prema

6th December 20206th December 2020

F2 Sakhir: Daruvala wins as Schumacher crowned champion in tense finale

Jehan Daruvala led a Carlin 1–2 in the Sakhir sprint race for his first win in Formula 2, while Mick Schumacher clinched the 2020 championship in a dramatic final round of the year.

Daruvala initially lost out at the start, as an unsuccessful move for the lead on polesitter Dan Ticktum into Turn 1 shuffled him back to third, with Schumacher benefiting to take second.

But at Turn 4 Schumacher had a major lockup as he tried to take the lead from Ticktum, and Daruvala retook second place as Schumacher got his car back under control.

Mick Schumacher, Prema (Scuderia Ferrari Press Office)

The lockup left Schumacher with a big flat spot on his right front tyre, which put him under pressure from his championship rival Callum Ilott in fourth. Schumacher briefly relieved that pressure by setting the fastest lap to catch and pass Daruvala again with a daring move around the outside of Turn 6. But that only lasted until lap 8 when Daruvala got back ahead once again.

As he struggled with the vibrations from his tyre, Schumacher made several lockups trying to keep Ilott behind. His teammate Robert Shwartzman tried to get involved as a rear gunner by harrying Ilott from fifth, but ultimately neither Prema was able to stop Ilott from breezing past Schumacher on lap 19.

Once Ilott was ahead, Schumacher plummeted through the points positions. He was passed by Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou a few corners later, and spent the rest of the lap defending from Yuki Tsunoda before choosing to risk a pit stop for fresh softs.

With Schumacher coming back out in 20^th, Ilott’s chances of winning the title rested on catching Ticktum and Daruvala to take the race win. But the laps spent trying to get past Schumacher had damaged Ilott’s tyres as well, and he wasn’t able to make any dent in his gap to the front.

Callum Ilott, UNI-Virtuosi (Scuderia Ferrari Press Office)

Meanwhile, Tsunoda started moving through the pack with rapid pace. On lap 24 he took fifth from Shwartzman, then fourth from Zhou a lap later.

On lap 26, Tsunoda caught Ilott and passed him into Turn 1. Ilott then began to drop back as Schumacher had. His teammate Zhou overtook him for fourth through Turn 4, before he was eventually shuffled back through the order and out of the points by Shwartzman, Giuliano Alesi, Luca Ghiotto and Nikita Mazepin.

As Tsunoda was carving his way through the field towards the podium, his teammate Daruvala was hassling Ticktum for the race lead as Ticktum struggled with fading rear tyres.

Daruvala cut the lead down to three tenths as early as lap 13. But despite Daruvala going for an overtake nearly every time the pair went through Turns 1 and 4, Ticktum was able to hold the Carlin behind for another 12 laps.

His defence came undone however with a lock up out of the final corner on lap 25, which allowed Daruvala through before the DRS straight. Daruvala then pounced clear for the remaining 10 laps, while Ticktum eventually fell back into the clutches of Tsunoda and had to settle for third behind the two Carlins.

Dan Ticktum, DAMS (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Zhou finished fourth ahead of Shwartzman, Alesi, Ghiotto and Felipe Drugovich. Schumacher could only improve to 18^th by the chequered flag, but with Ilott unable to get back into the points his championship was assured.

Tsunoda clinched third place in the standings ahead of Shwartzman and Mazepin, securing enough points for his FIA Super Licence and earning him the Anthoine Hubert Award for the highest-placed rookie driver. Carlin also beat Hitech to third in the teams’ standings.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	15
2	Yuki Tsunoda (FL)	Carlin	14
3	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	10
4	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	8
5	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	6
6	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport	4
7	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	2
8	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1
9	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix
10	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
11	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System
12	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix
13	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System
14	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix
15	Roy Nissany	Trident
16	Marino Sato	Trident
17	Sean Gelael	DAMS
18	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing
19	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing
20	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab
21	Theo Pourchaire	BWT HWA Racelab
Ret.	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing

5th December 20205th December 2020

F2 Sakhir: Tsunoda wins as title goes to the final race

Yuki Tsunoda won the feature race on the Sakhir outer loop after a frantic battle at the front of the field, while Callum Ilott and Mick Schumacher finished in the lower points to take the title fight to the final race tomorrow.

