Prema’s Mick Schumacher extended his Formula 2 championship lead to 18 points after taking his second feature race victory of the season at Sochi.
After passing polesitter and early leader Yuki Tsunoda with 10 laps to go, Schumacher came home 6.3 seconds ahead of Tsunoda, who took crucial points away from Schumacher’s closest title rival by passing Callum Ilott on the last lap.
Schumacher made another getaway at the start, passing Jehan Daruvala to run second behind Tsunoda in the early stages, splitting the Carlin pair. Several cars collided on the opening lap into turn one, causing a brief safety car, with championship contender Christian Lundgaard (ART), Juri Vips (DAMS) and Roy Nissany (Trident) forced to retire from the race. MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich also stopped with a technical issue.
Tsunoda remained in front until making his mandatory pitstop along with the rest of the lead group after eight laps, rejoining in ninth. Daruvala, who pitted a lap earlier, lost out to Ilott when the Virtuosi driver emerged from his stop.
Campos driver Jack Aitken moved into the lead of the race on the alternate strategy, but found himself under pressure from Hitech’s Nikita Mazepin and Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, both on the same strategy as Aitken. Mazepin tried a move around the outside of Aitken into turn one, but locked up and ran off track, conceding second to Zhou. After several stabs at trying to pass Aitken, Zhou lost out to Mazepin, who retook second.
Tsunoda was promoted back to the lead with 10 laps to go once Aitken, Mazepin, Zhou and the rest of the alternate strategy runners had pitted. But his time at the front lasted only a few hundred metres, with Schumacher challenging the Honda protege into turn one before making the overtake with a switchback on the corner exit. A closely following Ilott capitalised to also move past Tsunoda into second a couple of corners later.
Ilott was unable to close in on Schumacher in the closing stages and instead came under renewed pressure from Tsunoda for second spot. As Schumacher cruised to the win, Tsunoda snatched second on the last lap with a breathtaking move around the outside of Ilott at turn three. It was a photo finish for third, with a struggling Ilott holding off Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto by 0.025s at the chequered flag.
Daruvala finished a further 5.7s adrift in fifth, with Aitken pipping Mazepin to sixth spot by less than one second. Zhou claimed reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s sprint race after finishing eighth, with ART’s Marcus Armstrong and DAMS driver Dan Ticktum rounding out the points-scorers in ninth and tenth – Ticktum having recovered from 17th on the grid.
Prema’s Robert Shwartzman suffered a blow to his title hopes, slipping down the order in the closing stages to finish outside of the points in 11th, ahead of F2 debutant Jake Hughes for HWA.
Race result (28 laps)
| 1 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | 55m02.871s |
| 2 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +6.358s |
| 3 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +9.482s |
| 4 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +9.507s |
| 5 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +15.225s |
| 6 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +22.183s |
| 7 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +23.129s |
| 8 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +25.392s |
| 9 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +26.940s |
| 10 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +29.525s |
| 11 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +33.582s |
| 12 | Jake Hughes | HWA | +37.535s |
| 13 | Marino Sato | Trident | +46.326s |
| 14 | Giuliano Alesi | MP Motorsport | +48.045s |
| 15 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +52.107s |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +1m07.006s |
| 17 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +1m08.704s |
| 18 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +1m19.307s |
| DNF | Roy Nissany | Trident | |
| DNF | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | |
| DNF | Christian Lundgaard | ART | |
| DNF | Juri Vips | DAMS |
Featured image credit: fiaformula2.com
