Sakhir F2: Schumacher crowned champion as Daruvala wins finale

Schumacher and title rival Callum Ilott played their part in the thriller, but each finished outside the points, meaning that the future Haas Formula 1 driver held onto his 14-point pre-race advantage. 

DAMS-run Williams protege Dan Ticktum led from reversed-grid pole, while a trademark Schumacher fast start got the Prema Racing machine up from third to second as he passed the Carlin car of Red Bull Junior Daruvala. 

But Schumacher locked up massively while defending from Daruvala at Turn 4, allowing Daruvala back ahead. 

The German shrugged off his flat-spot by sweeping spectacularly around the outside of Daruvala at the Turn 6 right-hander to regain second on lap four, but four tours later Daruvala retrieved the position around the outside of Turn 4. 

A brief virtual safety car for debris put the top seven in a train and, while Daruvala tried to pass Ticktum for the lead, it soon became apparent that Schumacher was struggling. 

Ilott’s Virtuosi Racing car was in fourth place, and was all over Schumacher. 

On one occasion, an attempt by Ilott to pass succeeded only in allowing Schumacher’s Prema teammate Robert Shwartzman ahead, before Schumacher locked up again at Turn 4, delayed Shwartzman and gave Ilott the opportunity to regain fourth place. 

On the following lap Ilott finally passed Schumacher at Turn 4, and that opened the door for Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou to get in front too, before Schumacher dived for the pits and a set of soft tyres with 15 laps remaining. 

With Schumacher now likely to not score points, Ilott needed victory to grab the championship, and his gap to second-placed Daruvala was 3.5 seconds. 

Ilott briefly chipped away at the gap, and for a short time it looked as though a dramatic title grab was possible, but soon it was clear that Ilott was struggling for grip, his tyres potentially having wilted from the long pursuit of Schumacher. 

With nine laps to go, Daruvala finally found a way past Ticktum into the final turn, and immediately after this Ilott began to lose places, eventually fading to 10^th. 

With the title fight effectively over, attention turned to Saturday winner Yuki Tsunoda. 

The Carlin-run AlphaTauri F1 shoo-in had dropped out of the top 10 on the opening lap from eighth on the grid, but soon began a spectacular drive up the order. 

He passed the stricken Ilott for third with eight laps remaining, and set off after Ticktum. 

The duo were together by the penultimate lap, and a determined Ticktum gave Tsunoda a terrific fight. 

It was settled at the final corner of the race, where Ticktum locked up, allowing Tsunoda to scamper past to complete a Carlin 1-2. 

Zhou brought his Virtuosi car home fourth from Shwartzman, while Giuliano Alesi (MP Motorsport) had one of his best F2 drives to claim sixth. 

Luca Ghiotto (Hitech Grand Prix) and Felipe Drugovich (MP), claimed the final points positions, Drugovich recovering from being forced off track in a battle with Marcus Armstrong for which the ART man was given a five-second penalty. 

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time
1	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin
2	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	3.500
3	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	3.900
4	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	5.600
5	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	7.500
6	14	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport	9.000
7	25	Luca Ghiotto	HitechGP	11.000
8	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	13.800
9	24	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	14.500
10	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	16.000
11	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	16.100
12	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	17.000
13	11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	20.100
14	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	21.800
15	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	23.600
16	23	Marino Sato	Trident	26.000
17	1	Sean Gelael	DAMS	26.700
18	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	28.500
19	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	35.900
20	16	Artem Markelov	HWA AG	59.700
21	17	Theo Pourchaire	HWA AG	1 lap
	9	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	25 laps
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