Artem Markelov Storms Through To Win Opening F2 Race in Bahrain
Qualifying
Qualifying on the scorching hot desert island of Bahrain saw Prema Powerteam lock out the front row. Prema, coming off a sensational opening GP2 last year, swept the front row in the first race under the rebranded Formula 2 series. Their lineup is new for the season, two Ferrari Driver Academy juniors. On pole was Charles Leclerc, the Monegasque reigning GP3 champion. The second of the two is Italian Antonio Fuoco, who’s a Formula Renault 2.0 champion, and was a star and a race winner in Formula 3 and GP3. Both are looking to finish 1-2 in the driver’s championship as their two predecessors at the team did, Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi.
The all Prema front row didn’t last long, as Fuoco was given a grid penalty for impeding Russian Artem Markelov in qualifying. Dutchman and McLaren youngster Nyck de Vries was promoted to 2nd on the grid as a result.
The Start
On the start, Leclerc pulled away but de Vries was swamped, and fell to 4th by turn 1. Norman Nato on his return to Arden took advantage of this and got to 2nd off the line. The frenchman continued his charge through the second straightaway and into turn 4, overtaking Leclerc for the race lead. Another noteworthy start goes to the previously mentioned Artem Markelov, who started 7th and stormed his way to 3rd.
Things started to heat up on lap 7, when Charles Leclerc used DRS to assist in a gimme overtake for the race lead over Nato. Further back, McLaren juniors Nyck de Vries in 4th and Japan’s Nobuharu Matsushita slowed themselves down with a fight for position and it allowed the Italian, Luca Ghiotto and the Brit, Jordan King to get through, putting Matsushita in 7th.
Renault’s Oliver Rowland was able to push his way passed Johnny Cecotto for 8th, and he quickly caught Matsushita and got around him on the outside of turn 1, scaring Matsushita into backing out of it and giving up the position. The battle for 11th began to heat up as well, with Canada’s Nicholas Latifi pressuring Thai rookie Alex Albon. This intense battle lead to Latifi misjudging turn 4 and running into Albon, damaging his front wing and taking himself fully out of points contention.
Pit Window
As Rowland’s charge forward continued, wrestling passed Jordan King for 6th on lap 11, race leader Charles Leclerc pulled out of DRS range for Norman Nato, who now had to focus his efforts into defending from a quickly closing Artem Markelov. Norman Nato became the first of the lead pack to pit on lap 14. Race leader Charles Leclerc came in on lap 16, and rejoined the track just barely in front of Nato. This didn’t last long, as Nato was able to fake him to the inside and pass him on the outside at turn 4 in a nail-biting overtake. This left Artem Markelov in the race lead. He stayed out an extra 3 laps in what left most strategists and even the commentators on the world feed scratching their heads
Markelov eventually came out of this pits on the soft compound while the rest of the field was on the slower hard compound. Nato had pulled an almost 3 second lead to Leclerc, all but shutting Leclerc out from repeating what he did in GP3 just a year before, winning from pole on debut. Artem Markelov was even farther back. The Russian was 12 seconds behind and no one even thought of considering him closing that gap in just under a dozen laps.
Eventually with 8 laps to go, something amazing started happening. Charles Leclerc dug deep, and closed the gap by .4 in just one lap. And even more shocking, Artem Markelov closed a whole second and a half to the leaders. Norman Nato’s win was now in question. Could he deliver his team their first win since 2012? Meanwhile just outside the podium, Nyck de Vries struggled with tire wear in the hot Bahrain sun. He lost 4th to Oliver Rowland and eventually 5th to Jordan King.
Final Laps
Lap after lap, Artem Markelov continued to cut into the gap to the leaders. The commentators were stunned, and it clearly caught Prema and Arden off guard, as they had no strategy for Leclerc and Nato to defend from the Russian. With just 4 laps to go, the gap from Markelov to Leclerc had been closed. At the final corner coming to the penultimate lap, Markelov slipped passed before he even activated DRS, and he had his sights on the win. He wasted no time, Markelov was able to dive up the inside on the exit of 4, and Nato didn’t had the speed on the aging medium tires to fight back. Artem began to run away with the race lead on the final lap.
Further back, Jordan King was able to use DRS to pass fellow countryman Ollie Rowland for 4th. That wasn’t the end of it though, Rowland tried that around the outside maneuver to defend as he had done to Matsushita earlier, but King wasn’t having any of it, and kept his foot in it. Rowland was unable to pass him back by the end of the lap, so King hung onto 4th. Even further behind was trouble again for Nyck de Vries, already struggling to cope with the drop off in pace from the medium tire, fell from reverse grid pole in 8th, down to 10th, ensuring him just 1 point. The two that passed him, Antonio Fuoco and Nobuharu Matsushita, dueled on the final lap for reverse grid pole, but in the end it went to Matsushita.
This was Artem Markelov’s second win in the Formula 2 series, having won in similarly unique fashion in last year’s feature race in Monaco. Norman Nato’s second place finish gave Arden their first podium since 2013, and Charles Leclerc finished on the bottom step of the podium on his F2 debut from pole.
Results are as follows:
1st: Artem Markelov
2nd: Norman Nato
3rd: Charles Leclerc
4th: Jordan King
5th: Oliver Rowland
6th: Alexander Albon
7th: Luca Ghiotto
8th: Nobuharu Matsushita
9th: Antonio Fuoco
10th: Nyck de Vries
11th: Nicholas Latifi
12th: Ralph Boschung
13th: Sergio Sette Camara
14th: Sergio Canamasas
15th: Johnny Cecotto
16th: Stefano Coletti
17th: Sean Gelael
18th: Gustav Malja
19th: Nabil Jeffri
20th: Louis Deletraz