Robert Shwartzman took the lead in the Formula 2 title race with victory in a dramatic sprint race at Spa as Callum Ilott was spun out on the first lap.
Ferrari junior Shwartzman made a great start from fourth on the grid, challenging polesitter Roy Nissany into La Source. But it was fellow second-row starter Dan Ticktum who took the lead on the inside, with Shwartzman having to concede second to Nissany. Front-row starter Zhou made a poor getaway and lost several places.
Nissany retook the lead from Ticktum at the end of the Kemmel straight, but there was drama behind which resulted in the safety car being deployed. Exiting Les Combes, championship leader Ilott’s poor weekend got worse as he was spun out following contact from behind by Saturday’s feature race winner Tsunoda in a tight midfield battle.
There was more drama at the restart as the leaders collided, causing a second safety car period. Ticktum tried to pass Nissany around the outside of Les Combes. But after slight contact from Nissany, Ticktum went off track, bouncing over a kerb and spinning Nissany into the barriers as he rejoined the circuit. Shwartzman was promoted to the lead while Ticktum held on to second, albeit with slight front wing damage.
At the restart Shwartzman pulled out a big lead as Ticktum fought hard to keep hold of second place, retaking Charouz’s Louis Deletraz at Les Combes after losing the place a few corners earlier. But Ticktum’s challenge eventually wilted as he lost out to Mick Schumacher and Zhou, who had both disposed of Deletraz. Ticktum eventually dropped out of the points to finish tenth ahead of DAMS team-mate Juri Vips, who had fought back from the rear of the field having stalled on the grid.
Shwartzman cruised to win by 9s from Prema stablemate Schumacher, with Zhou finishing a further 3s behind in third. Nikita Mazepin, who lost out on victory in the feature race following a five-second penalty, took fourth for Hitech ahead of team-mate Luca Ghiotto.
Deletraz finished in sixth ahead of ART’s Christian Luundgard, who scored his first points-finish in four races. Artem Markelov scored the final point for HWA with eighth place ahead of Tsunoda, who suffered a time penalty for his earlier incident with Ilott.
Feature image credit: @fia_f2 official twitter
