Liam Lawson won an incredibly chaotic Sprint Race in Saudi Arabia delivering a mature drive to take the championship lead.

Jüri Vips snatched second from British driver Jake Hughes on the line for Hitech.

Hughes scored brilliant third place during the first race of the weekend handing Van Amersfoort Racing their first podium in FIA Formula 2.

Dennis Hauger made a perfect start from pole position leading into Turn 1 ahead of Calan Williams.

British driver Hughes suffered a poor getaway dropping from second to P4 behind Williams and Ayumu Iwasa.

Vips stormed past Ralph Boschung for P7 in an extremely brave move making amends after losing two places at the start.

Hughes and sneaked past Iwasa at the end of Lap 1 using all the extra grip of his soft tyres over his rivals mediums.

Van Amersfoort Racing driver Amaury Cordeel crashed two laps into the race bringing out the Safety Car compounding a poor start to the weekend for the Belgian.

Théo Pourchaire and Jack Doohan found themselves near the back of the field after incredibly frustrating qualifying sessions.

Hauger streaked clear of Williams at the Safety Car restart keeping the lead of the race.

Lawson lunged past his fellowed Red Bull junior Iwasa at Turn 1 snatching fourth place.

A second Safety Car was required after Logan Sargeant and Jack Doohan collided at the restart.

Doohan collected the Carlin driver at he back of the field which obstructed the pit lane entry.

Hauger went through the pit lane under the Safety Car amongst a communication breakdown which dropped the PREMA driver to P12 behind his team mate Jehan Daruvala.

The Danish driver was handed a 10 second Stop/Go penalty for entering the pits when they were closed. 

This was absolute heartbreak for the reigning FIA F3 Champion who performed admirably in the opening stages of the race.

Williams took the lead ahead of Hughes and Lawson in what had been an incredibly tumultuous race.

As the laps ticked down under the Safety Car Hughes found himself in a very strong position on the soft tyres with the race leader Williams on mediums.

The Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 13 after an ultra-long Safety Car period. Williams crept all the way up to the start-finish line minimising the length of the pit straight.

Hughes stormed into the lead at Turn 1 sweeping around the outside of Williams who dropped to P3 in a poor restart for the Australian.

The 27-year-old took full advantage of a superb slipstream and immediately built a one-second advantage.

Both Hitech’s of Vips and Marcus Armstrong attacked Iwasa for P4 with Vips getting past the DAMS driver on Lap 15.

Lawson got past Williams for second place and began closing the gap to the race leader. The Kiwi quickly got within DRS range as Hughes’ tyres began to lose grip.

The Carlin driver waltzed past with just three laps to go in an easy move at Turn 1.

Vips continued his charge through the field with a textbook overtake on Williams for third place adding more critical points to his tally.

Armstrong spun his Hitech at Turn 16 in the closing stages of the race which brought out the Virtual Safety Car.

The VSC ended on the final lap with Felipe Drugovich hassling Williams for fourth place. The Brazilian got past his rival at Turn 1 as the Trident driver had minimal grip left to fight with.

Vips pipped Hughes to second place in a drag race to the line grabbing second place by a tenth of a second.

Lawson took victory in an incredibly chaotic race with Vips second and Hughes third.

Drugovich will start Sunday’s Feature Race from pole position for MP Motorsport with Dutchman Richard Verschoor alongside him.