After two intense races in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, Luca Ghiotto scored a brilliant win and a second place while series rookie Guan Yu Zhou defied the odds to take a fourth place.
A technical issue dropped Italian driver Ghiotto from pole position to sixth in Saturday’s race, but he fought back over the course of the race passing five cars to take a brilliant second place finish.
From seventh on the grid in Sunday’s race, Ghiotto built up a lead of over five seconds and then pitted in an inspired strategy by the team. He fell to 14th but the fresher tyres allowed him to make 13 overtakes on his way to the team’s first victory, and Ghiotto leads the championship for drivers.
Chinese driver Guan Yu Zhou, a junior of the Renault Formula 1 team, struggled to nail a strong qualifying lap and had to fight to reach 10th in Saturday’s race. But a brilliant drive to fourth from 10th on the grid shows the potential the European Formula 3 graduate has and will be surely scoring a maiden podium soon.
Luca Ghiotto:
Of course if we won in the feature race it would be better! We gambled with the pitstop and the team worked really hard over night to do the calculations. In the race we had to decide what to do. It worked out well and I’m really happy about the decision. It was a 50/50 decision. This weekend our cars have been faster on race pace, even my team-mate has been good even though he had a tough weekend.
Guan Yu Zhou:
I'm really happy with the first weekend, I managed the tyres very well in the second race, using one set through the whole race while still managing to overtake. So I’m really pleased to finish p4 after starting p10. The First F2 weekend is done and I learned a lot from it. We have a good car and I would like to thank the team for the great start to the season.
Andy Roche:
Fantastic way to start the season, the whole team has worked incredibly hard over the winter and its great to see that hard work pay off. Ghiotto performed impeccably all weekend and Zhou is starting to show his real potential with a fourth-place finish, so let’s see if we can improve on this weekend at the next round in Baku.
