Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou bounced back from a difficult day on Saturday to take a dominant victory in the FIA Formula 2 feature race at Silverstone.
After a costly spin in the first sprint race, Zhou took the lead away from title rival and fellow Alpine F1 junior Oscar Piastri at the start of the feature race before taking a controlled win ahead of Carlin’s Dan Ticktum and Piastri.
Piastri ran second in the early stages ahead of Ticktum, who passed MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor at the start.
Ticktum was the first to pit on lap seven, and passed Piastri for position at Brooklands after the Prema driver emerged from his stop on the next lap.
Zhou pitted one lap later and rejoined ahead of the pair, with Verschoor leading for a couple of laps before making his stop.
The alternate strategy runners of Juri Vips (Hitech), Lirim Zendelli (MP) and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) all had spells at the front before stopping for fresh tyres, with Zhou reclaiming the lead with six laps to go.
Zhou came home 3.8 seconds ahead of Ticktum to close in on points leader Piastri, who lost many seconds behind alternate strategy runner Matteo Nannini (Campos) in the second half of the race. That dropped him well behind Ticktum and allowed Verschoor to close in.
Verschoor – who won the second sprint race on Saturday – made a couple of attempts to pass Piastri for third at Stowe and Club on the penultimate lap, but Piastri held on to claim the final podium spot.
Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, winner of the first sprint race, finished fifth which drops him to third in the standings behind Piastri and Zhou.
Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich was just 0.6s behind sixth, and only 0.3s ahead of Vips. Theo Pourchaire was eighth for ART, having been passed by Vips in the closing stages. Zendelli was ninth, with Daruvala scoring the final point in tenth.
Christian Lundgaard had a miserable race after his left rear wheel came off in the pits, incurring a 10s stop/go penalty which left the Alpine junior at the back of the field.
Race result (29 laps)
| 1 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | 51m07.552s |
| 2 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +3.828s |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | +19.342s |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +20.128s |
| 5 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +24.775s |
| 6 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +25.469s |
| 7 | Juri Vips | Hitech | +25.836s |
| 8 | Theo Pourchaire | ART | +26.651s |
| 9 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +27.421s |
| 10 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +27.677s |
| 11 | Liam Lawson | Hitech | +39.951s |
| 12 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | +40.516s |
| 13 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +44.372s |
| 14 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +47.641s |
| 15 | David Beckmann | Charouz | +47.812s |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | +49.492s |
| 17 | Jack Aitken | HWA | +51.977s |
| 18 | Matteo Nannini | Campos | +52.326s |
| 19 | Marino Sato | Trident | +53.708s |
| 20 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +1m02.605s |
| 21 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +1m30.203s |
| 22 | Alessio Deledda | HWA | +1 lap |
Featured image credit: @fia_f2 official twitter