Tsunoda started from pole but lost the lead of the race into Turn 1, as he was passed by both Nikita Mazepin and Robert Shwartzman. Jehan Daruvala slipped back off the line, promoting Felipe Drugovich to fourth.

Meanwhile, Guanyu Zhou and Mick Schumacher, both starting on the hard tyres, gained at the start, with the former reaching eighth and the latter moving from P18 to P16. Both drivers then set about making rapid progress past the cars on soft tyres around them throughout the opening laps.

As Zhou reeled in Ilott and Daruvala to move up to sixth, Schumacher picked his way through Louis Deletraz, Roy Nissany, Giuliano Alesi and Theo Pourchaire to get within touching distance of the points by the end of lap 7.

At the front of the field, Tsunoda recovered from his drop at the first corner and retook second place from Shwartzman on lap 13. When Shwartzman and Mazepin then made their stops for hard tyres in the next few laps, Tsunoda stayed out to attempt the overcut and stopped at the end of lap 16.

The strategy seemed to work as Tsunoda emerged from the pits ahead of Mazepin, but his colder tyres meant he was soon passed by both Mazepin and Shwartzman on his out lap.

The overcut strategy was more successful for Drugovich, who stayed out until the end of lap 20 and managed to make up enough time to join Mazepin, Shwartzman and Tsunoda in the fight for the net lead.

With the frontrunners having stopped, the top three positions were assumed by Zhou, Dan Ticktum and Schumacher who were all running the alternative strategy having started on hards. Ticktum was the first of these to pit for softs at the end of lap 26, but Zhou and Schumacher both waited a few laps longer before making their own stops.

Once they were on softs, their pace advantage over the rest of the field on hards was plain to see. Schumacher rejoined the race in P12 but was very quickly up into the points with passes on Deletraz, Artem Markelov, Ticktum and Pedro Piquet, and set the fastest lap in the process.

Zhou meanwhile passed Daruvala and Ilott for the second time in the race to take fifth, and was closing rapidly on the leading quartet of Mazepin, Shwartzman, Tsunoda and Drugovich.

Felipe Drugovich, MP Motorsport (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

As Zhou got closer behind them, Tsunoda took second from Shwartzman on lap 36 and started chipping away at Mazepin’s 1.3 second lead. Tsunoda got Mazepin within DRS range on lap 43, and at the start of the following lap he swung to the inside down the pit straight to make the move. Mazepin ran Tsunoda close to the pit wall to defend, but Tsunoda was through into the lead by Turn 1.

Mazepin then ran wide at the final corner of the lap, allowing Drugovich through for second and putting Mazepin under DRS pressure from Zhou, who had got by Shwartzman for fourth. After repeating the same defence he tried on Tsunoda a lap earlier, Mazepin briefly held his position but lost out to Zhou a few corners later.

Drugovich ran wide on lap 45 and gifted Zhou and Mazepin a position as he dropped to fourth. But the Brazilian regrouped to attack Mazepin for third on the final lap. Mazepin again put up a questionable defence, edging Drugovich towards the pit wall first and then off the road a few corners later, and was able to keep his car ahead.

With Mazepin defending from Drugovich, Zhou was able to pull clear to secure second place behind Tsunoda. Mazepin held on to third ahead of Drugovich, with Shwartzman coming home in fifth.

Guanyu Zhou, UNI-Virtuosi (Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Ilott and Schumacher finished sixth and seventh. With Schumacher taking an extra two points for the fastest lap, the gap between them in the standings remains at 14 points with 17 available in the sprint race. Daruvala will start that sprint race from pole after finishing eighth ahead of Ticktum and Piquet.

Schumacher only has to finish sixth or higher tomorrow to guarantee the title, regardless of Ilott’s position. For Ilott to overhaul his rival he’ll have to either win the race with Schumacher eighth or lower, or take second place and the fastest lap with Schumacher failing to score.

