2021 Bahrain Sprint Race 1

The 2021 Sakhir Formula 2 Race 1, formally known as the 2021 Bahrain Sprint Race 1, was the opening round of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Bahrain on 27 March 2021. The race would be the first "Sprint Race" to open either a GP2 Series or F2 season, and was the first of three races staged on the opening weekend of the 2021 season.

There would be a lot of new faces in the F2 field for the 2021 season opener, after 2020 F2 Champion Mick Schumacher, as well as Nikita Mazepin and Yuki Tsunoda all graduated to Formula One, while several other drivers including Artem Markelov, Luca Ghiotto and Louis Delétraz stepped away from the series. In their place came a wave of graduates from the FIA Formula 3 Championship, with 2020 F3 champion Oscar Piastri one of ten rookies in the field.

Théo Pourchaire would start the opening race of the season in pole position, as the new race weekend format saw his tenth place in qualifying converted into pole position for the first Sprint. He would share the front row with David Beckmann to form an all rookie front row, with Liam Lawson and Piastri making their debuts from third and fourth.

The start would see both Pourchaire and Beckmann get caught flatfooted, allowing Lawson to charge between them to claim the lead into the first corner unopposed. Pourchaire would briefly drop to third behind Beckmann before elbowing his way back into second, while Robert Shwartzman made a barnstorming start to leap from eleventh to fifth.

The race soon settled with Lawson trying and failing to escape Pourchaire, while Beckmann stalked them in third ahead of Jehan Daruvala. Elsewhere, Dan Ticktum earned himself a penalty by spinning Richard Verschoor out of the race with a misguided lunge, with Felipe Drugovich getting caught out and also retiring. Marcus Armstrong would also suffer an early exit with a mechanical issue, with the sudden deceleration of the #17 DAMS catching Ralph Boschung out, resulting in the #21 Campos hitting the back of Armstrong's car.

After a Virtual Safety Car period to remove Armstrong the race resumed, with Pourchaire harassing Lawson for the lead, while Daruvala overhauled Beckmann to claim third. That became second when Pourchaire's race came to an end with a suspected engine issue in the desert heat, with the Frenchman triggering a second VSC as he pulled off at the side of the circuit.

The final phase of the race would see an inter-Red Bull Junior battle for the lead, with Daruvala crawling all over the back of Lawson as the duo's tyres faded in the closing stages. There would also be an all Prema battle for fourth as Piastri attempted to usurp teammate Shwartzman for the position, allowing Beckmann to run in a solid third as they all dropped away from the lead duo.

Ultimately, however, there would no denying Lawson his maiden victory, with the New Zealander placing his #7 Hitech perfectly to prevent Daruvala from finding a gap through to the chequered flag. Beckmann secured his first podium in third ahead of Shwartzman and Piastri, with Christian Lundgaard, Guanyu Zhou and Ticktum completing the scorers. Lirim Zendeli would claim fastest lap and ninth, while a good recovering drive from Jüri Vips from the back of the grid to tenth would earn the Estonian racer reverse-grid pole for the 2021 Bahrain Sprint Race 2.

Background
For the opening round of the 2021 season the FIA Formula 2 Championship would head to the Middle East and the familiar sights of the Bahrain International Circuit, which had hosted the two final rounds of the 2020. Using the full Circuit rather than the "Outer Circuit" which had concluded the 2020 campaign, the 2021 trip to Bahrain would see three races staged on the opening round, courtesy of a new format implemented for the 2021 season. Furthermore, a three day test was staged ahead of the opening round at the Bahraini circuit, which saw Christian Lundgaard set the fastest time.

Rookie Recruitments
A total of ten fresh faces to the Formula 2 paddock would be signed over the winter, one of the largest en-masse changes to the grid since F2 was formed from the GP2 Series. The first driver to be announced for the 2021 season would be 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship champion Oscar Piastri, who would join Prema Racing to replace out-going F2 champion Mick Schumacher. Piastri would be joined at Prema by Schumacher's former teammate Robert Shwartzman, who would start the season as the favourite after winning four races in 2020, with the Italian squad out to defend their 2020 Teams' Championship title.

Elsewhere two teams would opt for full rookie line-ups, with HWA Racelab and MP Motorsport both gambling on fresh F2 blood. For HWA their drivers would be Matteo Nannini, who was to compete in FIA F3 as well for the full season, and the controversial Alessio Deledda, although both would struggle in pre-season testing. MP Motorsport, meanwhile, would sign Lirim Zendeli for the full campaign, before confirming that Richard Verschoor would drive for them on the eve of the season opening round, after the Dutchman completed pre-season testing with them.

