2018 Bahrain Formula 2 round

Round details
Round 1 of 12 in the2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Layout of the Bahrain International Circuit
Location	Bahrain International Circuit,Sakhir, Bahrain
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.406 km (3.359 mi)
Feature race
Date 7 April 2018 Laps 31[N 1] Pole position Driver Lando Norris Carlin Time 1:41.761 Podium First Lando Norris Carlin Second Sérgio Sette Câmara Carlin Third Artem Markelov Russian Time Fastest lap Driver Lando Norris Carlin Time 1:48.072 (on lap 19)
Sprint race
Date 8 April 2018 Laps 23 Podium First Artem Markelov Russian Time Second Maximilian Günther BWT Arden Third Sérgio Sette Câmara Carlin Fastest lap Driver Nyck de Vries Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing Time 1:47.711 (on lap 11)

The2018 Bahrain FIA Formula 2 round was a pair of motor races forFormula 2 cars that took place on 7 and 8 April 2018 at theBahrain International Circuit inSakhir,Bahrain as part of theFIA Formula 2 Championship. It was the first round of the2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship and ran in support of the2018 Bahrain Grand Prix.^[1]

The round saw the competitive début of the newDallara F2 2018 chassis and itsturbochargedMecachrome engine. The F2 2018 was introduced as a replacement for the agingDallara GP2/11 chassis and its naturally-aspirated engine, which had been used by the championship and its predecessor, theGP2 Series since2011.^[2][3]

The race saw the introduction of a brand new chassis to replace theDallara GP2/11 which had been used since2011 when the series was known as theGP2 Series. The new car, theDallara 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-turbochargedV6 engine developed byMecachrome. 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 in2005.

Driver changes for this season saw reigning championCharles Leclerc joinFormula One with theAlfa Romeo Sauber team, replacingPascal Wehrlein. His teammate fromPrema Racing last year,Antonio Fuoco, joined the newCharouz Racing System team, joiningLouis Delétraz, who joined the team after racing withRacing Engineering andRapax in2017. Reigning teams' championsRussian Time signed Japanese driverTadasuke Makino to partnerArtem Markelov.Luca Ghiotto, who raced for Russian Time in 2017, joinedCampos Racing.DAMS signedAlexander Albon to replaceOliver Rowland,Prema Racing brought inSean Gelael andNyck de Vries, andMP Motorsport signedRoberto Merhi andRalph Boschung, who were also teammates at Campos at the Catalunya round in 2017.

Other débutants this season wereRoy Nissany, son ofChanoch Nissany, who joined Campos,Maximilian Günther andNirei Fukuzumi, who both moved up from theFIA Formula 3 European Championship andGP3 Series respectively withBWT Arden,Arjun Maini, who also graduated from the GP3 Series, joinedTrident, partneringSantino Ferrucci.ART Grand Prix promotedJack Aitken and reigning GP3 Series championGeorge Russell to their F2 team, andLando Norris began his first full season withCarlin.

Two Formula 2 full-time rookiesLando Norris andGeorge Russell occupied the front row of the grid.^[4] While the second row was locked by more experiencedAlexander Albon andNyck de Vries.

After starting from pole Lando Norris dominated the race, finishing ahead of his teammateSérgio Sette Câmara with almost seven second margin.^[5] Sette Câmara defended his runner-up spot on the podium after pressure in the final laps fromRussian Time driverArtem 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 andSean Gelael finished behind Russell. RookieMaximilian Günther finished eighth and subsequently started from pole in the sprint race. Russell's teammate and another rookie driverJack Aitken finished ninth.Ralph Boschung completed the top-ten.Nicholas Latifi,Luca Ghiotto,Louis Delétraz andSantino Ferrucci were unable to use their experience to score points.Arjun Maini andRoy Nissany finished 15th and 16th on their F2 race debut.Antonio Fuoco finished ahead of the pair of the Japanese rookiesNirei Fukuzumi andTadasuke 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.

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

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Grid
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	Sérgio Sette Câmara	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	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	1:43.016	+1.255	19
20	15	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	1:43.350	+1.589	20
Source:[6]

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	19	Lando Norris	Carlin	31	57:46.206	1	25 (6)
2	18	Sérgio Sette Câmara	Carlin	31	+8.321	6	18
3	1	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	31	+8.532	PL1	15
4	5	Alexander Albon	DAMS	31	+9.349	3	12
5	8	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	31	+13.947	2	10
6	4	Nyck de Vries	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	31	+14.661	4	8
7	3	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	31	+19.326	19	6
8	11	Maximilian Günther	BWT Arden	31	+22.573	10	4
9	7	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	31	+28.559	9	2
10	10	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	31	+31.585	16	1
11	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	31	+35.514	15
12	14	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Vexatec Racing	31	+44.273	12
13	20	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	31	+49.429	5
14	17	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	31	+55.424	18
15	16	Arjun Maini	Trident	31	+57.453	14
16	15	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	31	+1:27.436	20
17	21	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	31	+1:47.169	11
18	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden	31	+1:50.462	7
19	2	Tadasuke Makino	Russian Time	30	+1 lap	8
DNS	9	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	0	Hydraulics	PL2
Fastest Lap:Lando Norris (Carlin) — 1:48.072 (on lap 19)
Source:[5]

Notes

• ^1  –Artem Markelov started from pit lane after stalling on the grid.
• ^2  –Roberto Merhi stalled on the grid and was due to start the race from pit lane, but was unable to restart the car.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Entrant	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	23	42:42.161	6	15
2	11	Maximilian Günther	BWT Arden	23	+2.106	1	12
3	18	Sérgio Sette Câmara	Carlin	23	+3.803	7	10
4	19	Lando Norris	Carlin	23	+5.043	8	8
5	4	Nyck de Vries	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	23	+10.265	3	6 (2)
6	14	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Vexatec Racing	23	+15.696	12	4
7	10	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	23	+23.511	10	2
8	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden	23	+24.582	18	1
9	20	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	23	+25.194	13
10	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	23	+25.687	11
11	9	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	23	+25.804	20
12	21	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	23	+26.638	17
13	5	Alexander Albon	DAMS	23	+31.759	5
14	16	Arjun Maini	Trident	23	+36.793	15
15	15	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	23	+43.989	16
16	3	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	23	+57.845	2
17	2	Tadasuke Makino	Russian Time	23	+1:03.819	19
18	7	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	23	+1:39.757	9
19	8	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	22	+1 lap	4
20	17	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	22	+1 lap	14
Fastest lap:Nyck de Vries (Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing) — 1:47.711 (on lap 11)
Source:[7]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Lando Norris 39 2 Artem Markelov 30 3 Sérgio Sette Câmara 28 4 Maximilian Günther 16 5 Nyck de Vries 16

Teams' Championship standings Pos. Entrant Points 1 Carlin 67 2 Russian Time 30 3 Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 22 4 BWT Arden 17 5 DAMS 12

• Official website

• 2018 Formula 2 Championship
• 2018 in Bahraini motorsport
• April 2018 sports events in Asia