Nevertheless, Schumacher’s points together with Shwartzman’s fifth place was enough for Prema to secure the teams’ championship ahead of UNI-Virtuosi.

UPDATE: Mazepin was given two five-second penalties as well as two penalty points on his licence for forcing Tsunoda onto the pit exit on lap 44 and blocking Drugovich on the pit straight on lap 48. Mazepin drops to ninth in the classification, which promotes Drugovich to the podium.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	25
2	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	18
3	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	15
4	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	12
5	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	10
6	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	10
7	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	6
8	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	4
9	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	2
10	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	1
11	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix
12	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System
13	Artem Markalov	BWT HWA Racelab
14	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing
15	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport
16	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix
17	Marino Sato	Trident
18	Theo Pourchaire	BWT HWA Racelab
19	Sean Gelael	DAMS
20	Roy Nissany	Trident
21	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix
22	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing

1st December 2020

Piastri joins Prema for 2021 F2 debut

Prema Racing have announced that Oscar Piastri will step up to Formula 2 with the Italian team next year.

Renault junior Piastri had been set to graduate to F2 after winning the Formula 3 title with Prema earlier this year, beating rivals Theo Pourchaire and Logan Sargeant in the final race at Mugello.

It is expected that Piastri will take the place of Prema’s current driver and F2 championship leader Mick Schumacher, who is widely reported to be joining the Haas F1 team for 2021.

Piastri will also take place in the post-season F2 test in Bahrain next week.

Oscar Piastri, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)

“I’m super excited to be racing with Prema in the FIA Formula 2 championship,” Piastri said. “We had a very successful 2020 season, winning the Formula 3 championship together, and I’m hoping for another successful year with them.

“Prema has proven to be the team to beat once again in F2 this year, so I’m extremely happy to be moving into the championship with them.”

Prema team principal René Rosin said: “We are delighted to welcome Oscar to our FIA Formula 2 team. Having witnessed his progress and success throughout the 2020 season, taking our relationship to the next step for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship felt like the natural thing to do and we look forward to having him on track right from Bahrain.”

Prema has yet to announce whether Schumacher’s current teammate Robert Shwartzman, who sits fourth in the F2 standings with four wins, will remain alongside Piastri for next year.

30th November 2020

F2 Sakhir preview: title showdown on the outer loop

Formula 2 takes to the outer loop of the Bahrain International Circuit this weekend for the final round of the season, and the title showdown between Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilott.

Last weekend’s racing on the traditional Bahrain circuit saw a mixed weekend for the two title protagonists. At first Ilott looked to be doing everything he needed to keep his championship hopes alive, by qualifying on pole and finishing second in the feature race. But in the sprint race a collision with Jehan Daruvala saw him finish outside the points.

However, Schumacher wasn’t able to take full advantage of Ilott’s crash and deal a crushing late blow to his rival’s hopes. While he put in a great damage limitation drive to fourth in the feature race, Schumacher struggled to keep his tyres alive on Sunday and slipped backwards, eventually taking home only two points for seventh.

As a result, the gap between Schumacher and Ilott has narrowed to just 14 points with 48 still available. The good news for Schumacher is that if he can still clinch the title on Saturday if he outscores Ilott by four points.

Winning the feature race would be enough regardless of where Ilott finishes, but if Ilott finds himself outside the points again then Schumacher can afford to finish as low as eighth and still be crowed champion before the sprint race.

As for Ilott, he just has to pick up as many points ahead of Schumacher as he can. Four points for another pole would be a great way to start, but he’ll have to convert that to a top three result at least—something Ilott has only managed twice from five pole starts so far this year.

While Schumacher and Ilott fight it out for the F2 title, Yuki Tsunoda will be returning to Bahrain with a point to prove.

Last weekend he entered the event third in the drivers’ standings and with the pace throughout practice to be a definite contender. But a spin in qualifying that left him at the back of the grid for Saturday, then a puncture on the first lap of the sprint race, meant that potential went unrealised.

The Sakhir finale has now become a crucial event for Tsunoda’s hopes of graduating to F1 next year. He might be only five points adrift of Nikita Mazepin in third, but Tsunoda is also only eight points ahead of Christian Lundgaard in sixth, meaning another unlucky weekend could cost him the super licence points he needs.

