The Carlin driver overtook Jake Hughes on the start-finish straight with just two laps remaining to take his second victory in the series.
The race was much-interrupted, with the safety car emerging for the first time after Amaury Cordeel hit the wall at Turn 12 on the second tour.
The second immediately followed the first, which ended on lap seven. Powering off the final corner, Jack Doohan ran into the back of Logan Sargeant, putting both cars out and prompting the Mercedes AMG GT pace car to return to the circuit immediately.
As this second safety car period commenced, drivers were instructed to head through the pitlane, but the call was immediately reversed with a second message from race control.
But race leader Dennis Hauger - who had started on pole - instead followed the first instruction and fell down the field. His misery was compounded when the Norwegian was handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, which was faced with confusion from his Prema team.
The incident handed the lead to Calan Williams (Trident), although he was immediately passed on the lap 13 restart by Hughes - the Briton having recovered from a slow start to fend off Ayumu Iwasa and Lawson -at Turn 1. Much of the field was reshuffled, as Lawson also passed Williams for second. Hitech Grand Prix driver Juri Vips then demoted Williams a further position into the Turn 27 hairpin.
Lawson took the fastest lap on the 17th tour, shortly before his dramatic pass on Hughes - where the Kiwi blasted past the Van Amersfoort Racing driver to secure the lead.
The virtual safety car was activated with two laps remaining after Marcus Armstrong’s Hitech-run car ground to a halt as he ran in sixth, leaving just one lap of racing before the chequered flag.
Vips then snatched second place from Hughes at the last moment, crossing the finish line just a tenth ahead of the Briton after a last-lap battle following the close of the VSC period.
Feature race poleman Felipe Drugovich took fourth place for MP Motorsport, passing Williams as the virtual safety car ended, with the Australian ending the sprint in fifth.
Richard Verschoor narrowly avoided a collision with Roy Nissany after the latter locked up at Turn 4, almost ending both of their races on lap 1, but the Dutch driver followed his Trident team-mate Williams home in sixth.
Iwasa and Ralph Boschung rounded out the scorers in the top eight, as Jehan Daruvala and Marino Sato completed the top 10.
Hauger finished last of the classified runners following his pitlane faux-pas, 26s behind Campos' Olli Caldwell.
F2 Saudi Arabia sprint race classification - 20 laps
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Liam Lawson |  Carlin | 47'55.487 | |
| 2 |  Jüri Vips | HitechGP | 47'58.653 | 3.166 |
| 3 | Jake Hughes | Van Amersfoort Racing | 47'58.711 | 3.224 |
| 4 |  Felipe Drugovich |  MP Motorsport | 48'00.333 | 4.846 |
| 5 |  Calan Williams |  Trident | 48'01.764 | 6.277 |
| 6 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 48'07.608 | 12.121 |
| 7 | Ayumu Iwasa |  Nissan e.Dams | 48'09.007 | 13.520 |
| 8 |  Ralph Boschung |  Campos Racing | 48'09.941 | 14.454 |
| 9 |  Jehan Daruvala | Prema Powerteam | 48'10.724 | 15.237 |
| 10 | Marino Sato | Virtuosi Racing | 48'11.527 | 16.040 |
| 11 |  Roy Nissany | Nissan e.Dams | 48'12.877 | 17.390 |
| 12 | Enzo Fittipaldi |  Charouz Racing System | 48'12.928 | 17.441 |
| 13 | Clement Novalak | MP Motorsport | 48'14.226 | 18.739 |
| 14 |  Frederik Vesti |  ART Grand Prix | 48'15.785 | 20.298 |
| 15 | Theo Pourchaire | ART Grand Prix | 48'16.056 | 20.569 |
| 16 | Olli Caldwell | Campos Racing | 48'20.982 | 25.495 |
| 17 |  Dennis Hauger | Prema Powerteam | 48'46.982 | 51.495 |
| Marcus Armstrong | HitechGP | 3 laps | ||
 Logan Sargeant | Carlin | 15 laps | ||
| Jack Doohan | Virtuosi Racing | 15 laps | ||
| Amaury Cordeel | Van Amersfoort Racing | 19 laps | ||
| View full results | ||||
