Reigning Formula 3 champion Oscar Piastri claimed his first Formula 2 victory as he overtook Guanyu Zhou on the final lap in the secon🤡d Bahrain꧅ sprint race.

Prema’s decision to pi🤪t Piastri under the second Safety Car period for fresh soft tyres proved to be pivotal as he made his way through the stack of cars that decided to stay out on their older rubber.

Zhou 💖drove a strong race to se🍎cond place - remarkably doing the whole race on the same set of soft tyres.

The Chinese driver couldn’t hold Piastri back on the final lap and inherited a place from Christian Lundgaard, who picked up a 10-second time penalty for an earlier collision with Lirim Zendeli, dropping to ni🌺nth in the final classification.

The race turned on its head on Lap 15 𒁃when the Safety Car was deployed as a result of the incident between Felipe Drugovich and Liam Lawson into Turn 4.

Piastri dived into the pits for fresh soft rubber, as did Juri Vips, who was running second and closi💧ng in on Zhou at the front of the field.

Vips looked favourite to take the victory but suffered a mechanical issue when running second b𓆏ehind Zhou, dropping him well down the order.

The Red Bull junior’s fate was finally sealed when he was handed a five-second time peඣnalty for an infringement under t✱he Virtual Safety Car period.

With Vips out of contention and Lundgaard picking up a penalty, this handed Jehan Daruvala his second podium finish of the weeke𝓡nd.

Richard Verschoor finished fourth 💮for MP Motorsport ahead of ART's Theo Pourchaire.

Pourchaire sto🗹pped under the Safety Car one lap later than the rest, meaning he wasn’t able to make the most of the ‘free stop’. 

David Beckmann finished sixth ahead of Marino Sato and Matteo Nannini, with the🐻 pair𝔍 completing the points-paying positions.

Prema’s R✨ober🌞t Shwartzman retired on the opening lap following contact with Dan Ticktum on the run down to Turn 1. 

Ticktum was also forced tജo retire on♔ the opening lap.

The thi🧸rd and final race of the weekend - the feature race - takes place on Sunday𒁏 morning.

Zhou will💙 start from pole po🐈sition ahead of Lundgaard and Drugovich.

Click here to find 💧the full🅘 Formula 2 sprint race 2 results from Bahrain.