It’s a different story, however, for Tsunoda’s Carlin teammate Daruvala. The Red Bull junior had a breakthrough weekend with his maiden podium in the feature race, followed by a strong performance in the sprint race before he was hit by Ilott.

After a difficult debut year that’s seen great qualifying pace often go unrewarded on race day, Daruvala will be aiming to build on this momentum and end his season on a high note.

Carlin will also be hoping Tsunoda and Daruvala return some strong results for the team as well as themselves. The British outfit is currently fourth in the teams’ standings with just seven points keeping them ahead of ART.

Jehan Daruvala, Carlin (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

29th November 2020

F2 Bahrain: Shwartzman wins sprint race as Ilott crashes out of points

Robert Shwartzman took his fourth win of the season and first since Spa in the Bahrain sprint race, while Callum Ilott’s championship hopes took a big hit after a collision with Jehan Daruvala.

Shwartzman got a clean launch from reverse grid pole to hold the lead from Yuki Tsunoda, who jumped Marcus Armstrong for second off the line. Nikita Mazepin was slow away, allowing Daruvala and Mick Schumacher to take fourth and fifth respectively.

Tsunoda had strong pace to pressure Shwartzman through the opening sequence of corners, but before the end of the lap the Carlin driver picked up a right rear puncture and was forced to pit.

Without Tsunoda to defend from, Shwartzman was able to start putting in fastest laps and pull out a gap over Armstrong. Further back, Mazepin recovered from his slow start by taking fourth from Schumacher on lap 4, then demoting Daruvala off the podium a lap later.

Dan Istitene / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Shwartzman had a gap of almost three seconds over Armstrong at the start of lap 6. But this was wiped out when Theo Pourchaire stopped on track after his fire extinguisher went off in the cockpit, and the safety car was deployed.

The race restarted on lap 7, with Mazepin putting immediate pressure on Armstrong and Schumacher battling to hold fifth over title rival Ilott.

Schumacher had a big lockup going into Turn 10 and looked to be heading off the track. Ilott took advantage of the error by diving to the inside of his rival, but ended up locking his own tyres and spearing into Daruvala ahead.

Daruvala retired on the spot while Ilott tumbled out of the points with damage to his front wing and nose. Schumacher managed to get away without any contact, although he lost position to Pedro Piquet, who navigated the incident to emerge in fourth before the virtual safety car was called.

When the VSC was withdrawn on lap 9 Armstrong reacted well to put pressure on Shwartzman, but was unable to make a move for the lead stick. Armstrong ended up losing second instead to Mazepin after locking up at T1, then was passed for third by Piquet on lap 12.

But although Mazepin had much more pace than Piquet and Armstrong behind him, he didn’t have enough to make any impact on Shwartzman’s lead. Having been able to conserve his tyres out front while Mazepin hurt his fighting through the field, Shwartzman continued to pull away over the second half of the race and took the chequered flag with five seconds in hand over Mazepin.

Nikita Mazepin (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Behind the podium battles Schumacher was running in fifth but didn’t have the tyre life to take any more advantage of Ilott dropping out of the points. On lap 15 he was dropped to sixth by Guanyu Zhou, then immediately came under fire from Christian Lundgaard.

Schumacher got some brief respite on lap 17 when an unsuccessful move from Lundgaard at Turn 4 left the Dane instead defending from Felipe Drugovich in eighth. But shortly after the trio were caught by Louis Deletraz, who had taken the chance to pit under the earlier safety car and had the advantage of much fresher tyres.

Over the next five laps, Deletraz picked off Drugovich, Lundgaard, Schumacher, Zhou and Armstrong to run fourth behind his Charouz teammate Piquet. This then became third on lap 22, when Piquet pulled to the side of the road with a mechanical problem.

Armstrong managed to hold on to fourth ahead of Zhou, while Lundgaard pipped Schumacher for sixth on the final lap and Drugovich took the final point in eighth.

