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In the feature race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Bahrain today Artem Markelov took a brilliant win ahead of Norman Nato and Charles Leclerc at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Russian Time driver Markelov was 10 seconds off the lead after the pitstops but rapidly closed in on Nato and Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Leclerc towards the end of the race by using his superior pace on the soft Pirelli tyres to steal the win in emphatic style.
At the start, Leclerc held the lead from pole position while Rapax’s Nyck de Vries dropped from second to fourth on the run to the first corner. Nato surged through to second from third on the grid as the pack made it through the opening corners without contact.
In the first stages of the race, Leclerc could not shake off Nato’s attentions and the Arden driver took the lead with a simple DRS-assisted pass at Turn 1, but he found it tough to jump clear of the Prema driver and Markelov who had quickly risen from seventh on the grid.
Nato’s pace suffered the longer the opening stint on the medium tyres went on and Leclerc was able to retake the lead with a similar move down the inside of Turn 1.
As they approached the pitstops around the halfway point of the 32-lap race, Markelov passed Nato and then rapidly closed in on Leclerc. Nato abandoned his medium tyres on Lap 14 and used the superior pace of the new soft rubber to erase Leclerc’s lead then catch the 2016 GP3 champion as he emerged from the pits one lap later.
Nato then tried to attack Leclerc and passed him with a stunning move around the outside of Turn 4 then quickly pulled out what looked like race-winning gap. However, Markelov had emerged from his pitstop facing a large disadvantage due to staying out for two further laps on the mediums.
It then took until the final five laps until he began to overturn the deficit to Nato and Leclerc but then did so at a scintillating rate and caught him on Lap 29 and easily passed him on the run out of the final corner.
From there Markelov quickly caught Nato (at over a second per sector on Lap 30) taking the lead with an easy move at Turn 4 and winning by 7.8s at the flag.
Jordan King managed with a sliding move through Turns 1 and 2 on the final lap to claim fourth place ahead of Oliver Rowland in fifth place and ahead of Alexander Albon who finished in sixth place. Luca Ghiotto finished the race in seventh place ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita in eighth place and will start on pole for the sprint race on Sunday.
Antonio Fuoco could not recover after he tumbled down the order on the first lap and finished in ninth place, with Nyck de Vries rounding out the top 10 finishers of the race.
Nicholas Latifi finished outside of the points in eleventh place ahead of Sergio Sette Camara in twelfth place, Ralph Boschung in thirteenth place, Sergio Canamasas in fourteenth place and Johnny Cecotto Jr in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Stefano Coletti finished in sixteenth place ahead of Sean Gelael in seventeenth place, Gustav Malja in eighteenth place, Nabil Jeffri in nineteenth place and Louis Deletraz in twentieth place.
The classification of the Feature Race for the Bahrain F2 series is as follows:-
1. Artem Markelov, RUSSIAN TIME, 58.18.977s
2. Norman Nato, Pertamina Arden, 7.981s
3. Charles Leclerc, Prema Racing, 13.780s
4. Jordan King, MP Motorsport, 17.478s
5. Oliver Rowland, DAMS, 18.144s
6. Alexander Albion, ART Grand Prix, 19.744s
7. Luca Ghiotto, RUSSIAN TIME, 27.056s
8. Nobuharo Matsushita, ART Grand Prix, 29.971s
9. Antonio Fuoco, Prema Racing, 30.950s
10. Nyck de Vyres, Rapax, 32.726s
11. Nicholas Latifi, DAMS, 47.578s
12. Sergio Cette Camara, MP Motorsport, 50.146s
13. Ralph Boschung, Campos Racing, 52.529s
14. Sergio Canamasas, Trident, 56.311s
15. Johnny Cecotto Jr, Rapax, 1.06.723s
16. Stefano Coletti, Campos Racing, 1.12.933s
17. Sean Gelael, Pertamina Arden, 1.18.579s
18. Gustav Malja, Racing Engineering, 1.24.483s
19. Nabil Jaffri, Trident, 1.38.982s
20. Louis Deletraz, Racing Engineering, 1.39.106s
Driving for Pleasure will be covering the Bahrain F2 weekend with our race reports alongside the latest news.
Picture supplied by the FIA Formula 2 World Championship
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
