Red Bull Junior driver Liam Lawson fended off a late charge by Jehan Daruvala to win on his FIA Formula 2 debut in the first Sprint Race of the season in Bahrain.
The Kiwi leapfrogged front-row starters David Beckmann and Theo Pourchaire at the start, maintaining his place at the front to beat Daruvala by less than a second to take his maiden victory in the series.
Beckmann made it two debutants in the top three for Charouz ahead of Robert Shwartzman, Oscar Piastri, Christian Lundgaard, Guanyu Zhou and Dan Ticktum rounding out the top eight.
Ticktum served a five-second time penalty for rear-ending Verschoor on Lap 2, spinning the Dutchman and ending his race.
Lirim Zendeli was ninth and scored points for the fastest lap, with Juri Vips completing a storming drive from the back of the grid to put his Hitech on reverse-grid pole for the second Sprint Race later today.
That event begins at 19:40 local track time following Formula 1 qualifying.
Discussion about this post