Shwartzman’s win means the Russian moves to fourth in the championship and is still mathematically in contention for the title. With Ilott failing to score, Schumacher now has a 14-point lead over his nearest rival going into the final round next week.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	15
2	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	12
3	Louis Deletraz (FL)	Charouz Racing System	12
4	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	8
5	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	6
6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	4
7	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	2
8	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1
9	Roy Nissany	Trident
10	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab
11	Marino Sato	Trident
12	Dan Ticktum	DAMS
13	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport
14	Sean Gelael	DAMS
15	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin
16	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
Ret.	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing
Ret.	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing
Ret.	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System
Ret.	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix
Ret.	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin
Ret.	Theo Pourchaire	BWT HWA Racelab

28th November 2020

F2 Bahrain: Drugovich wins feature race, Schumacher holds title lead

Felipe Drugovich took his third win of the Formula 2 season in the Bahrain feature race, while Mick Schumacher recovered from tenth to fourth to keep his title lead ahead of Callum Ilott.

The feature race had looked like a chance for Ilott to retake the title lead as he qualified on pole with Schumacher down in tenth. But when the lights went out Ilott was passed for the lead by Drugovich from second, while Schumacher jumped up to fourth.

Meanwhile, Dan Ticktum had a slow getaway from third and dropped back to eighth, and Yuki Tsunoda got up to 16^th from his back of the grid start.

Across the opening laps Ilott then struggled for pace on his medium tyres. On lap eight he was passed by Marcus Armstrong for second, before Schumacher on hard tyres passed Ilott for third a lap later. Schumacher then improved to second by the end of the lap, when Armstrong locked up and ran wide at Turn 11.

Callum Ilott, UNI-Virtuosi (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

Ilott pitted to swap his mediums for hards on lap 12, but a slow front left meant he came out in 17^th. However, by pitting earlier than Drugovich, who stopped on lap 15, Ilott was able to get the undercut advantage and take the net lead on Drugovich’s first lap out of the pits.

Schumacher led the race until his own pit stop on lap 19, where he swapped from his starting set of hards to new mediums. Prior to his stop Schumacher had been losing several seconds a lap to his rivals on fresh hard tyres, and as a result he lost ground in the pits, rejoining in sixth behind Jehan Daruvala, Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman.

On lap 20 Drugovich came back at Ilott, retaking the lead of the race and beginning to open a gap of several seconds once ahead. Meanwhile, Schumacher started coming back through from sixth on his faster mediums, passing Shwartzman on lap 21 and Armstrong on lap 23.

With five laps to go Schumacher caught Daruvala for the final podium position. But despite having the pace advantage on the medium tyre, Schumacher couldn’t find a way past Daruvala’s defence. In the end Schumacher ran out of grip, and Daruvala was able to hold on to third behind Ilott for his first F2 podium.

Jehan Daruvala, Carlin (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Schumacher finished fourth ahead of Nikita Mazepin, while Tsunoda came sixth with the fastest lap.

Tsunoda had made steady progress through the field after his rapid start, and by lap 26 was into the points with a pass on Sean Gelael. The Carlin driver then picked off more positions over the closing laps with the help of his fresh medium tyres, passing Luca Ghiotto, Ticktum, Shwartzman and Armstrong before the flag.

Armstrong, Shwartzman and Ticktum finished seventh, eighth and ninth, and Jack Aitken took the final point with a last-lap pass on Ghiotto.

Full race result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Points
1	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	25
2	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	18
3	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	15
4	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	12
5	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	10
6	Yuki Tsunoda (FL)	Carlin	10
7	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	6
8	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	4
9	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	2
10	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1
11	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System
12	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix
13	Sean Gelael	DAMS
14	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
15	Roy Nissany	Trident
16	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System
17	Giuliano Alesi	MP Motorsport
18	Theo Pourchaire	BWT HWA Racelab
19	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix
20	Marino Sato	Trident
21	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing
22	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab

Feature image by Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images, courtesy of FIA Formula 2

23rd November 2020

F2 Bahrain preview: title in Schumacher’s grasp

Formula 2 returns to the track this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit for the penultimate round of the 2020 championship.

