uni-virtuosi

19th May 202120th May 2021

F2 Monaco preview: can Zhou extend his championship lead?

Formula 2 will take to the streets of Monaco this weekend, as the second round of the 2021 championship gets underway.

This weekend, the action will run from Thursday to Saturday rather than Friday to Sunday. Instead of both sprint races taking place on Saturday, the first will be at midday local time on Friday and the second at 8:20am on Saturday, with the feature race then at 17:15 on Saturday evening.

Alpine vs Red Bull

Guanyu Zhou, UNI-Virtuosi (Clive Mason, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 2)

The opening round of the season left us with a fascinating picture of the Alpine and Red Bull junior stables battling it out at the top of the standings.

Alpine came away with the upper hand, with Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou taking two of the three wins in Bahrain and Zhou leading the championship.

But Red Bull’s juniors aren’t far behind, as Liam Lawson sits just 11 points behind Zhou with a sprint race win and a third place under his belt already. And then there’s Jehan Daruvala, who was rapid across the Bahrain weekend and is 7 points clear of Piastri in third despite not taking a victory last time out.

Monaco presents a great chance for Zhou to make up some ground on his less-experienced rivals. As one of only three drivers on this weekend’s grid to have raced in Monaco in F2 before, Zhou has some crucial experience around the tricky track — not only that, but he scored a third place on his last outing at the principality.

Inconsistency has been the bane of Zhou’s campaigns in the past. So if he can notch up more big points and top three finishes in Monte Carlo, he’ll be well on the way to turning a strong start into a strong year.

Second chance at a first impression

Juri Vips, Hitech (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

While Lawson, Piastri and Zhou left Bahrain with winners’ trophies, their teammates ended the first round of the season with some regrouping to do.

Robert Shwartzman, the championship favourite before the season, only sits five points behind Piastri in the standings, but he seemed a long way off the Australian’s pace throughout the Bahrain weekend. Meanwhile, Felipe Drugovich managed only 2 points to Zhou’s 41, and Lawson’s Hitech teammate Juri Vips had a torrid weekend of penalties and points-free finishes.

But with Bahrain almost two months in the rearview mirror now, those three have had plenty of time to pick themselves up and look to Monaco as a second chance to start off their season well.

And as Monaco is such a difficult circuit to master, Shwartzman, Vips and Drugovich will know that all it takes is one error for their teammates while they score decent points themselves, and Bahrain will just be a minor blip rather than an omen for the season.

Return of the Jack

Jack Aitken (Courtesy of Williams Media)

Together with Zhou and Ralph Boschung, one other driver will head to Monaco with F2 experience of the principality: Jack Aitken. He’ll be returning to F2 this weekend and at Baku with HWA, replacing Matteo Nannini who’s left the series after sponsorship trouble to focus on his Formula 3 campaign.

Aitken hasn’t had the best history at Monaco, with a highest finish of 7^th in the 2018 feature race. But he does bring a wealth of experience at this level to help HWA move forward, and his record as a multiple F2 winner and audacious overtaker will make him someone for the rest of the field to beware.

28th March 202130th March 2021

F2 Sakhir: Zhou storms to victory in frantic feature race

Guanyu Zhou took the final win of Formula 2’s Sakhir weekend, in a feature race dominated by changing tyre performance and a dramatic late collision for title hopeful Oscar Piastri.

Zhou started the race from pole, but it was anything but an easy drive from the front for the Alpine junior. He was slow away off the line and lost the lead to Christian Lundgaard at Turn 1, then dropped to third behind teammate Felipe Drugovich at Turn 4.

After a brief safety car in the early laps when Roy Nissany was spun out by Robert Shwartzman, Zhou then found himself under pressure from Piastri. The Prema driver, who had started on softs as opposed to Zhou’s hard tyres, picked off Zhou for third on lap 4 and set off after Drugovich and Lundgaard, while Zhou lost another position to Marcus Armstrong on lap 8.

Christian Lundgaard, ART (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 2)

By lap 12 Piastri had passed Drugovich and closed within half a second of Lundgaard, before overtaking the ART for the lead at the start of the following lap. By then the pit window was open and Lundgaard become the first to stop for hards at the end of lap 13, followed by Drugovich on lap 14 and Piastri himself on lap 16. Meanwhile, Zhou made his stop for soft tyres on the alternate strategy on lap 15, and came out of the pits just behind Drugovich.

