UNI-Virtuosi’s Callum Ilott took his first ever win in FIA Formula 2 after his teammate and pole-sitter Guanyu Zhou suffered engine problems while leading.
The Ferrari Academy driver hounded his Chinese teammate for much of the race and found himself in the lucky seat as Zhou slowed and pitted with his engine dropping in power.
A late safety car for Artem Markelov’s stranded HWA machine (seemingly with the same issue as Zhou) made for an intriguing final ten laps where Ilott was expecting a big challenge from Mick Schumacher, but the German ran off the road at turn seven and dropped out of the points.
Behind Ilott came a horde of rookies, who were all tied together for the duration of the safety car restart. Marcus Armstrong benefited from a very early pit stop to gain track position and he defended resolutely from Robert Shwartzman to hold onto second.
Armstrong’s teammate Christian Lundgaard also faced a stern challenge as Dan Ticktum looked to gain on his fifth placed, but the Dane, like his teammate, held on.
Perhaps the star man was Guiliano Alesi who gained eight places on the opening lap and then used the alternate strategy to drive his way to sixth position, overtaking Louis Delétraz with just three laps to go.
Finishing eighth and starting the sprint race from reverse grid pole is Felipe Drugovich who dropped back from his front row start. His MP Motorsport teammate Nobuharu Matsushita and Roy Nissany completed the points.
Both Luca Ghiotto and Marino Sato failed to even make the start of the race with mechanical issues before the race.
There was also disaster for the Carlin team as Jehan Daruvala and Yuki Tsunoda collided at turn three on the opening lap to prohibit any chance of points.
| Pos. | Name | Team | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Callum Ilott | UNI-Virtuosi | 54:21:050 |
| 2 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +8.856 |
| 3 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | +9.291 |
| 4 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +10.878 |
| 5 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +11.277 |
| 6 | Guiliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | +12.828 |
| 7 | Louis Delétraz | Charouz | +16.267 |
| 8 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +17.033 |
| 9 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | +17.435 |
| 10 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +19.543 |
| 11 | Mick Schumacher | PREMA | +20.049 |
| 12 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +22.008 |
| 13 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +24.996 |
| 14 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | +25.885 |
| 15 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +30.138 |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +53.934 |
| 17 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | +1 Lap |
| 18 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +1 Lap |
| 19 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | DNF (Mechanical) |
| 20 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | DNF (Mechanical) |
| 21 | Marino Sato | Trident | DNS (Mechanical) |
| 22 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | DNS (Mechanical) |