Verschoor's compatriot and fellow F3 graduate Bent Viscaal would also secure a seat on the 2021 grid for the opening round at least, with the Dutch driver joining Marino Sato at Trident. David Beckmann would also step up to F2 in 2021, joining Guilherme Samaia at Charouz Racing System for the season, while Liam Lawson was signed by Hitech Grand Prix to partner Jüri Vips, forming a de facto Red Bull Junior Team within F2. Another F3 star would be found in the form of Théo Pourchaire, who joined Christian Lundgaard at ART Grand Prix, while Gianluca Petecof used his title winning campaign in the 2020 Formula Regional European Championship to join Ralph Boschung at Campos Racing.

In contrast only three teams would field fully experienced line-ups with UNI-Virtuosi arguably the strongest of the trio. The British squad would re-sign Guanyu Zhou to lead their squad, the Chinese racer entering his third season in F2 and hence was the most experienced driver in the field, with Felipe Drugovich having moved across to join him from MP Motorsport. Carlin, meanwhile, would retain the Red Bull backed Jehan Daruvala and sign Dan Ticktum for the season, while DAMS hired Roy Nissany and Ferrari Driver Academy member Marcus Armstrong for 2021 as they tried to recover from a relatively poor 2020 season.

Support Schedule
Ahead of the 2021 F2 announced a novel method of cutting costs for the new season, with a major change to the schedule and how different series would support the senior Formula One World Championship. For 2021 sister series F2 and F3 would race on alternate Grand Prix weekends, which would be intended to reduce costs as nine of F2's eleven entrants also fielded entries in F3. As a result the number of rounds would be decreased to eight for the 2021 season, although drivers would instead complete three races at each race meeting.

The new format would see an additional Sprint Race added to the schedule, with the race weekend schedule itself for F2 rejigged as a result. In 2021 practice and qualifying would be staged on Friday, with qualifying used to set the grid for the Feature Race, before the top ten would be reversed to form the grid for the first Sprint Race of the weekend. The first Sprint Race would then be held on Saturday morning, before the second race would be staged after the F1 qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, with the top ten from that race reversed. The Feature Race would then be staged on Sunday before the F1 Grand Prix, with points awarded based on the established F2 scoring system for each race.

Qualifying Reversal
Under the new race format rules it would be Théo Pourchaire who would claim pole position for the opening Sprint Race of the campaign, having claimed tenth on the grid for the Feature Race. The Frenchman would require outside assistance to do so, however, for Jüri Vips would be disqualified from the results of qualifying having finished fifth after his car failed post-qualifying scrutineering. The Frenchman would share the front row with fellow rookie David Beckmann, while Guanyu Zhou would start from tenth having claimed the first points of the season by securing pole position for the Feature Race.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Grid
The grid for the first Sprint Race was set by reversing the top ten finishers in qualifying for the Feature Race, as per the updated FIA Formula 2 Championship rules for 2021.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:


 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Ticktum received a five second time penalty for causing a collision with Verschoor.
 * † Samaia received a five second time penalty for speeding under VSC conditions.
 * ‡ Viscaal earned himself a five second time penalty for overtaking under yellow flag conditions.

Milestones

 * 25th start for Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Felipe Drugovich, Guilherme Samaia and Robert Shwartzman.
 * Debut race for David Beckmann, Alessio Deledda, Liam Lawson, Matteo Nannini, Gianluca Petecof, Oscar Piastri, Richard Verschoor, Bent Viscaal and Lirim Zendeli.
 * Maiden victory for Lawson.
 * Also Lawson's maiden podium and first points finish.
 * Hitech Grand Prix secured their fourth win as an entrant.
 * Maiden podium for Beckmann.
 * Also Beckmann's first points finish.
 * First points finish for Piastri.
 * Lirim Zendeli recorded his maiden fastest lap.

Standings
Liam Lawson would end the first morning of the 2021 season at the head of the Championship, the New Zealander's victory earning him fifteen points on his debut. Jehan Daruvala and David Beckmann then completed the top three, with Robert Shwartzman, Oscar Piastri, Christian Lundgaard, Guanyu Zhou, Dan Ticktum and Lirim Zendeli completing the scorers.

In the Teams' Championship it was Hitech Grand Prix who led the way halfway through the opening day, the British squad having claimed a one-point lead after Lawson's triumph. Prema Racing were sat in second to open their title defence, while Carlin, Charouz Racing System and ART Grand Prix completed the top five. UNI-Virtuosi and MP Motorsport then completed the scorers, with the four other teams yet to score.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.