It’s been a while since September 27^th, when we last saw F2 action at the Sochi Autodrom. Guanyu Zhou left Russia an F2 winner at last, having taken victory from Nikita Mazepin in the curtailed sprint race, but it was championship leader Mick Schumacher who made the most of the weekend.

After taking his second win of the season in the feature race, Schumacher came back through the field on Sunday to finish third on the sprint race podium as well. As a result, Schumacher comes to Bahrain with a healthy 22-point lead over his nearest rival Callum Ilott.

In fact, Schumacher could wrap up the title this weekend, perhaps even as early as the feature race. With two rounds remaining, Schumacher would have to outscore Callum Ilott by 26 points across the weekend—a feature race win with either pole or the fastest lap would do it.

But although Schumacher has one hand on the championship trophy, the margin between him and Ilott is still close enough that it wouldn’t take much for the tables to turn. All Ilott needs is a pair of strong results and some bad luck for Schumacher, and we could be looking at a very different picture for next weekend’s Sakhir finale.

As ever in F2, there plenty more tight championship battles right through the field than just the one at the front.

Yuki Tsunoda is currently third in the championship but only seven points separate him from Mazepin in sixth. With Red Bull open about wanting Tsunoda to race in F1 with AlphaTauri next year, he’ll be wanting to open that gap a little more to make sure he scores the necessary super licence points.

Tsunoda’s Carlin team didn’t have the most competitive outing in Bahrain last year, with Louis Deletraz’s pair of fifth places their best result. However, the British team does know how to prepare a good car for the circuit, as was seen by Lando Norris and Sergio Sette Camara scoring a win and two podiums respectively in 2018.

Further back again, Felipe Drugovich will be one to keep an eye on this weekend. The Brazilian has been one of the surprise stars of the season, taking two sprint race wins and a pole at Silverstone, and he’ll be well aware that any more great results this weekend will be a big help as he looks for a 2021 seat further up the grid.

Finally, Bahrain will see Formula 3 driver Theo Pourchaire make his F2 debut with HWA. Pourchaire, who finished runner-up in this year’s F3 championship, will take over the #17 HWA from Jake Hughes, who raced at the last round in Sochi following Giuliano Alesis’s mid-season switch to MP Motorsport.

Alesi will continue with MP Motorsport this weekend, despite reports earlier this month that he was in danger of losing his seat and backing from the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Theo Pourchaire, ART F3 (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

28th October 20209th November 2020

F3: Doohan tops final post-season test

Trident’s Jack Doohan set the fastest time in Formula 3’s final post-season test at Jerez, ahead of teammate Clement Novalak.

Doohan set his best time of a 1:29.041s during his qualifying simulations in the morning session. This session was interrupted multiple times with red flags brought out for Alessandro Famularo (Campos), Olli Caldwell (ART), Francesco Pizzi (MP Motorsport) and Jonathan Hoggard (Campos), but Doohan was still able to log a respectable 42 laps in between the stoppages.

Novalak came close to Doohan in the sister Trident, but was ultimately kept off the top of the timesheets by just 0.019s. However, Novalak recorded more laps than his teammate with 45 in the morning session, and a day’s total of 101 to Doohan’s 92.

Jenzer’s Calan Williams had another strong day of testing as he again finished the day third-fastest. Williams was also second-fastest in the second session, with his 1:30.238s being only 0.14s slower than afternoon pacesetter Igor Fraga.

Igor Fraga, Hitech (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Hitech rookie Jak Crawford was fourth-fastest overall ahead of Charouz’s David Beckmann. Dennis Hauger (Prema) and Caio Collet (ART) were early pacesetters before Doohan’s run, but ended the day sixth and seventh respectively.

Hoggard was eighth fastest despite ending the morning session early with his spin into the gravel at Turn 5. Arthur Leclerc (Prema) and Enzo Fittipaldi (HWA) were ninth and tenth.

Leclerc logged the fewest laps of the day with 60, while Charouz rookie Konsta Lappalainen recorded the most with 103, despite finishing 28th in the overall times.

