The 2018 Bahrain FIA Formula 2 round was a pair of motor races for Formula 2 cars that took place on 7 and 8 April 2018 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain as part of the FIA Formula 2 Championship. It was the first round of the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship and ran in support of the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The round saw the competitive début of the new Dallara F2 2018 chassis and its turbocharged Mecachrome engine. The F2 2018 was introduced as a replacement for the aging Dallara GP2/11 chassis and its naturally-aspirated engine, which had been used by the championship and its predecessor, the GP2 Series since 2011.

Report

Background The race saw the introduction of a brand new chassis to replace the Dallara GP2/11 which had been used since 2011 when the series was known as the GP2 Series. The new car, the Dallara F2 2018, features substantial technical revisions to its design, making it similar to the current Formula One cars. It features the "halo" cockpit protection device for driver head protection and is also powered by a brand new engine, a 3.4 litre (207 cu in) single-turbocharged V6 engine developed by Mecachrome. This was brought in as a replacement for the 4.0 litre (244 cu in) naturally aspirated V8 engine which was used since the GP2 Series began back in 2005.

Driver changes for this season saw reigning champion Charles Leclerc join Formula One with the Alfa Romeo Sauber team, replacing Pascal Wehrlein. His teammate from Prema Racing last year, Antonio Fuoco, joined the new Charouz Racing System team, joining Louis Delétraz, who joined the team after racing with Racing Engineering and Rapax in . Reigning teams' champions Russian Time signed Japanese driver Tadasuke Makino to partner Artem Markelov. Luca Ghiotto, who raced for Russian Time in 2017, joined Campos Racing. DAMS signed Alexander Albon to replace Oliver Rowland, Prema Racing brought in Sean Gelael and Nyck de Vries, and MP Motorsport signed Roberto Merhi and Ralph Boschung, who were also teammates at Campos at the Catalunya round in 2017.

Other débutants this season were Roy Nissany, son of Chanoch Nissany, who joined Campos, Maximilian Günther and Nirei Fukuzumi, who both moved up from the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and GP3 Series respectively with BWT Arden, Arjun Maini, who also graduated from the GP3 Series, joined Trident, partnering Santino Ferrucci. ART Grand Prix promoted Jack Aitken and reigning GP3 Series champion George Russell to their F2 team, and Lando Norris began his first full season with Carlin.

Qualifying Two Formula 2 full-time rookies Lando Norris and George Russell occupied the front row of the grid. While the second row was locked by more experienced Alexander Albon and Nyck de Vries.

Feature race After starting from pole Lando Norris dominated the race, finishing ahead of his teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara with almost seven second margin. Sette Câmara defended his runner-up spot on the podium after pressure in the final laps from Russian Time driver Artem Markelov, who was forced to start from pitlane after stalling on the grid. Alexander Albon finished ahead of Russell, who was the highest-placed driver without previous Formula 2 starts. The Prema pairing of Nyck de Vries and Sean Gelael finished behind Russell. Rookie Maximilian Günther finished eighth and subsequently started from pole in the sprint race. Russell's teammate and another rookie driver Jack Aitken finished ninth. Ralph Boschung completed the top-ten. Nicholas Latifi, Luca Ghiotto, Louis Delétraz and Santino Ferrucci were unable to use their experience to score points. Arjun Maini and Roy Nissany finished 15th and 16th on their F2 race debut. Antonio Fuoco finished ahead of the pair of the Japanese rookies Nirei Fukuzumi and Tadasuke Makino, who were the last finished drivers. Like Markelov, Roberto Merhi stalled on the grid, but was unable to start the race from pit lane.

Sprint race Artem Markelov took his first victory of the season with Maximilian Günther second, Sérgio Sette Câmara rounding out the podium in third and Lando Norris fourth. The final points places went to Nyck de Vries, who also set the fastest lap, Luca Ghiotto, Ralph Boschung, and Nirei Fukuzumi scored his first points with 8th. All drivers finished in this race, with Santino Ferrucci the last finisher in 20th place.

