Formula 2 was back with a chaotic weekend in Bahrain, from opening lap crashes to audacious strategies and questionable penalties, here are the report cards from the opening round of the 2021 season:

Top of the class:

Guanyu Zhou – Qualifying: 1^st | Sprint 1: 7^th | Sprint 2: 3^rd | Feature: 1^st

2021 is the year of high expectations for Guanyu and he did not disappoint. Snatching pole by just 0.003 seconds was a great start to the weekend, and he more importantly scored a handful of points in Sprint Race 1 (SR1) by just driving his own race.

Sprint Race 2 (SR2) was a spectacular performance, I can honestly say in the seven years I’ve followed F2 and its predecessor, GP2, I have never seen a driver complete a Sprint Race on soft tyres. Yes, there were some safety cars that helped him, but Guanyu was incredibly close to winning the race until fellow Alpine junior drivers Oscar Piastri (Prema) and Christian Lundgaard (ART) barged through on the final lap.

P3 is still a decent result nonetheless, and this was followed up with Zhou’s first Feature Race victory on Sunday. Starting on the hard tyres meant that the Chinese driver lost the lead, but it kept him on the fringes of the podium. With a mixture of a late safety car and fresh soft tyres, he was able to pull off three overtakes in the final laps to take a deserved victory. Zhou sits in the lead of the Championship with 41 points and definitely is the one to beat this season.

Liam Lawson – Qualifying: 8^th | Sprint 1: 1^st | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature 3^rd

A stellar weekend for the Kiwi that should have yielded three podiums. The SR1 victory was sealed by the first corner, Lawson dominated the race after bolting from P3 of the grid to take the lead into turn 1, and never looked back. It was an impressive maiden victory for the Hitech driver, who should have made the rostrum on Saturday evening, until he was clattered into at turn 4 by UNI Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich, ending his race.

Bouncing back from the DNF, Liam gambled on the alternate strategy with fresh soft tyres. This proved to be a significant advantage after a safety car was brought out for the stricken Campos of Gianluca Petecof. Lawson pulled off a penultimate lap overtake on Richard Verschoor to take P3, his second podium of the weekend.

The result leaves Lawson 2^nd in the standings, 11 points adrift of Zhou, and is an early reminder that the rookie is a serious contender for the Championship.

Richard Verschoor – Qualifying: 5^th | Sprint 1: DNF | Sprint 2: 5^th | Feature: 4^th

Richard was the surprise package of the weekend, and he can feel pretty aggrieved that he didn’t pick up a clean sweep of points finishes. 5^th in Qualifying meant that Richard was the highest placed Rookie, but his first race unravelled quickly after being spun by Carlin’s Dan Ticktum at turn 1 on the second lap.

The DNF in SR1 meant that the MP Motorsport driver lined up last in SR2, but he turned that around to pick up a respectable P5. His first Feature Race was his star performance, despite early struggles and slipping down from 5^th to 10^th, Verschoor found himself 2^nd after a late safety car.

Considering the experience of the drivers around him, holding onto that position until the final two laps of the race was a solid effort. A 4^th place finish was well deserved, although the 2019 Macau GP winner will probably be disappointed to miss out on a maiden podium.

Jehan Daruvala – Qualifying: 6^th | Sprint 1: 2^nd | Sprint 2: 4^th | Feature: 6^th

One word describes Jehan’s weekend, consistent. His races were quiet but at this stage of the season, getting points on the board is important.

Daruvala’s best race was SR1, where he finished P2, pulling off a number of key overtakes to pressure Liam Lawson to the chequered flag. His 4^th and 6^th place finishes in SR2 and Feature Races respectively showed the perks of staying out of trouble as the Carlin driver hoovered up positions when other drivers made mistakes.

Overall, Jehan should come away from Bahrain particularly pleased with his results, which leaves him 3^rd in the Championship on 28 points.

The struggle bus:

Robert Schwartzman – Qualifying: 11^th | Sprint 1: 4^th | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature: 7^th (+FL)

Captaining the F2 struggle bus this weekend is Robert Schwartzman, which sounds weird to say considering he scored points in two of the three races.

For a driver of his calibre, it was a scrappy weekend for Robert, blameless for the qualifying woes that left him 11^th, he caused two opening lap crashes. The first one in Sprint Race 2 was an over-optimistic lunge into turn 1 that took him and Carlin’s Dan Ticktum out of the race, the second one saw Schwartzman lock up and rear-end Roy Nissany (DAMS) at turn 4 on the opening lap of the Feature Race, which also ruined the race of Lirim Zendelli (MP Motorsport) as he was clattered into by Nissany.

Schwartzman picked up a 10-second and a drive-through penalty respectively, and can thank his lucky stars that a late safety car brought him into the points in the Feature Race. It was a disappointing weekend for one of the Championship favourites, who already has a 25-point deficit to Zhou.

Felipe Drugovich – Qualifying: 3^rd | Sprint 1: 16^th | Sprint 2: 14^th | Feature: 9^th

UNI Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich also had a weekend to forget, picking up damage in SR1 meant that he started a lowly 16^th in SR2. Having risen to 7^th amongst the first lap drama, Drugovich was finely poised for a potential podium until colliding with Hitech’s Liam Lawson. Felipe tipped Liam into a spin when battling over 4^th place at turn 4 on lap 15 of 23, with Lawson retiring with suspension damage.

Drugovich was given a 10-second penalty. This ultimately ruined his chances of points due to the safety car that was brought out after the incident. The Brazilian would also struggle in the Feature Race and pick up a 5-second penalty for a Safety Car infringement, meaning he only came away from Bahrain with a measly two points, his teammate leads the Championship in comparison.

Alessio Deledda – Qualifying: 21^st | Sprint 1: 18^th | Sprint 2: DNF | Feature: DNF

The Italian looked out of his depth to say the least, qualifying a whopping 3.8 seconds slower than polesitter, Guanyu Zhou. He would finish last of the classified runners in Sprint Race 1, over a minute behind the winner, Liam Lawson, in a race that had just 23 laps.

Although the Italian would suffer mechanical failure in SR2, he would spin off and stall on the opening lap of the Feature Race, capping off a predictably poor weekend for Deledda.

Cockpit fire extinguishers

F2 bosses really needs to investigate their fire extinguishers, because I do not know any other series where they have released on a driver mid-race as much as they do in this series.

The unfortunate victim on this occasion was Campos’ Gianluca Petecof, who came to a stop in the runoff of turn 1 in the Feature Race. This is the fifth occasion in six years this has happened, previously impacting Pierre Gasly (2016), Jack Aitken (2018), Mick Schumacher (2020) and Théo Pourchaire (2020). Gasly was actually disqualified from the Feature Race in Germany because he did not stop, which is a requirement should the extinguisher go off.

Of course, this item is needed in motorsport should the worst happen, but they also should not be set off by tyre marbles or debris. It would be a calamity if this occurred in the final race of a season with a Championship title riding on it.

After an exhilarating weekend in the desert, we’ll have to wait nearly two months until F2 is back in action on the streets of Monaco from 20^th-23^rd May. Whilst there are some early Championship contenders already, the other drivers have work to do to reel in Zhou and Lawson.