourchaire on lap two, although his race was ended by an oil leak on lap six.

Following a safety car to recover Marcus Armstrong’s Hitech machine, the Kiwi retiring after contact from Jake Hughes - who was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident - Drugovich attacked Lawson, but had to stay in fifth.

Vips claimed sixth from feature race pole-sitter Jack Doohan on lap 13 on the inside of Turn 1, the Virtuosi driver slipping back to tenth at the finish.

Verschoor aced the start and was never headed thereafter as Daruvala and Boschung scrapped between them

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

With eight laps to go, Daruvala passed Boschung for second, but the Swiss driver's efforts to retaliate were halted by a virtual safety car for an incident involving Hughes and Clement Novalak. Hughes stopped on track, while Novalak was forced to pit for a new front wing and later received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

When the VSC ended, Boschung launched an attack on Daruvala to regain second into the Turn 10 left-hander, only for Daruvala to repass him again shortly afterwards.

The battle had taken the best out of Boschung's tyres, allowing Lawson to snatch third with two laps to go, while behind Sargeant demoted Vips to seventh.

Ayumu Iwasa, who started 22nd after spinning off on his outlap in qualifying, charged through the field to finish eighth while reigning FIA F3 champion Dennis Hauger moved up from 15th on the grid to ninth.

Bahrain F2 Race 1 Result - 23 laps

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Richard Verschoor	Trident	-
2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	1.800	1.800
3	Liam Lawson	Carlin	4.900	4.900
4	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	6.900	6.900
5	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	8.800	8.800
6	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	9.200	9.200
7	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	13.300	13.300
8	Ayumu Iwasa	Nissan e.Dams	15.700	15.700
9	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	17.600	17.600
10	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing	21.400	21.400
11	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	22.900	22.900
12	Roy Nissany	Nissan e.Dams	26.500	26.500
13	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	27.400	27.400
14	Cem Bolukbasi	Charouz Racing System	31.900	31.900
15	Calan Williams	Trident	49.900	49.900
16	Marino Sato	Virtuosi Racing	50.600	50.600
17	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	52.600	52.600
18	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	1'18.200	1'18.200
19	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	1 lap
20	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	9 laps
21	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	17 laps
22	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	21 laps
View full results