Guanyu Zhou bounced back from a tough Saturday at Silverstone by beating points leader Oscar Piastri to victory in the feature race.
Piastri took pole for the feature race in Friday’s qualifying session, beating fellow Alpine junior and F2 title rival Zhou by a tenth of a second.But Zhou beat Piastri off the line as the pole winner made a sluggish getaway. Behind them third-placed started Richard Verschoor was overtaken early on by fourth-placed Dan Ticktum, who successfully contained the winner of the second Silverstone sprint race.
Ticktum made his mandatory pit stop on lap seven, starting the switch for drivers who had started on medium tyres. Piastri came in on lap eight to try and get the undercut on Zhou but the Virtuosi driver said he was happy to continue lapping and was able to build an even larger margin to the pole-sitter, running in clean air.
A bizarre moment occured during Christian Lundgaard’s pit stop. The ART driver’s car threw its new left-rear wheel off the hub, which bounced down the pit lane narrowly avoiding other cars.
By the time his team mate Theo Pourchaire came in on lap 10 the ART mechanics had resolved the what looked like a machining problem with their left-rear wheel gun. But Lundgaard’s race was fairly ruined by the delay, so it made little difference that after ART were investigated for an unsafe release he was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty.
Following their pit stops, Piastri defended hard against Ticktum but was unable to keep the Carlin driver behind and had to settle third place, from starting on pole, while Ticktum attempted to cut Zhou’s lead over the second half of the race.
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Those who started on the hard compound tyres finally pitted after lap 23 and Zhou resumed the lead, Ticktum and Piastri still behind him. The Carlin drive aided his cause by passing Matteo Nannini, one of the last to pit, who Piastri remained stuck behind for several lap.
Juri Vips smoothly passed Pourchaire for seventh on lap 25 after an extended battle. But the remaining laps were otherwise uneventful, with no recurrence of the Safety Cars which disrupted both sprint races at Silverstone.
Over the final laps Piastri fought off a determined Verschoor to claim the final podium place. Verschoor attempted to go around the outside of his rival at Stowe, but was forced wide. He rejoined the track and was poised to take the place as the pair went into Vale, but Piastri cut the corner and stayed ahead. The stewards ruled no investigation was needed into the exchange.
Zhou led Ticktum and Piastri across the line, redeemimg a weekend he had begun in the points lead before errors in yesterday’s sprint races saw him fall to third. Piastri retains the championship lead by five points ahead of Formula 2’s next round at Monza in September.
Formula 2 Qualifying race three results
| Position | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Guanyu Zhou |
| 2 | 5 | Dan Ticktum |
| 3 | 2 | Oscar Piastri |
| 4 | 11 | Richard Verschoor |
| 5 | 1 | Robert Shwartzman |
| 6 | 4 | Felipe Drugovich |
| 7 | 8 | Juri Vips |
| 8 | 10 | Theo Pourchaire |
| 9 | 12 | Lirim Zendeli |
| 10 | 6 | Jehan Daruvala |
| 11 | 7 | Liam Lawson |
| 12 | 17 | Marcus Armstrong |
| 13 | 24 | Bent Viscaal |
| 14 | 21 | Ralph Boschung |
| 15 | 14 | David Beckmann |
| 16 | 16 | Roy Nissany |
| 17 | 22 | Jack Aitken |
| 18 | 20 | Matteo Nannini |
| 19 | 25 | Marino Sato |
| 20 | 15 | Guilherme Samaia |
| 21 | 9 | Christian Lundgaard |
| 22 | 23 | Alessio Deledda |
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Formula 2
- “Formula 2 The Glory Years, 1967-84” reviewed
- Bortoleto clinches F2 title as Hadjar stalls and Duerksen wins finale
- Aron hit with double penalty for team’s illegal DRS modification, Hadjar gains a point
- Marti wins sprint race as Bortoleto extends points lead ahead of finale
- Martins beats title rivals Bortoleto, Aron and Hadjar to Yas Marina pole
jlb
18th July 2021, 12:55
Change weekend format to the old one. The extra sprint race just make people to drive like grannies.
S
18th July 2021, 13:04
Not F2’s greatest weekend.
The format is fine – it was just one of those weekends where nothing much really happened.
And when F2 has a boring weekend, F1 always does it bigger and better…
Imre (@f1mre)
18th July 2021, 13:06
You mean F1 produces an even more boring GP?
S
18th July 2021, 14:11
That’s exactly what I mean.
Imre (@f1mre)
18th July 2021, 13:04
I’ve lost all interest in F2 and part of it is the new 3 race format. I’m just not that interested. And if I watch only part of a weekend (1-2 races), I miss a lot of insight and understanding therefore I rather not watch it at all.
I’m yet to understand for whom it is good that F2 and F3 are separated. For teams running both F2 and F3 teams? So they could send the same mechanics and engineers to both categories? Because it is bad for the on-track spectators (one less series, less races overall) and I do not see why it is good for TV viewers.
Chaitanya
18th July 2021, 13:09
+1 to changes to format, seriously underwhelming races so far compared to what we had last year.
marcus (@wombat1m)
18th July 2021, 13:16
Agree – races haven’t been great and two sprint races are unnecessary and dull
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
18th July 2021, 13:11
Great drives by Zhou and Ticktum! A well deserved win for Zhou and Ticktum finally shows what he is capable of, if he doesn’t behave like a total lunatic.
For some reason both Prema drivers seemed to struggle today, because neither Piastri nor Švarcman had great pace on any tire.
Dave
18th July 2021, 15:39
(points the “Bonk” at Ticktum) “Behave properly, from now on…or you will be dealt with…”
TFLB (@tflb)
18th July 2021, 14:10
Not quite sure how Piastri got away with blatantly cutting a corner to keep position. Bizarre decision by the stewards.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
19th July 2021, 0:44
Probably because Verschoor went off track on the previous corner to gain a much higher speed run on Piastri.
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
18th July 2021, 20:55
F2 is a bit of a Joke with the weak field and random lottery results, unlike the GP2 Era where greats like Lewis and Nico won the title winning isn’t prestigious anymore.
Heck driver Nissany who is a mediocre midfield driver in F2 will take Russells seat at Williams or whatever it will be called due to the bags of Israeli money he brings to the team.
also Zhou Is guaranteed a seat at Alpine because the insane amount of ccp backed money he brings Renault group.
TL;DR it doesn’t relay matter who wins the title this year anyway because the F1 seats are virtually guaranteed