Another safety car was deployed in the middle of the pit phase when Gianluca Petecof’s cockpit fire extinguisher went off and forced him to retire. The timing of this second safety car benefited Armstrong and Richard Verschoor, who had been shuffled to the head of the field and were able to stop while the pack was slowed down. Armstrong came out of the pits still in the lead, while Verschoor emerged in third between Piastri and Lundgaard.

At the restart on lap 19 however Armstrong immediately fell back, as Piastri and Verschoor both passed him for first and second respectively. Lundgaard also struggled for pace and lost fourth to Drugovich at Turn 4, then fifth to Zhou at Turn 10. Drugovich and Zhou then toppled Armstrong from third on lap 20, before Zhou overtook his teammate for the podium position a lap later.

Felipe Drugovich, UNI-Virtuosi (Bryn Lennon, Getty Images / FIA Formula 2)

As Zhou returned to the podium positions, Verschoor took the lead from Piastri on lap 20 and set about building a two-second gap as his softs had more initial pace than Piastri’s hards. That pace deficit allowed Zhou — as well as Dan Ticktum and Liam Lawson, who were also charging through on softs — to close up to Piastri and challenge him for second.

Zhou took the position from Piastri on lap 23 and started reeling in Verschoor, who was struggling as his softs then started losing grip. But despite being on the same compound, Zhou was able to keep his tyres in better condition than the MP Motorsport ahead and he took the lead of the race at Turn 4 on lap 28.

As Zhou then leaped clear in the lead, Ticktum started challenging Piastri for third as the Prema couldn’t find pace on the hard tyres. After being rebuffed at the inside of Turn 1 and the outside of Turn 4 on lap 29, Ticktum was much closer at the start of lap 30. He pulled to the inside and got momentarily ahead, before the two cars made contact and Piastri was spun into a stall and out of the race.

Ticktum continued on in third, and after a brief virtual safety car to recover Piastri he improved to second with a pass on Verschoor. Lawson also overtook Verschoor on the final lap to take his second podium finish of the weekend.

Dan Ticktum, Carlin (Clive Mason, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / FIA Formula 2)

Verschoor was able to hold onto fourth at the flag ahead of Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala. Shwartzman recovered from a drive-through penalty for hitting Nissany at the start to take seventh and the fastest lap, while Theo Pourchaire, Drugovich and Matteo Nannini rounded out the final points positions.

Zhou now leaves Bahrain in the lead of the championship by 11 points from Liam Lawson, and Piastri drops to fourth behind Daruvala. Carlin now lead the teams’ standings on 47 points, ahead of UNI-Virtuosi (43) and Prema (37).

Formula 2 returns on 20–23 May in support of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.

27th March 202127th March 2021

F2 Sakhir: Piastri snatches last lap sprint race win from Zhou

Prema’s Oscar Piastri became Formula 2’s second rookie winner in as many races after a strategy gamble and a hectic race helped him to overhaul Guanyu Zhou on the final lap.

The race started with an incident at the first corner. As Juri Vips led away Lirim Zendelli and Zhou from pole, Robert Shwartzman hit Dan Ticktum at Turn 1 as he challenged for fourth place. Ticktum spun out and Shwartzman pulled over with terminal damage, and the safety car was deployed for the opening lap.

When the safety car pulled in at the end of lap 3, Zhou immediately took second from Zendelli. Once ahead, Zhou then started reeling in Vips, setting the fastest lap at the end of lap 4 and taking the lead from the Hitech on the following lap at Turn 4.

Meanwhile, Liam Lawson and Felipe Drugovich joined the podium battle. After moving past Piastri and Christian Lundgaard for fourth and fifth respectively at the restart, the pair then demoted Zendelli to fifth on lap 5 with Lawson ahead moving into the podium positions. Zendelli’s race then took another hit, as contact from Lundgaard at Turn 1 left the German with a puncture and dropped him to the back of the field.

At the front of the field, Zhou continued to stretch out a gap over Vips, and was running 2.5 seconds clear by lap 11. Behind them, Lawson and Drugovich were much closer in the battle for third, and on lap 15 Drugovich made a move to the inside of Turn 1. Lawson managed to hold off the Brazilian, but they were both passed instead by Lundgaard. Lawson and Drugovich continued battling through the next couple of corners, until they made contact at Turn 4 and Lawson was spun out of the race.

