Guanyu Zhou wins shortened F2 race halted after huge accident

Guanyu Zhou has claimed a long-awaited maiden FIA Formula 2 victory in the Sochi sprint race, which was red-flagged and not restarted following a huge incident on Lap 8.

The race was suspended following an enormous accident involving Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken at Turn 3 on the eighth lap of the second and final race of the F2 weekend in Russia.

Ghiotto and Aitken had been squabbling over fourth place when they tangled through the high-speed sweeping Turn 3 corner, with the contact sending both drivers spearing into the tech-pro barriers.

Thankfully, both drivers were able to extract themselves from their cars unaided and were unscathed in the scary accident.

Ghiotto’s Hitech Grand Prix car was almost completely destroyed in the impact and became engulfed in flames shortly after the Italian had removed himself from the scene of the accident.

But due to the significant amount of damage to the barriers and repair work needed before the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix gets underway at 14:10 local time, it was announced that the race would not be restarted.

It meant that Zhou was crowned the race winner at the 42nd attempt after five laps with countback applied and half-points awarded for the race.

Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher completed the podium in second and third places as the German further extended his championship lead over Callum Ilott.

Aitken and Ghiotto were classified in fourth and fifth despite their race-ending incidents, ahead of Red Bull and Honda protégé Yuki Tsunoda.

Championship hopeful Ilott was seventh, with Dan Ticktum, Pedro Piquet and Robert Shwartzman rounding out the top 10.

Schumacher now leads the championship by 22 points over Ilott with four races to go at the Bahrain double header. 

FULL FIA FORMULA 2 SOCHI SPRINT RACE RESULTS