Hadjar inherits Bahrain F3 victory after Bearman penalty

Starting from second on the grid, Bearman settled in behind Carlin's Zak O'Sullivan in the opening handful of laps.

It quickly became clear that the Ferrari-backed driver had the pace to claim the lead from O'Sullivan.

Bearman waited until Lap 5 before overtaking O'Sullivan into Turn 6 and Turn 7. 

The Prema driver quickly built up a sizeable lead over the competition as O'Sullivan struggled for pace.

The British driver's lack of pace saw him drop into the clutches of Zane Maloney, who was ahead of Alex Smolyar and Hadjar.

On Lap 16, O'Sullivan lost out to Maloney and Hadjar before dropping behind Smolyar and Arthur Leclerc by the end of the race.

Hadjar got past Maloney into Turn 1 a lap later and began his pursuit of Bearman.

The 17-year-old cut Bearman's lead down to just over three seconds but it wasn't enough as the Brit took the victory on track.

As he crossed the line, race control announced that Bearman had received a five-second time penalty for track limit offences.

This handed Hadjar the win on his F3 debut with Bearman slotting into second, with Smolyar completing the podium.

Maloney kept Leclerc at bay for fourth after the Prema driver tried an opportunistic lunge into Turn 13 on the final lap.

Leclerc enjoyed an impressive recovery from outside the top 10 to finish in fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 was O'Sullivan, Caio Collet, Kaylen Frederick, Juan Manuel Correa and David Vidales.

It was a disastrous day for ART Grand Prix after it saw Gregoire Saucy collide with teammate Victor Martins at Turn 1, forcing both drivers to retire.

Click here for the full FIA Formula 3 results from the sprint race in Bahrain