Callum Ilott took the lead in the FIA Formula 2 title race with a dominant victory for Virtuosi in Saturday’s feature race at Silverstone.
The British driver bounced back from a difficult previous weekend at the same circuit to win on home soil by 8.5 seconds from championship rival Christian Lundgaard.
Ilott led away from pole at the start while fellow front row starter Lundgaard dropped to fourth for ART, with DAMS driver Dan Ticktum moving up to second ahead of fellow Williams development driver Jack Aitken.
Lundgaard quickly disposed of Aitken’s Campos on the opening lap, while Ticktum immediately started putting pressure on Ilott for the lead.
But Ticktum’s soft tyres faded quickly, not helped by an off at Chapel corner which dropped him to fourth, as he got swallowed up by the chasing pack before pitting from eighth after seven laps.
Ilott, who had built a 5s lead over Lundgaard, pitted one lap later than his rival, rejoining in in 12th. Ilott gradually pulled further clear of Lundgaard while also making his way past cars who hadn’t yet pitted.
Schumacher, who started on harder tyres from eighth on the grid using an alternate strategy, led until 10 laps remaining, closely followed by Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin. Ilott retook the lead which he retained until the chequered flag once the pair had pitted.
Lundgaard cruised to second place to keep himself firmly in the title hunt, with Aitken taking his first podium of the season in third, a further 3.7s adrift.
Mazepin had a strong run on his fresh soft tyres after pitting, passing Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Louis Deletraz to come home fourth. Charouz’s Deletraz held on to fifth spot, 0.3s ahead of Carlin’s Tsunoda.
Using the alternate strategy, the Prema pair of Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman finished seventh and eighth. Although Shwartzman loses his championship lead with the result, the Ferrari junior will start from pole in Sunday’s reverse grid sprint race.
Guanyu Zhou took ninth in the second Virtuosi ahead of MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich. An irate Ticktum slipped down to 15th by the finish after losing further ground in the closing stages.
Race result (29 laps)
| 1 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | 51m12.407s |
| 2 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +8.574s |
| 3 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +12.303s |
| 4 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +15.020s |
| 5 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +16.644s |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +17.010s |
| 7 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +19.232s |
| 8 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +20.033s |
| 9 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +20.428s |
| 10 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +24.127s |
| 11 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | +26.418s |
| 12 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +28.109s |
| 13 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +36.114s |
| 14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +41.725s |
| 15 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +43.109s |
| 16 | Giuliano Alesi | HWA | +43.252s |
| 17 | Marino Sato | Trident | +50.048s |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +51.428s |
| 19 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +1m14.193s |
| 20 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +1m15.090s |
| DNF | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | |
| DNF | Sean Gelael | DAMS |
Feature image credit: fiaformula2.com
