Alexander Dunne claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory in the first feature race of the season with a dominant performance in Bahrain.
Williams Junior Driver Luke Browning finished in second place with the fastest lap after a dominant climb up the field.
Although Leonardo Fornaroli started on pole position, he defended hard against Pepe Marti and secured a third-place finish.
Fornaroli got off to a great start, storming off the line to lead heading into the first corner while his Invicta Racing teammate joined him briefly on the front line.
The polesitter began to pull away from the rest of the pack when Dunne and Rafael Villagomez inserted themselves in the fight for the lead.
Dunne and Villagomez managed to jump Roman Stanek for second and third place, respectively, and set their sights on Fornaroli ahead.
However, by the end of the first lap, Fornaroli had broken free of the DRS from Dunne and pulled 1.2s away from the Rodin driver.
It was a great opening lap for Villagomez, who climbed up five places on the grid to third and was defending well from Stanek on Lap 2.
The frontrunners were comfortable looking after their tyres in the following laps, with Fornaroli leading Dunne by 1.2 seconds on Lap 5.
A three-way fight for P4 ensued between Stanek, Victor Martins, and Marti, but it was Stanek who lost out on fifth to Martins.
In an aggressive move, Martins jumped up to fifth and set his sights on Marti heading into Lap 6 and attempted to snatch the place at Turn 6.
Martins could not complete the move, so Marti held onto fourth place into heading Turn 8, trying to conserve energy until the mandatory pit stop.
The polesitter Fornaroli reported troubles with his tyre wear and was shortly taken by Dunne for the lead by Turn 1 on Lap 7.
Meanwhile, Villagomez lost two places to Marti and Martins as the duo fought along the starting straight into the first corner.
It was a strong opening stint for Invicta as Stanek climbed up to fifth place after a crucial overtake on Villagomez on Lap 10.
Stanek’s Turn 1 overtake set him up perfectly to target Martins, who was running behind Marti on Lap 11.
The fight for points was kept alive by Jak Crawford, who fought hard around Sami Megateunif for seventh place.
Crawford set his sights on Villagomez shortly after, tailing the Vans Amersfoort driver into the final sector of Lap 11 and through to Lap 12.
Crawford attempted an overtake down the inside of Turn 1 but could not stick the move and remained in seventh.
The first of the mandatory pit stops were taken as the hard-tyre drivers were shockingly the first to consider stopping for a tyre change.
Joshua Durksen entered the pits on Lap 14 and opted for hard tyres, then Stanek, Kush Maini, and Luke Browning followed suit.
The race leader Dunne chose to stay out for another lap, as well as the top five drivers on Lap 15 – Fornaroli, Marti, Crawford, and Megateunif.
The top five were still running on soft tyres at the halfway distance of the Feature Race, but they began to flee into the pits.
Fornaroli and Marti entered the pits at the same time, but it was the Invicta who maintained his track position ahead of Marti.
Dunne entered the pits a lap later with hard tyres, returning to the track in second place in the thick of the battle.
Arvid Lindblad took the lead of the race on Lap 17 after Dunne’s pit exit, but Dunne fought hard against Martins to keep his second place.
The undercut looked to be the stronger strategy as Martins had much warmer tyres than Dunne due to a pit stop one lap earlier.
Dunne inherited the lead on Lap 18 when Lindblad entered the pits but he was under severe pressure from Martins just 1.3s behind.
Browning found himself in fourth place after jumping Marti for the position around Turn 3, he continued this excellent pace into Lap 19 with the fastest lap.
The Williams Junior Driver extended his aggressive climb up to the podium, snatching third place from the polesitter Fornaroli on Lap 21.
Meanwhile, Dunne began to pull away from Martins in second place, leading the pack by 3.7s on Lap 22.
The fastest man on track, Browning, hunted down his fellow Williams Junior Driver Martins through Lap 22 to the first corner of Lap 23.
Browning stuck the move through the first corner and pulled ahead by Turn 2, hoping to cut down Dunne’s five-second lead.
By Lap 27, Dunne led Browning by seven seconds despite Browning being the fastest man on track consistently throughout the race.
Fornaroli suffered behind the top three as he fought hard to reclaim a podium position from Martins, overtaking the ART around Turn 1 on Lap 28.
Martins tailed the polesitter closely through the first sector but failed to snatch his position back and remained chasing the tail of the Invicta.
Martins was then jumped by Marti on the exit of the final corner and fell to fifth place on Lap 29 of the race.
Despite a final-lap scuffle, Fornaroli defended hard and finished in third place behind Dunne and Browning.
Dunne claimed his first victory in Formula 2 while becoming the first Irish driver to do so in the feeder series.
Marti settled for fourth place ahead of Martins and Richard Verschoor, who beat out Dino Beganovic in seventh place.
Lindblad secured an eighth-place finish while Gabriele Mini rounded off the points-scoring positions in tenth.
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