WATCH: Alpine F1 Hopeful Zhou Loses F2 Championship Lead After Spinning Out at Silverstone

F2 championship leader Guanyu Zhou had a shocking start to his Sprint race at the British Grand Prix. The Alpine junior got a bit throttle-happy as he spun on his own before the first DRS straight at Silverstone.

The spin proved costly as he retired out of the race on the opening lap. The result meant that Zhou could not add points to his championship tally and fell down to third behind Piastri and Schwartzman.

Zhou will look to bounce back in the feature race to salvage his weekend and try to keep himself in the championship fight.

WATCH STORY: What Are Sprint Races & Where Will They Be Held?

Robert Schwartzman wins the F2 sprint race to take the championship lead from the Alpine junior

The Russian driver took the lead the start from Christian Lundgaard after starting from P3. Robert calmly executed the Safety Car restarts to finish ahead of Juri Vips and reverse pole-sitter Lundgaard.

Felipe Drugovich finished fourth, ahead of ART driver Theo Pourchaire. While the Alpine academy driver Guanyu Zhou retired from the race, fellow academy member Oscar Piastri finished the race in the sixth position. Piastri has also moved ahead of Zhou in the F2 standings.

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Will the sprint qualifying format work in Formula One?

As reported by racefans, F1 is introducing sprint qualifying at the British Grand Prix to attract more audiences and hopefully closer racing. After the Friday Qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton secured the fastest lap to start on the front position at the sprint qualifying.

But the Mercedes driver expects the event to be boring and uneventful. “It will just be a train, probably,” said the 7-time world champion.

“Hopefully, there will be some overtaking, but most likely it won’t be too exciting.”

The race winner of sprint qualifying would start from P1 for Sunday’s race. The format has thrown a spanner in the preparations for the team as they would go into the race with limited data about the car.

Can the sprint qualifying live up to its hype? Let us know.