A chaotic sprint race in Qatar sees Ollie Bearman take victory!

Photo credits: Autosport

Sprint Race summary 

A top ten reversal for the sprint meant that Bearman was starting on pole alongside championship contender Isack Hadjar.

Most of the drivers had chosen to  start on the hard compound with only a handful deciding to start with the mediums, one of those drivers being Hadjar. 

Bearman had a good start, maintaining first place into turn one while Hadjar followed close behind. Victor Martins had an incredible start and had managed to gain four positions, moving from P7 up to P3. 

By lap 2, Hadjar was right on the rear of Bearman and managed to make the move down the inside at turn 10. Martins remained in third, but was being put under lots of pressure from Jak Crawford. Behind him was Verschoor, Aron, Goethe and Bortoleto. 

A few laps later, MP driver Oliver Goethe began to slow down as smoke began to come out from the engine. The issue and the cause of it are unknown. Due to this incident, the virtual safety car was brought out as Goethe remained on track waiting to be recovered. 

The green flag waved a couple laps later and racing resumed. The drivers using the medium compound began to struggle due to the high degradation. 

Martins who was still in P3 had created a large DRS train which ran all the way down to Kimi Antonelli in P12. 

At lap 11, Bearman was closing the gap between himself and Hadjar who was finding it difficult on his medium tyres. By lap 15, the gap was now under a second which allowed Bearman to begin using DRS down the main straight giving him more opportunities to try and retake the lead. 

With only six laps to go, Crawford finally manages to get past Martins by using his DRS advantage down the main straight. Verschoor, Aron and Bortoleto closely followed in overtaking Martins as the French driver struggled. 

Three laps left to go and Bearman continued to put pressure on Hadjar. A small mistake from Hadjar however gave Bearman the advantage going into the main straight allowing him to overtake him at turn one, the British driver now retaking the lead of the race. 

Not long after Bearman took the lead of the race, Hadjar dropped to fourth due to a spin at turn 3 which cost him vital points for the championship. Bearman's teammate Antonelli also had a collision with Kush Maini at turn one, meaning that both drivers were now pulled over on the side of the track and out of the race. 

Due to this collision, an on track safety car was brought out and led the drivers all the way to the end of the race meaning that Bearman finished first followed by Crawford and Verschoor. 

Sprint Race results

1) Oliver Bearman 
2) Jak Crawford / + 0.2 
3) Richard Verschoor / + 0.5
4) Isack Hadjar / + 0.9
5) Paul Aron / + 1.0 
6) Gabriel Bortoleto / + 1.2
7) Ritomo Miyata / + 1.5
8) Zane Maloney / + 1.7
9) Joshua Durksen / + 1.9
10) Victor Martins / + 2.8
11) Dino Beganovic / + 3.2
12) Luke Browning / + 3.5
13) John Bennett / + 4.1
14) Max Esterson / + 4.7
15) Christian Mansell / + 5.3
16) Amaury Cordeel / + 6.0
17) Rafael Villagomez / + 6.5
18) Cian Shields / + 6.9
19) Kimi Antonelli / DNF
20) Kush Maini / DNF
21) Oliver Goethe / DNF
22) Pepe Marti / DNF

Written by Kelsie Jayes