F2 Jeddah: Piastri wins red-flagged shortened feature race

The Australian was declared the winner of a shortened 20-minute race staged after the original race was red-flagged following a frightening startline shunt, where the stalled Theo Pourchaire was collected by the unsighted Enzo Fittipaldi.

Both drivers were conscious and extricated from the cars before being transferred to the King Fahad Armed Forced hospital in Jeddah.

This was the second delay to the start of the race after marshals were required to repair the track barriers caused by an earlier support race.

As a result of the delays, half points were awarded with Piastri claiming the win to extend his championship lead.

Prema Racing team-mate Robert Shwartzman finished second while Ralph Boschung netted third place.

Piastri led the field on the rolling start down to Turn 1 with team-mate Shwartzman in pursuit, while Boschung held third ahead of Zhou.

The leader wasted little time in establishing a 1.2s lead over his team-mate in the opening quarter of the race.

Behind, Zhou attempted to pass Boschung but the latter put up a strong defence which resulted in an investigation from the stewards.

However, racing was short-lived as a crash, involving F2 debutant Caldwell and Samaia initially drew the safety car, to trigger leader Piastri, third-placed Boschung, Zhou in fourth and Juri Vips into the pits.

Moments later race control issued the red flags signalling the end of the race.

In this circumstance, Piastri was declared the winner on the countback rule, finishing ahead of Shwartzman with Boschung third.

Zhou claimed fourth in front of team-mate Felipe Drugovich, Vips, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson and Dan Ticktum rounded out the points scorers.

The F2 championship will conclude at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next weekend.