Shwartzman, Evans claim support race victories at F1 Gulf Air Bahrain GP weekend at BIC

Robert Shwartzman and Jaxon Evans took turns today to bask in the spotlight at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir, claiming a victory each in their respective championships just hours ahead of the highly anticipated Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2020 night race.

Shwartzman won a thrilling Formula 2 Sprint Race from pole, while Evans powered to a race two victory in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East to cap a spectacular opening round in the series’ 2020/2021 season.

F2 and the Porsche Sprint Challenge ME made up an exciting support programme to the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, with racing held along BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix Track.

In the F2 Sprint Race, Shwartzman, driving for Prema Racing, started at the front of the field due to F2’s reverse grid rule, following Saturday’s Feature Race. He made the most of the opportunity and did well to hold on to his lead at the lights.

He later was under some pressure from Hitech Grand Prix’s Nikita Mazepin who was closely challenging behind him after a virtual safety car, but was able to extend his gap the rest of the way with clean air in front.

Shwartzman claimed the chequered flag after 23 laps in a total winning time of 43 minutes 15.992 seconds. it was his fourth win of the F2 season and his second in a Sprint Race.

Mazepin followed 5.283secs behind as the runner-up to make it a Russian one-two, while taking third was Louis Deletraz of Charouz Racing System, who made a brilliant late charge to secure his podium place 6.472s back.

Marcus Armstrong, who started beside Shwartzman on the front row, came fourth for ART Grand Prix. Guanyu Zhou of Uni-Virtuosi was an impressive fifth, fending off a heated challenge from the three cars behind him, who included Christian Lundgaard in ART’s other car, Shwartzman’s Prema teammate and championship leader Mick Schumacher, and Feature Race winner Felipe Drugovich of MP Motorsport, who were engaged in some exciting wheel-to-wheel battles. They were classified sixth through eighth, respectively, completing the Sprint Race’s points scorers.

Early on in lap seven, Callum Ilott in the other Uni-Virtuosi car collided with Jehan Daruvala, forcing the Carlin man into an early retirement. Ilott was later handed a drive-through penalty for the incident, dropping him to 18th.

The F2 field returns to action at BIC next weekend in support of the F1 Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix, which will be the final round of its 2020 season. Racing will be held along BIC’s 3.543km Outer Track then.

In the Porsche Sprint Challenge ME, Evans secured his double after starting from the front row alongside pole-sitter Julian Hanses.

Evans was able to power to the lead on lap one and held on until the very end of the 12-lap event, winning in a total time of 25:11.958.

He finished 3.396s ahead of Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, while Hanses had to settle for third 9.089s behind. Each of the top three were competing in the championship’s GT3 class Pro category.

Winning the Pro-Am category while finishing fourth overall was Lucas Groeneveld, while Eddy Waldhier was the victor amongst the Am competitors.

Bahrainis Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa (Pro-Am) and Shaikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa were ninth and 10th, respectively.

A total of 17 cars competed over the weekend in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East.