Russian Time’s Luca Ghiotto made up for losing his feature race F2 victory on Saturday by storming to the win in Sunday’s sprint race.
Ghiotto had triumphed in the chaotic, wet feature event but a time penalty dropped him to fifth place, although it did give him a better starting position for the sprint.
Gustav Malja lined up on pole position in dry conditions, but it was Arden’s Sean Gelael who had the best start to jump from fourth to first on the opening lap.
He led the way ahead of Louis Deletraz, with Malja falling to fourth. Title contenders Charles Leclerc and Oliver Rowland started from the back after race one issues but were up to 15th and 16th.
Gelael failed to get the jump on those behind him and Deletraz took advantage to snatch the lead in the early stages, with the Arden gradually dropping to fifth.
Sergio Sette Camara had jumped to third, while Ghiotto and Nicholas Latifi also displaced Gelael to go into third and fourth.
From there, Ghiotto was quickly on a charge, moving ahead of Camara and Deletraz to take the lead on lap 10. Camara and Deletraz soon swapped positions too.
Ghiotto raced into a small lead and crossed the line 2.3 seconds clear of Camara to finally claim his first F2 victory, with Antonio Fuoco – who inherited the feature race win – making a late charge to third.
Deletraz was fourth, with ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi in fifth and Gelael dropping to sixth. Nobuharu Matsushita and Alexander Albon survived late scraps in seventh and eighth to take the final points.
Championship leader Leclerc fought his way back into contention for points only to damage his front wing late on, finishing ninth, ahead of Norman Nato.
Rowland and Nyck de Vries, who also started from the back, recovered to 11th and 12th while early podium contender Latifi dropped to 16th.
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