Overall classification:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time (best)	Laps (total)
1	Jack Doohan	Trident	1:29.041	92
2	Clement Novalak	Trident	1:29.060	101
3	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	1:29.328	77
4	Jak Crawford (R)	Hitech Grand Prix	1:29.336	97
5	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	1:29.350	61
6	Dennis Hauger	Prema Racing	1:29.361	64
7	Caio Collet (R)	ART Grand Prix	1:29.461	93
8	Jonathan Hoggard (R)	Campos Racing	1:29.514	68
9	Arthur Leclerc (R)	Prema Racing	1:29.516	60
10	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab	1:29.558	90
11	Igor Fraga	Hitech Grand Prix	1:29.622	102
12	Pierre-Louis Chovet	HWA Racelab	1:29.628	88
13	David Schumacher	Trident	1:29.674	75
14	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1:29.698	90
15	Olli Caldwell	ART Grand Prix	1:29.705	86
16	Matteo Nannini	Hitech Grand Prix	1:29.718	92
17	David Vidales (R)	Campos Racing	1:29.728	87
18	Bent Viscaal	MP Motorsport	1:29.833	72
19	Cameron Das	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:29.917	72
20	Jonny Edgar (R)	MP Motorsport	1:30.099	86
21	Oliver Rasmussen (R)	Prema Racing	1:30.135	61
22	Reshad de Gerus (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:30.285	87
23	Nazim Azman (R)	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:30.310	82
24	Ido Cohen (R)	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:30.410	80
25	Sophia Floersch	HWA Racelab	1:30.590	89
26	Francesco Pizzi (R)	MP Motorsport	1:30.634	75
27	Rafael Villagomez (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:30.744	65
28	Konsta Lappalainen (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:30.924	103
29	Filip Ugran (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:30.960	75
30	Alessandro Famularo (R)	Campos Racing	1:31.082	64

27th October 202013th November 2020

F3 testing: Stanek leads Leclerc in Jerez

Roman Stanek topped the first day of Formula 3’s final post-season test at Jerez, pipping Prema’s Arthur Leclerc by 0.048s.

Stanek, driving for ART after testing for Prema himself in Barcelona, bucked the trend of the first post-season test by setting his best and the overall fastest time in the afternoon session. The Czech driver was only 11^th in the morning session, but in the afternoon he was one of only two drivers to dip below 1:30s with a 1:29.928s.

Leclerc was the other driver to do so with a 1:29.976s. Jonathan Hoggard, driving for Hitech, picked up his impressive display from the first test by finishing the day third-fastest, just 0.086s off Stanek’s benchmark.

Jack Doohan, returning with Trident, finished fourth overall after topping the morning session. Dennis Hauger was fifth for Prema and second behind Doohan in the morning.

Enzo Fittipaldi (HWA), Clement Novalak (Trident), Igor Fraga (Hitech), Frederik Vesti (ART) and rookie Caio Collet (Prema) rounded out the top ten.

Jack Doohan, Trident (Joe Portlock / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Overall classification:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time (best)	Laps (total)
1	Roman Stanek	ART Grand Prix	1:29.928	67
2	Arthur Leclerc (R)	Prema Racing	1:29.976	60
3	Jonathan Hoggard (R)	Hitech Grand Prix	1:30.014	67
4	Jack Doohan	Trident	1:30.161	54
5	Dennis Hauger	Prema Racing	1:30.199	57
6	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab	1:30.202	63
7	Clement Novalak	Trident	1:30.222	60
8	Igor Fraga	Hitech Grand Prix	1:30.297	67
9	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1:30.338	70
10	Caio Collet (R)	Prema Racing	1:30.356	61
11	David Schumacher	Trident	1:30.431	74
12	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	1:30.462	42
13	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	1:30.473	65
14	Olli Caldwell	ART Grand Prix	1:30.540	69
15	David Vidales (R)	Campos Racing	1:30.541	67
16	Matteo Nannini	MP Motorsport	1:30.566	63
17	Oliver Rasmussen (R)	HWA Racelab	1:30.576	84
18	Pierre-Louis Chovet	HWA Racelab	1:30.585	89
19	Jak Crawford (R)	Hitech Grand Prix	1:30.688	62
20	Cameron Das	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:30.696	54
21	Jonny Edgar	MP Motorsport	1:30.748	62
22	Nazim Azman (R)	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:30.927	65
23	Ido Cohen (R)	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:31.151	62
24	Peter Ptacek (R)	Campos Racing	1:31.159	71
25	Francesco Pizzi (R)	MP Motorsport	1:31.255	66
26	Reshad de Gerus (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:31.363	43
27	Alessandro Famularo (R)	Campos Racing	1:31.390	68
28	Rafael Villagomez (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:31.454	68
29	Filip Ugran (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:31.870	68
30	Konsta Lappalainen (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:32.037	68

