Background The race saw the introduction of a brand new chassis to replace the
Dallara GP2/11 which had been used since
2011 when the series was known as the
GP2 Series. The new car, the
Dallara F2 2018, features substantial technical revisions to its design, making it similar to the current Formula One cars. It features the
"halo" cockpit protection device for driver head protection and is also powered by a brand new engine, a 3.4 litre (207 cu in) single-turbocharged
V6 engine developed by
Mecachrome. This was brought in as a replacement for the 4.0 litre (244 cu in)
naturally aspirated V8 engine which was used since the GP2 Series began back in
2005. Driver changes for this season saw reigning champion
Charles Leclerc join
Formula One with the
Alfa Romeo Sauber team, replacing
Pascal Wehrlein. His teammate from
Prema Racing last year,
Antonio Fuoco, joined the new
Charouz Racing System team, joining
Louis Delétraz, who joined the team after racing with
Racing Engineering and
Rapax in . Reigning teams' champions
Russian Time signed Japanese driver
Tadasuke Makino to partner
Artem Markelov.
Luca Ghiotto, who raced for Russian Time in 2017, joined
Campos Racing.
DAMS signed
Alexander Albon to replace
Oliver Rowland,
Prema Racing brought in
Sean Gelael and
Nyck de Vries, and
MP Motorsport signed
Roberto Merhi and
Ralph Boschung, who were also teammates at Campos at the Catalunya round in 2017. Other débutants this season were
Roy Nissany, son of
Chanoch Nissany, who joined Campos,
Maximilian Günther and
Nirei Fukuzumi, who both moved up from the
FIA Formula 3 European Championship and
GP3 Series respectively with
BWT Arden,
Arjun Maini, who also graduated from the GP3 Series, joined
Trident, partnering
Santino Ferrucci.
ART Grand Prix promoted
Jack Aitken and reigning GP3 Series champion
George Russell to their F2 team, and
Lando Norris began his first full season with
Carlin.
Qualifying Two Formula 2 full-time rookies
Lando Norris and
George Russell occupied the front row of the grid. While the second row was locked by more experienced
Alexander Albon and
Nyck de Vries.
Feature race After starting from pole Lando Norris dominated the race, finishing ahead of his teammate
Sérgio Sette Câmara with almost seven second margin. Sette Câmara defended his runner-up spot on the podium after pressure in the final laps from
Russian Time driver
Artem Markelov, who was forced to start from pitlane after stalling on the grid. Alexander Albon finished ahead of Russell, who was the highest-placed driver without previous Formula 2 starts. The Prema pairing of Nyck de Vries and
Sean Gelael finished behind Russell. Rookie
Maximilian Günther finished eighth and subsequently started from pole in the sprint race. Russell's teammate and another rookie driver
Jack Aitken finished ninth.
Ralph Boschung completed the top-ten.
Nicholas Latifi,
Luca Ghiotto,
Louis Delétraz and
Santino Ferrucci were unable to use their experience to score points.
Arjun Maini and
Roy Nissany finished 15th and 16th on their F2 race debut.
Antonio Fuoco finished ahead of the pair of the Japanese rookies
Nirei Fukuzumi and
Tadasuke Makino, who were the last finished drivers. Like Markelov,
Roberto Merhi stalled on the grid, but was unable to start the race from pit lane.
Sprint race Artem Markelov took his first victory of the season with
Maximilian Günther second,
Sérgio Sette Câmara rounding out the podium in third and
Lando Norris fourth. The final points places went to
Nyck de Vries, who also set the fastest lap,
Luca Ghiotto,
Ralph Boschung, and
Nirei Fukuzumi scored his first points with 8th. All drivers finished in this race, with
Santino Ferrucci the last finisher in 20th place. ==Classification==