The safety car was deployed again while Lawson’s car was recovered, and Vips, Lundgaard and Piastri all took the opportunity to gamble on a switch to soft tyres. Despite dropping down the order, the trio had an immediate pace advantage over the rest of the field on hards or worn softs when the race resumed on lap 18.

After carving back through the field on the first green flag lap, Vips, Piastri and Lundgaard were back up to second, third and fourth respectively by the end of lap 19, and Vips had the gap to Zhou down to a second.

But Vips’ hard work came undone just a few laps later when he lost power and started dropping through the field. Piastri assumed second and the pursuit of Zhou, and at the start of the final lap he and Lundgaard both lunged past their fellow Alpine junior at Turn 1.

As Zhou battled to repass Lundgaard, Piastri was free to pull away in the lead and take his first Formula 2 victory. Lundgaard finished second on the road, but a ten-second penalty for his collision with Zendelli dropped him back to ninth. Zhou therefore finished second, and Jehan Daruvala scored his second podium of the weekend in third.

Richard Verschoor finished fourth for MP Motorsport, ahead of Theo Pourchaire, David Beckmann, Marino Sato and Matteo Nannini.

UPDATE: Lundgaard’s second place finish was reinstated following the race, after the FIA confirmed he had already served his 10 second penalty during his pit stop. The updated result means that Zhou drops to third and Daruvala fourth, and Nannini loses his point as he drops to ninth,.

27th March 202127th March 2021

F2 Sakhir: Lawson dominates sprint race on debut

Hitech’s Liam Lawson opened his rookie Formula 2 season with a dominant win in the first Bahrain sprint race, holding the lead throughout after taking it at the start.

Lawson got a rapid start from third on the grid to get past fellow rookies David Beckmann and Theo Pourchaire, who started first. Pourchaire briefly dropped down to third behind Beckmann, but recovered by the end of the lap to retake second place. Just behind them, Jehan Daruvala jumped Oscar Piastri for fourth.

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

Lawson’s attempt to break clear of DRS range from Pourchaire was briefly halted on lap 3, when Marcus Armstrong’s DAMS stopped on track to bring out the virtual safety car. But by lap 6, Lawson pulled a second clear of Pourchaire for the first time and went on to build a gap in clean air.

As Pourchaire dropped back from the lead, he started coming under pressure from Daruvala, who’d passed Beckmann for third on lap 11. But on lap 13 Pourchaire suddenly slowed with a mechanical problem, gifting Daruvala second as he dropped out of the points and eventually stopped on track.

Now in pursuit of the lead, Daruvala looked to have much better tyres than Lawson. On his first lap in second, Daruvala took half a second out of the lead as his rival struggled for grip. Lawson then had a big lock up on lap 17, which brought Daruvala to within half a second of the Hitech.

But despite being in DRS range, Daruvala was ultimately unable to get close enough to Lawson to make a move for the lead. Lawson held on to win by 0.7 seconds over Daruvala, with Beckmann taking third on his F2 debut.

David Beckmann, Charouz (Joe Portlock, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / courtesy of FIA Formula 2)

Robert Shwartzman took fourth ahead of Piastri, after battling through the field from his starting position of 11^th. Christian Lundgaard and Guanyu Zhou were sixth and seventh, and Dan Ticktum took the final point in eighth after being demoted by a time penalty for spinning around Richard Verschoor early on.

Lirim Zendelli finished ninth but took two points for the fastest lap, and Juri Vips finished tenth to start on pole for the second sprint race.

25th March 2021

F2 Bahrain preview: New season, new format, same goal

The Formula 2 grid will take to the track this weekend in Bahrain, for the opening round of the 2021 championship.

It only feels like yesterday that Mick Schumacher was crowned the 2020 F2 champion, but a lot has changed since the series left Bahrain last December. For starters, there’s a new race weekend format for the teams and drivers to get their heads around this year.

Instead of a Saturday feature race and Sunday sprint race, the F2 weekend will now feature three races — two sprint events on Saturday, and a feature before Sunday’s F1 Grand Prix. Friday qualifying will still determine the feature race grid, while the first sprint race grid will be set by reversing the top ten from qualifying. The starting positions for the second sprint race will then be a reverse of the first race’s top ten finishers.

