ART’s Christian Lundgaard claimed a dominant victory in the Formula 2 sprint race as Hitech team-mates Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto collided.
After the late safety car periods cost him a likely win in Saturday’s feature race from pole position, Lundgaard made amends on Sunday – making a great start from third on the grid to lead into the first corner before pulling away to win by 14.3s from Louis Deletraz in the Charouz.
After claiming a one-two finish in the feature race, Hitech saw their two drivers run into each other while contesting fifth place. Saturday’s race winner Nikita Mazepin locked-up into turn one while defending the position, resulting in contact which put Ghiotto out of the race after becoming airborne and ending up in the gravel. Mazepin continued, but finished in 18th after pitting.
Reversed-grid polesitter Artem Markelov slotted into second at the start, but the HWA driver was soon picked off by Deletraz.
Markelov put up a stronger defence for third early on against DAMS driver Juri Vips – who had made a slow start from the front row of the grid. The pair made contact at turn one, before Vips took the place a couple of laps later. After losing further places to Prema’s Mick Schumacher and Mazepin, contact with Ghiotto resulted in Markelov dropping down the order after pitting with a damaged front wing.
Following a virtual safety car period due to the collision between Mazepin and Ghiotto, Deletraz resisted late pressure from Vips, holding on to second by 0.5s at the finish.
Schumacher extended his championship lead with fourth place, while closest rival Callum Ilott recovered from 12th on the grid, following his incident on Saturday, to finish in the points in sixth. Robert Shwartzman – third in the standings – survived a trip through the gravel to finish one place outside of the points in ninth after starting from the back of the grid as a result of his retirement in the feature race.
The best recovery drive came from Guanyu Zhou, who passed Virtuosi team-mate Ilott to take fifth place, having started from 20th, and finished just 0.3s behind Schumacher after a late challenge for fourth. Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala finished in seventh, with Trident’s Marino Sato taking the final point in eighth.
Daruvala’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and DAMS driver Dan Ticktum, who collided in the feature race, both finished down the order after damaging their front wings in separate incidents.
Race result (23 laps)
| 1 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | 37m51.980s |
| 2 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +14.321s |
| 3 | Juri Vips | DAMS | +14.870s |
| 4 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +18.018s |
| 5 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +18.382s |
| 6 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +24.421s |
| 7 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +26.264s |
| 8 | Marino Sato | Trident | +26.301s |
| 9 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +31.425s |
| 10 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +32.942s |
| 11 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +34.902s |
| 12 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +35.040s |
| 13 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +35.254s |
| 14 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | +36.983s |
| 15 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +39.072s |
| 16 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +48.433s |
| 17 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +48.483s |
| 18 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +50.793s |
| 19 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +1m09.649s |
| 20 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +1m21.885s |
| DNF | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech |
Featured image credit: fiaformula2.com
