Ghiotto scores Hitech’s first Formula 2 win in thrilling finish

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Luca Ghiotto gave Hitech their first Formula 2 victory in their third weekend in the championship, denying Callum Ilott by less than half a second at the Hungaroring

Ilott started from pole position for the second time this weekend and got away superbly, drawing out a lead of more than three seconds by the third lap.

However halfway into the 28-lap sprint race, in which pit stops are not obligatory, Ilott’s tyres were visibly frayed. He headed in for fresh rubber on lap 18.

That handed the lead to Ghiotto, who had been taking up to a second per lap out of Ilott’s handy lead. While others pitted, Ghiotto held on to the lead, while the rest of the field dropped around 20 seconds behind.

With three laps to go, Ilott was 13 seconds back from Ghiotto with the rest of the field more than 10 seconds adrift. The Viruosi driver was consistently taking more than four seconds a lap out of Ghiotto’s lead. By the penultimate lap, Ilott had less than eight seconds to make up, but also increasingly ragged tyres again from such a massive charge.

The gap stood at five seconds as the final lap began and Ilott wrung the last from his rubber. He took 4.5 seconds out of Ghiotto, which wasn’t quite enough, and the chequered flag dropped with the pair separated by four-tenths of a second.

Mick Schumacher took third place, 11 seconds behind the winners, and two seconds ahead of his team mate, yesterday’s winner Robert Shwartzman. They finished in that order, Shwartzman clashing with Nikita Mazepin on his way to fourth, the stewards clearing the pair over the collision. Mazepin collected fifth in the other Hitech ahead of Louis Deletraz, Jehan Daruvala and Guanyu Zhou.

Dan Ticktum retired on the fifth lap after reporting a loss of power on the opening laps. “Un-****ing-believable,” he cursed on the radio. Three laps later the black-and-orange flag was brandished at Yuki Tsunoda, who sustained front wing damage on the opening laps.

A solid weekend for Shwartzman meant he retains the championship lead after the opening six races, won by five different drivers in a competitive start to the season.

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    Hazel Southwell
    Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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    5 comments on “Ghiotto scores Hitech’s first Formula 2 win in thrilling finish”

    1. Shame I did not see that race, from reading about it it must have been quite exciting! Thanks for the write-up @hazelsouthwell

    2. Missed the race(watching MotoGP) but as a suggestion please start adding table of finishing order with timing as it would be quite helpful. Hopefully there werent too many tyre degradation concerns like yesterday.

    3. That was a genuinely good race, both F2 races this weekend were.

    4. My heart was beating frantically on the last couple of corners. When the last lap began I thought Luca had it covered but then he lost 1.5 seconds in he first corner alone. Man what a race, damn happy for Luca.

    5. yeah was another great race, both F2 races really exciting. didn’t know who was going to win this one until the last couple of corners. tyre strategy was a massively important consideration even in the sprint race, who would’ve thought!

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