Mazepin storms to victory as Schumacher takes championship lead

A late race safety car saw the entire race thrown into the air as Nikita Mazepin won his second FIA Formula 2 race of the season from fourteenth on the grid.

The Russian restarted eighth after the first of two safety cars but he found his way into third when contact between Dan Ticktum and Yuki Tsunoda, and a three-car collision between Guanyu Zhou, Mick Schumacher and Jack Aitken parted the seas for Mazepin to take advantage.

He then soared past the leaders at the second restart and sprinted away from the pack to take victory.

He was followed home by his Hitech GP teammate who did tremendously to fight off the attacks of Louis Delétraz who, like Mazepin, was on the soft tyres after maximising the alternate strategy.

Felipe Drugovich managed to finish fourth but behind him came Schumacher who scored ten points to take the championship lead off Callum Ilott who had to pit late on after he damaged his front wing.

Similar misfortune became of Schumacher’s teammate and title rival Robert Shwartzman who was forced to retire with mechanical problems meaning he will start the sprint race from last on the grid.

Schumacher passed pole-sitter and long time race leader Christian Lundgaard on the last lap after the Dane’s commanding lead was evaporated by the safety cars. He finished sixth on the road and will be keen to make amends from third on the grid tomorrow.

Juri Vips couldn’t find way past Lundgaard as he finished seventh for DAMS meaning he’ll start from the front row for the sprint race, alongside Artem Markelov who battled to eighth ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala.

Ilott battled back to twelfth where he’ll start tomorrow while Ticktum was very annoyed at the lack of luck as he finished seventeenth.