F2: Piastri inches closer to title amid two Safety Cars in Race 2 in Jeddah

Alpine junior Oscar Piastri edged closer to the Formula 2 title with his fourth victory of the season in the second sprint race at Jeddah, beating Trident’s Bent Viscaal, who recovered from a slow start to take his second F2 podium.

Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman moved ahead of 2022 Alfa Romeo Formula 1 driver Guanyu Zhou in the standings with his sixth top-three finish of the year, but remains 47 points off Piastri with four races to go.

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Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala started from reverse pole and dominated the majority of the race, but ended up out of the points at the flag. There was a sense of deja vu for Daruvala, who was handed a five-second time penalty for the second race in a row, for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while defending first from Piastri.

Daruvala’s teammate Dan Ticktum came out on top of a battle with Red Bull junior Jack Doohan for fourth, but was made to work for it by the Formula 3 vice-champion, who impressed in only his second race at that level and completed the top five.

Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire put on a brilliant recovery drive after his crash in Sprint Race 1, charging through the field from 19th to finish in sixth, ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi, who scored his first points.

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Zhou put on a show from last place but was only able to add a point to his championship tally, crossing the line eighth.

Piastri will have a chance to further extend his championship lead from pole in the Feature Race, the grid set by Friday’s Qualifying session. The PREMA racer will start ahead of Shwartzman and Pourchaire when the lights go out at 1725 local time on Sunday.

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