China’s Zhou Guanyu cedes more ground to Formula 2 leader Oscar Piastri after Russian disaster
- A disastrous spin on his way to the starting grid ends Zhou’s sprint race chances
- Finishes sixth in feature race to fall 36 points behind championship leader
Chinese Formula 2 racer Zhou Guanyu endured a horror Russian Grand Prix and now sits 36 points adrift of championship leader, rookie Oscar Piastri of Australia with a potential Formula 1 seat on the line.
Zhou, who began the weekend in Sochi just eight points behind the 20-year-old Melbourne man, added just eight points to his tally courtesy of a sixth place in the feature race on Sunday. He now sits just seven points clear of Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman in third.
The UNI-Virtuosi driver slid off the track and stalled his car on his way to the starting grid in the only sprint race of the weekend ensuring he gained no points from the secondary contest.
“At the first braking point, I knew that everything was cold and that there was only one dry line,” Zhou said, “so I hit the brakes, but when I hit them, I locked the whole rear, and I spun the car around.
“We only had one clutch map and that was set to pull away. I just had to grab whatever one that I was able to grab, and it wasn’t the right one, so I stalled the car. It was unfortunate for the whole team.”
Meanwhile, Piastri took the chequered flag for a second straight feature race after his dominant win in Monza earlier this month and picked up the maximum 29 points. However, he too failed to score any championship points in the sprint contest.
