Dan Ticktum got off the line well from pole to hold the lead, while Christian Lundgaard made a phenomenal start from fifth to jump up to second by The Loop on the opening lap of the Sprint Race on Sunday morning.
However there was contact behind involving Callum Ilott and Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 3 on the opening lap. This resulted in the Japanese racer retiring on the spot, while Ilott continued but was penalised by five seconds for causing the collision.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed before racing resumed with Ticktum leading Lundgaard, Louis Deletraz, Felipe Drugovich, Ilott, Nikita Mazepin, Guanyu Zhou, Mick Schumacher, Nobuharu Matsuhita and Jack Aitken.
Lap 7 and Ilott began his fightback and overtook Drugovich at Stowe on the inside for fourth position.
The MP Motorsport driver would continue to go backwards, as he was passed by Mazepin whilst Zhou completed a superb move on the pair of them and was up to fifth by the end of Lap 8.
Five laps later and Ilott’s charge continued as he overtook Deletraz around the outside at the end of the Wellington straight before doing the same on Lundgaard at Stowe. The Brit was now second on the road and set about catching race-leader Ticktum to make up the five-second gap for his penalty.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain for the Brit, as the UNI-Virtuosi driver spun coming out of Vale and stalled a couple of laps afterwards. The Safety Car was deployed, allowing the field to bunch up with five laps to go.
As the cars came through the pits to give the marshals the opportunity to clear Ilott’s car, Sean Gelael stopped just before re-joining the track with a loose wheel and he was another casualty of the Sprint Race.
Lundgaard was able to pit and re-join with his softer-compound medium tyres in fifth position, bringing him in play for the race win.
He passed Mazepin straight away at Turn 3 before moves on Zhou and Deletraz in the last couple of laps elevated him to second behind Ticktum, but time had run out before he was able to make a move on the Brit.
Therefore, Ticktum won his first FIA Formula 2 with Lundgaard second and Deletraz but Zhou spun coming out of Becketts on the final lap and falling to ninth by the flag.
Mazepin was up to fourth until Daruvala overtook this weekend’s Feature Race winner around the outside at Vale and took away the position from the Russian to achieve his best F2 result.
The Hitech driver thus, dropped down the fifth with Drugovich, Matsushita and Aitken the rest of the points-scorers. Lundgaard took the extra two points for the fastest lap.
Robert Shwartzman was a disappointing thirteenth, meaning no points this weekend for the championship leader but with Callum Ilott not scoring in the Sprint Race, he keeps his 8-point lead.
Christian Lundgaard is a further four points behind ahead of Nikita Mazepin and Dan Ticktum.
The FIA Formula 2 grid will race once more at Silverstone next weekend, part of the support bill for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
| # | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D. Ticktum | DAMS | – |
| 2 | C. Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | 0.376 |
| 3 | L. Delétraz | Charouz Racing System | 2.697 |
| 4 | J. Daruvala | Carlin | 6.257 |
| 5 | N. Mazepin | Hitech Grand Prix | 6.483 |
| 6 | F. Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 8.459 |
| 7 | N. Matsushita | MP Motorsport | 8.956 |
| 8 | J. Aitken | Campos Racing | 9.782 |
| 9 | G. Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 10.848 |
| 10 | M. Armstrong | ART Grand Prix | 10.995 |
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