A well-timed safety car period helped Nobuharu Matsushita win an eventful FIA Formula 2 feature race from 18th on the grid.
The MP Motorsport driver, who started on hard tyres, took advantage of a safety car period on lap 25 to pit for soft tyres, rejoining in fourth place.
In a frenetic few laps following the restart, Matsushita battled his way into the lead, holding on to win in a last-lap shootout following another safety car period.
But it proved a frustrating race for championship leader Callum Ilott, who had looked the likely victor before the safety car periods, finishing fifth after losing out in the final laps.
Ilott started on pole for Virtuosi, but was beaten off the line by title rival Robert Shwartzman, with Mick Schumacher gaining two places to run third.
After a brief safety car to recover the stricken ART machine of Marcus Armstrong which had spun into the gravel, Ilott regained the lead from Shwartzman as the Prema driver started to struggle on his soft tyres.
Shwartzman pitted immediately, with Ilott rejoining ahead of his rival after pitting on the following lap.
Schumacher, who started on the hard tyres now led the race for Prema. But Ilott used a clear track in front of him to set a blistering pace on his fresh tyres, while Schumacher started to struggle on worn tyres at the front.
By the time Schumacher pitted from the lead for soft tyres, Ilott had eradicated most of a 32s deficit to the German, the Virtuosi driver retaking the lead and looking on course for a comfortable victory.
But the safety was deployed after 25 laps when HWA’s Giuliano Alesi was spun out by Sean Gelael.
Virtuosi immediately called Ilott into the pits for a second time to switch back to soft tyres, to cover off the threat from those behind on the alternate strategy. He rejoined in third behind MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich and Carlin’s Yuki Tsunoda, but moved up to second when Drugovich pitted.
At the restart Ilott immediately tried to retake the lead from Zhou, who was on worn hard tyres. But after a failed overtaking attempt, Matsushita, following close behind, pounced to wrestle second from Ilott, with the two cars going wheel-to-wheel for several corners. Ilott also crucially lost a further place to title rival Shwartzman.
Matsushita used his soft tyres to take the lead from Tsunoda, with Shwartzman also making his way by into second before a heavy crash for Roy Nissany in the Charouz brought out the safety car for a third time.
The race restarted with one lap remaining, with Matsushita taking the win from Shwartzman, but Ilott lost further places whilst again trying to find a way by Tsunoda.
Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou pipped Tsunoda to third on a frantic last lap, with Ilott inheriting fifth from Nikita Mazepin after the chequered flag as a result of the Hitech driver incurring 5s penalty for an earlier track limits infringement which dropped him to 13th place.
Schumacher finished in sixth, the safety car periods having worked against him, with Drugovich taking seventh.
Luca Ghiotto will start Sunday’s sprint race from pole after finishing in eighth, ahead of Dan Ticktum in the DAMS and Louis Deletraz for Charouz.
Championship contender Christian Lundgaard finished outside of the points in 11th for ART having started in 14th place.
DAMS driver Gelael was taken to hospital for precautionary checks after an incident on the last lap.
Race result (35 laps)
| 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | 1h02m14.783s |
| 2 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +1.599s |
| 3 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +6.166s |
| 4 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +7.796s |
| 5 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +7.954s |
| 6 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +8.471s |
| 7 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +8.831s |
| 8 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +8.992s |
| 9 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +9.438s |
| 10 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +9.494s |
| 11 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +9.658s |
| 12 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +10.552s |
| 13 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +10.661s |
| 14 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +14.389s |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Trident | +15.157s |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +15.327s |
| 17 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +18.437s |
| 18 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +1 lap |
| 19 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | +1 lap |
| Ret | Roy Nissany | Trident | |
| Ret | Giuliano Alesi | HWA | |
| Ret | Marcus Armstrong | ART |
Feature image credit: @fia_f2 official twitter