Robert Shwartzman, Prema (Courtesy of Prema Racing)

The weekend format might be different though, but for the eleven drivers returning to F2 this year, the goal of winning the championship and reaching F1 remains the same. And of those drivers, Robert Shwartzman is going to come to Bahrain with the most expectation on his shoulders.

In his rookie season last year, Shwartzman took the most wins of the field, helped Prema to the teams’ title, and was in championship contention himself for most of the season. He’s already proven he’s quick in Bahrain — one of his four wins last year came in the sprint race there — so Shwartzman will be the one with the target on his back in the opening round.

But there are plenty more drivers from the class of 2020 who will be out to prove this weekend that it’s not all about Shwartzman. Jehan Daruvala and Dan Ticktum have a great chance of opening the year with a win, as their Carlin team had rapid pace in Bahrain last year. Watch out for Marcus Armstrong too, who was also quick here last year and is starting a new partnership with DAMS.

And lastly, Felipe Drugovich will be a driver with plenty of attention on him in the opening round. After being one of last year’s revelations, the Brazilian has earned himself a move to UNI-Virtuosi alongside Guanyu Zhou and the perfect chance to prove he can challenge the likes of Shwartzman for the title.

Dan Ticktum, Carlin (Michael Regan, Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images / Courtesy of FIA Formula 2)

But while the returning field is strong, they’ll have a real fight on their hands to keep ahead of an equally impressive crop of rookies.

One of those new faces will be the 2020 Formula 3 champion and Alpine F1 junior Oscar Piastri. Coming into F2 with Prema, Piastri is expected to be a natural title contender this year — and if his F3 days are anything to go by, he won’t be taking any time at all to get his campaign underway.

Piastri isn’t the only rookie looking to impress an F1 academy, though. Hitech is fielding an all-Red Bull junior lineup this year with Juri Vips and Liam Lawson, both of whom were consistently rapid in pre-season testing.

A lot of the spotlight will fall on Vips after he made his F2 debut last year substituting for Sean Gelael in four rounds, and scored a podium at Mugello. But Lawson is no slouch either — he was a multiple race winner with Hitech in F3 last year, and is every bit as quick as Vips.

And then there’s Theo Pourchaire. Like Vips, Sauber F1 junior Pourchaire made his F2 debut in a handful of rounds last year — including Bahrain — before a full campaign for 2021. He came within three points of snatching the F3 title away from Piastri last year and has been widely tipped as a future F1 star. Driving for ART this year, he’ll be with a team capable of challenging for podiums and wins right from the off.

But as Drugovich showed last year, it’s not just the F1 juniors to watch for. Between Formula Regional European champion Gianluca Petecof, F3 race winners Lirim Zendelli, David Beckmann and Bent Viscaal, and F3 podium finishers Richard Verschoor and Matteo Nannini, there are plenty of lightning-fast rookies coming in under the radar this weekend.

Liam Lawson, Hitech (Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool)

7th December 2020

UNI-Virtuosi sign Drugovich for 2021

UNI-Virtuosi have announced that Felipe Drugovich will join the team for the 2021 Formula 2 season.

Drugovich made his F2 debut this season with MP Motorsport. He finished the year ninth in the standings with 121 points, having claimed three victories, as well as one pole position, fastest lap and third place.

UNI-Virtuosi already had one confirmed vacancy for 2021, after Callum Ilott announced he would not be returning to F2 after this season. It’s not yet known if Guanyu Zhou will remain for what would be a third year with the team.

“[I am] extremely happy that I will be racing next year with UNI-Virtuosi in F2,” Drugovich said. “I would like to thank the team for giving me this opportunity, that will give us big success!”

Team principal Andy Roche said: “UNI-Virtuosi is delighted to have Felipe Drugovich on board for the 2021 FIA Formula 2 season.

“Felipe had a fantastic maiden season in Formula 2 this year, with three victories. He has shown amazing pace and ability in only his first year in the championship.”

Drugovich will join the team for this week’s post-season F2 test in Bahrain. UNI-Virtuosi have also announced that he will be joined on the final day by Formula 3 driver Clement Novalak.

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

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.

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

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.

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