Dan Ticktum dominated to win Sprint Race 1 in FIA Formula 2 at the Sochi Autodrom in damp conditions.
The Brit was able to lead every single lap from reverse-grid pole to take his second victory of the season ahead of Juri Vips and Robert Shwartzman.
The race was delayed by ten minutes due to the conditions before it commenced under the Safety Car for the formation lap.
Felipe Drugovich had lost control at Turn 11 during his reconnaissance lap to the grid and crashed out of the event.
More dramatically, his UNI-Virtuosi team-mate Guanyu Zhou spun at Turn 2 and stalled, which meant both cars were eliminated before lights out. With Zhou not scoring, this was a good opportunity for Oscar Piastri to extend the gap in the title race.
Green-flag conditions got underway with a rolling start as Ticktum led Vips, Liam Lawson and Shwartzman.
No change of positions towards the top end of the field before a spin from Bent Viscaal on Lap 4 at Turn 16 that saw the Trident driver stall and retire.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, as Ticktum continued to head the field from Vips, Lawson, Shwartzman, Jake Hughes, Ralph Boschung, Theo Pourchaire, Jehan Daruvala, Piastri and Christian Lundgaard in the top ten.
On the restart on Lap 6, Piastri attempted a move on Daruvala for eighth at Turn 5 but ran wide and allowed Lundgaard through. The Australian made another error at Turn 10 and fell back another couple of positions to 12th.
Piastri gained back another position after Liam Lawson lost control and clouted the wall at Turn 13 on the same lap, causing to the left-rear suspension and out of the race.
The VSC deployed again for a couple of laps. When racing resumed, Boschung was caught napping and was overtaken by Daruvala and Pourchaire, which dropped the Swiss driver to seventh.
No changes to the top ten since then until Daruvala spun at Turn 16 and fell out of the points to 12th.
As daylight continued to fade, Ticktum eased home for this third F2 win, with Vips in second and Shwartzman making it to the podium in front of his home crowd.
Hughes scored his first points in the series with fourth ahead of Pourchaire in fifth, who also got the bonus points for the fastest lap.
The points scorers were completed by Boschung, Lundgaard and Richard Verschoor, meaning Piastri missed out on points in ninth. With that, the gap between the PREMA driver and Zhou in the championship remains at 19 points.
With Sprint Race 2 cancelled due to rescheduling in response to the weather at the Sochi Autodrom, the Feature Race will wrap up the F2 weekend on Sunday at 11:20 track time.
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