Formula 2 points leader Robert Shwartzman scored his second feature race win, passing Prema team mate and fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher.
Shwartzman took advantage of a different tyre strategy to many of his front-running rivals to move into victory contention, aided by a series of Safety Car interruptions.Callum Ilott – another from the FDA stable – started from pole position alongside Luca Ghiotto, who came under attack from Dan Ticktum as the race began. On lap two Trident team mates Roy Nissany and Marino Sato collided with each other prompting the first, brief, Safety Car period.
The resumption of racing on lap four proved short-lived as Christian Lundgaard tangled with Ghiotto, then got further entangled with his ART team mate Marcus Armstrong. That collision pushed Artem Markelov into an error which sent him into the barriers.
By the time Schumacher passed Ilott, on lap 17, their battle had allowed a gap to the top four to open up. Nikita Mazepin, Felipe Drugovich and Jehan Daruvala were not only a barrier between Ilott and Schumacher to the leading Shwartzman, but lapping slower than them. The drivers who had pitted to switch to mediums were finding it tricky to turn the harder tyres on.
Shwartzman nearly threw his hard-won advantage away after his pit stop. He came in on lap 28, but a colossal lockup into turn one nearly wrecked his fresh Pirellis.
Mazepin used the same strategy as Shwartsman to deny Prema a one-two by passing Schumacher. Ghiotto collected fourth ahead of Drugovich, Daruvala and Deletraz, while Ilott ensured he will start both this weekend’s race from pole position by finishing eighth. Ticktum and Zhou took the final points.
Shwartzman leads the championship with 73 points, to Ilott on 51 points and Lundgaard, whose Hungaroring race ended in a double ART retirement, on 43.
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Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
18th July 2020, 19:09
This boy is a real deal. I was already saying before this season that he’s a far hotter article for the Alfa Romeo seat than Mich Schumacher is. Let’s hope Sauber won’t completely disintegrate before Schwartzmann will have a chance to get promoted.
PhilEReid (@philereid)
18th July 2020, 19:15
Hell of a performance by Shwartzman. For whatever reason, it’s clear the alternate strategy was the better strategy, but still he played it to absolute perfection. Really well done by Mazepin as well.
Schumacher best of those on the standard strategy which is good for him. I’m sure he’ll be happy about it. He put in a good early shift on the softs to come out ahead of Illot before being re-passed, but was able to very nicely get it back. He looked comfortable from there which is encouraging.
But man, Shwartzman looks like a hell of a driver. Really excited to see what he can do going forward. I’m hoping for better luck for Armstrong too. Disappointing from Illot and Ghiotto, hoping for better from them, especially Illot.
Tayyib Abu
18th July 2020, 20:01
Felt like the strategy cost Illott. Fancy him to take the win tomorrow. Looks like its him v Schwartzmann for the title & Alfa seat.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
18th July 2020, 19:22
really fun race to watch, great to see both Shwartzman and Mazepin try something different and then absolutely nail their strategies by doing really strong first stints, allowing them to scythe through the field after their pit stops.
Miani (@miani)
18th July 2020, 19:33
And Drugovich who put a MP in 5th starting from 18th. And he’s now ahead of Zhou and Schumacher in the championship. I see Shwartzman climbing the ladder next year, he’s talented and have money, it will be easy for him to find a seat, the logical place will be in Alfa Romeo.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
18th July 2020, 19:35
Racing Point could find an inspiration for tomorrow, their strategy with the Mediums could promise for some strategic battle.
Jockey Ewing
18th July 2020, 20:22
Takuma “T9” Sato is back? :) (Third paragraph.)
Btw these tyre compounds are quite interesting the softest lasts less than 10 laps, the medium (yellow) was used by many to complete 30+ laps although many had some problems doing so. So there are only 2 kinf of dry compounds per race weekend at F2 or somehow noone considered using the hard? (because noone doing so would be quite strange).
After that wheel locking on the outlap of Schwartzman I thought he might killed that soft compound but he was so fast as if nothing happened.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
19th July 2020, 1:39
Super nice race! Schwartzman again taking the opportunity to the perfection. He was unable to complete his last qualifying lap due to yellow flags and so ended up to the best place possible for that alternate strategy, which proved to be key to the victory.
He’s now a serious contender, and winning back-to-back championships would be fantastic!
Imre (@f1mre)
19th July 2020, 6:11
Huge amounts of tyre marbles around the track. Pirelli has to do something with those 18″ tyres for next seasons.
Chaitanya
19th July 2020, 8:36
Also the degradation was quite concerning especially on tyres that are supposed to be “durable”.