F2 Sprint Race 2: Guanyu Zhou secures win in Abu Dhabi
11th December 2021F2 Sprint Race 2: Guanyu Zhou secures win in Abu Dhabi
Uni-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou secures the win in Abu Dhabi as Dams’ Marcus Armstrong is forced to retire from the lead on lap 11.
How the race unfolded
It was a brilliant getaway from Armstrong who found himself into turn one unchallenged while Guanyu Zhou struggled to get away and had his position taken away by Ralph Boschung. Despite starting P8, the newly-crowned world champion, Prema’s Oscar Piastri made a move on Hitech’s Liam Lawson into the reconfigured turn five – with nothing to lose.
However, the Australian made contact with the Hitech driver and plummeted down the field to P13 as a result.
On lap 4, HWA Race Lab’s Alessio Deledda was forced to retire from the second sprint race of the weekend as he made contact with Campos of Olli Caldwell on the entry to turn nine. The HWA spun around due to the contact and Deledda wasn’t able to get the car going again. As a result, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed momentarily before it was upgraded to a full safety car.
A lap later, Piastri was given a five second time penalty for forcing Lawson off the track.
After two laps under the Aston Martin Vantage safety car, Deledda’s HWA was finally removed from the track and Bernd Maylander brought the safety car back into the pits to get the race back underway.
On lap eight, Piastri made a move into turn six to secure P11 from both Hitech’s Juri Vips and Dams’ Roy Nissany. However, Nissany made a move on the inside line, in turn nine, and was lightly bumped by Piastri. Shocked, the Australian backed away from turning into Nissany but ended up into the side of Vips.
Both Vips and Piastri were forced to retire from the race as Maylander, and the safety car team, were redeployed onto the Yas Marina circuit on lap seven. By the end of lap 10, the safety car returned to the pit lane as the race went back to green-flag running.
The race leader, Armstrong, faced despair at the restart – on lap 11 – as the New Zealander had to pull off towards the pit exit as he lost power in his car. The VSC was deployed as a result.
A lap later, Armstrong’s car was cleared and the race got back underway.
On lap 18, ART’s Christian Lundgaard was forced to return to his pit box as he required a new front nose and a new tyre as the Danish driver had a puncture on his front left tyre. This was due to contact between both Lundgaard and Nissany. The Dane was sent back out onto the track with a set of the quicker, purple-stripped, super-soft tyres.
Two laps later, Nissany was also forced into the pits to change his front wing which looked to be just hanging onto its nose, as a result of the contact between himself and Lundgaard.
Podium:
- Guanyu Zhou, Uni-Virtuosi
- Robert Shwartzman, Prema
- Ralph Boschung, Campos
That’s it for the article: F2 Sprint Race 2: Guanyu Zhou secures win in Abu Dhabi! What did you think about the race? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.