6th October 202013th November 2020

F3: Novalak leads Trident 1–2 in post-season test

Clement Novalak ended the second day of Formula 3 testing in Barcelona on top of the timesheets, with Trident teammate Jack Doohan in second.

Novalak was on the pace throughout the morning session. Hitech’s Igor Fraga set the initial pace with a 1:33.033s, but this was swiftly beaten by Novalak. The Trident driver was briefly deposed by Matteo Nannini, driving from ART after topping yesterday’s test with Campos, but by the end of the session Novalak was back on top with a benchmark of 1:31.989s.

Nannini stayed in second until late in the session, when Doohan put in a 1:32.147s to drop Nannini to third ahead of Fraga. Doohan also recorded the most laps of the day with 91.

Jonathan Hoggard, Jenzer (David Ramos / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Jenzer rookie Jonathan Hoggard impressed by ending the day fifth-fastest ahead of ART’s Olli Caldwell, and then topping the afternoon session which focused on race simulations.

Renault junior Victor Martins made it all three ARTs in the top seven, while Dennis Hauger (Prema), Calan Williams (Jenzer) and David Schumacher (Trident) rounded out the top ten.

Hauger was the only Prema driver in the top ten in the morning session, with Roman Stanek P17 and Arthur Leclerc P22. However, the reigning champions had a much stronger afternoon with Stanek and Hauger second and third behind Hoggard, and Leclerc fifth behind Fraga.

Overall classification:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time (best)	Laps (total)
1	Clement Novalak	Trident	1:31.989	80
2	Jack Doohan	Trident	1:32.147	73
3	Matteo Nannini	ART Grand Prix	1:32.252	91
4	Igor Fraga	Hitech Grand Prix	1:32.290	86
5	Jonathan Hoggard (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:32.328	73
6	Olli Caldwell	ART Grand Prix	1:32.332	77
7	Victor Martins (R)	ART Grand Prix	1:32.457	85
8	Dennis Hauger	Prema Racing	1:32.472	67
9	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	1:32.478	61
10	David Schumacher	Trident	1:32.549	81
11	Enzo Fittipaldi	HWA Racelab	1:32.575	84
12	Ben Barnicoat	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:32.596	71
13	Jak Crawford (R)	Hitech Grand Prix	1:32.599	77
14	Caio Collet (R)	MP Motorsport	1:32.665	85
15	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Hitech Grand Prix	1:32.784	85
16	Jonny Edgar (R)	MP Motorsport	1:32.878	78
17	Roman Stanek	Prema Racing	1:32.930	69
18	Michael Belov	Charouz Racing System	1:33.056	65
19	William Alatalo (R)	Campos Racing	1:33.079	79
20	Amaury Cordeel (R)	MP Motorsport	1:33.087	77
21	Sophia Floersch	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:33.092	71
22	Arthur Leclerc (R)	Prema Racing	1:33.169	71
23	Patrik Pasma (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:33.219	77
24	Ido Cohen (R)	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:33.240	68
25	Alessandro Famularo (R)	Campos	1:33.251	65
26	Oliver Rasmussen (R)	HWA Racelab	1:33.339	68
27	Filip Ugran (R)	Jenzer Motorsport	1:33.837	57
28	Rafael Villagomez (R)	Campos Racing	1:33.840	79
29	Tijmen van der Helme (R)	HWA Racelab	1:33.947	77
30	Josef Knopp (R)	Charouz Racing System	1:34.604	78