Classification Qualifying Driver Team Time 1 19 Lando Norris Carlin 1:41.761 – 1 2 8 George Russell ART Grand Prix 1:41.823 +0.062 2 3 5 Alexander Albon DAMS 1:41.850 +0.089 3 4 4 Nyck de Vries Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 1:41.880 +0.119 4 5 20 Louis Delétraz Charouz Racing System 1:42.174 +0.413 5 6 18 Carlin 1:42.221 +0.460 6 7 12 Nirei Fukuzumi BWT Arden 1:42.246 +0.485 7 8 2 Tadasuke Makino Russian Time 1:42.264 +0.503 8 9 7 Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 1:42.282 +0.521 9 10 11 Maximilian Günther BWT Arden 1:42.336 +0.575 10 11 21 Antonio Fuoco Charouz Racing System 1:42.342 +0.581 11 12 14 Luca Ghiotto Campos Vexatec Racing 1:42.414 +0.653 12 13 9 Roberto Merhi MP Motorsport 1:42.423 +0.662 13 14 16 Arjun Maini Trident 1:42.437 +0.676 14 15 6 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:42.447 +0.686 15 16 10 Ralph Boschung MP Motorsport 1:42.460 +0.699 16 17 1 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:42.816 +1.055 17 18 17 Santino Ferrucci Trident 1:42.818 +1.057 18 19 3 Sean Gelael 1:43.016 +1.255 19 20 15 Roy Nissany Campos Vexatec Racing 1:43.350 +1.589 20 Source:

Feature race DriverEntrantLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints119 Lando NorrisCarlin3157:46.206125 (6)218Carlin31 +8.32161831 Artem MarkelovRussian Time31 +8.532PL1545 Alexander AlbonDAMS31 +9.34931258 George RussellART Grand Prix31 +13.94721064 Nyck de Vries31 +14.6614873 Sean GelaelPertamina Prema Theodore Racing31 +19.326196811 Maximilian GüntherBWT Arden31 +22.57310497 Jack AitkenART Grand Prix31 +28.559921010 Ralph BoschungMP Motorsport31 +31.585161116 Nicholas LatifiDAMS31 +35.514151214 Luca GhiottoCampos Vexatec Racing31 +44.273121320 Louis DelétrazCharouz Racing System31 +49.42951417 Santino FerrucciTrident31 +55.424181516 Arjun MainiTrident31 +57.453141615 Roy NissanyCampos Vexatec Racing31 +1:27.436201721 Antonio FuocoCharouz Racing System31 +1:47.169111812 Nirei FukuzumiBWT Arden31 +1:50.4627192 Tadasuke MakinoRussian Time30 +1 lap8DNS9 Roberto MerhiMP Motorsport0 HydraulicsPLFastest Lap: Lando Norris (Carlin) — 1:48.072 (on lap 19)Source: Notes  – Artem Markelov started from pit lane after stalling on the grid.  – Roberto Merhi stalled on the grid and was due to start the race from pit lane, but was unable to restart the car.

Sprint race DriverEntrantLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints11 Artem MarkelovRussian Time2342:42.161615211 Maximilian GüntherBWT Arden23 +2.106112318Carlin23 +3.803710419 Lando NorrisCarlin23 +5.0438854 Nyck de Vries23 +10.26536 (2)614 Luca GhiottoCampos Vexatec Racing23 +15.696124710 Ralph BoschungMP Motorsport23 +23.511102812 Nirei FukuzumiBWT Arden23+24.582181920 Louis DelétrazCharouz Racing System23+25.19413106 Nicholas LatifiDAMS23+25.68711119 Roberto MerhiMP Motorsport23+25.804201221 Antonio FuocoCharouz Racing System23+26.63817135 Alexander AlbonDAMS23+31.75951416 Arjun MainiTrident23+36.793151515 Roy NissanyCampos Vexatec Racing23+43.98916163 Sean GelaelPertamina Prema Theodore Racing23+57.8452172 Tadasuke MakinoRussian Time23+1:03.81919187 Jack AitkenART Grand Prix23+1:39.7579198 George RussellART Grand Prix22 +1 lap42017 Santino FerrucciTrident22+1 lap14 Source:

Championship standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings DriverPoints1 Lando Norris 392 Artem Markelov 303 Sérgio Sette Câmara 284 Maximilian Günther 165 Nyck de Vries 16

Teams' Championship standings EntrantPoints1 Carlin 672 Russian Time 303 224 BWT Arden 175 DAMS 12

Notes

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