After having a potential win snatched away from him in Austria with radio problems, Yuki Tsunoda finally has his first FIA Formula 2 victory after the PREMA teammates came to blows as they battled for the lead.
Pole man Robert Shwartzman had led every lap but his tyres began to fade away and Mick Schumacher closed in. The German had the run going down the Wellington straight and got in front of Shwartzman but he cut across the front of the Russian in the braking zone meaning Shwartzman could do nothing to prevent nose to tail contact.
The stewards investigated the incident and declared it a racing incident but Schumacher was rather apologetic on the radio after the chequered flag fell.
But the incident meant that Tsunoda and Carlin, who had waited patiently all race in third, was the lucky beneficiary to go on and win for the first time in F2.
Schumacher held on to second but Shwartzman suffered front wing damage and dropped out of the points and as a result falls further behind in the championship challenge.
Jack Aitken was the driver who got promoted to the podium as Shwartzman dropped down to complete a double podium weekend which was much needed after an underwhelming start to the season.
He held off constant pressure from Louis Delétraz who had a much improved weekend finishing fourth ahead of Guanyu Zhou who also stayed on the tail of Aitken but wasn’t able to find a way through.
Zhou’s UNI-Virtuosi teammate Callum Ilott came home sixth but that wasn’t without contact himself as he slid into Nikita Mazepin at Brooklands. Ilott claiming the Russian moved in the braking zone which caused his car to lose downforce.
It’s another four points gained though for Ilott with Shwartzman and Christian Lundgaard – who suffered a left front puncture towards the latter stages – not scoring.
Dan Ticktum recovered form a disastrous feature race to finish seventh ahead of Mazepin who stabilised after the Ilott contact.
Pos. | Name | Team | Laps/Gap |
1 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | 21 Laps |
2 | Mick Schumacher | PREMA | +3.120 |
3 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +17.993 |
4 | Louis Delétraz | Charouz | +20.258 |
5 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | +21.059 |
6 | Callum Ilott | UNI-Virtuosi | +22.154 |
7 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +22.913 |
8 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | +25.201 |
9 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +28.672 |
10 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | +29.066 |
11 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | +33.686 |
12 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +34.776 |
13 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | +36.362 |
14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +37.995 |
15 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +40.151 |
16 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +43.748 |
17 | Marino Sato | Trident | +47.202 |
18 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | +60.275 |
19 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +61.710 |
20 | Guiliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | +91.548 |
21 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +1 Lap |
22 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | DNS (Mechanical) |