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FIA FORMULA 2 BARCELONA (ESP) 15-16 AUGUST ROUND 6
Ferrari junior Callum Ilott was heading towards what appeared to be a second successive dominant FIA Formula 2 Championship feature race win for Virtuosi Racing before two late safety-car periods turned the contest on its head. This enabled Nobuharu Matsushita, who had started from 18th on the Barcelona grid, to claim victory in a dramatic race.
Ilott, who had picked up his third pole in four events, slipped to second at the start as title rival Robert Shwartzman got past on the long run down to Turn 1 on the opening lap. Seven laps later, Ilott breezed past Ferrari stablemate Shwartzman at the same corner to assume the lead for a couple of laps before making his mandatory pitstop.
Mick Schumacher was on the alternative strategy of starting on hard tyres, and had bolted from fifth to third at the start. The Prema Racing driver therefore moved in front as the other leading contenders pitted, and survived a brief off-track excursion on the exit of Turn 8 to stay in podium contention. Victory seemed inevitable for Ilott, who carved his way past those drivers who were yet to pit, including Matsushita.
Schumacher made his stop with 12 laps remaining, and Ilott reclaimed the lead when he dispatched the yet-to-stop Nikita
Mazepin at Turn 1 on the next lap.
Shwartzman, meanwhile, was struggling to respond to Ilott’s pace. The Prema man couldn’t overtake the long-running MP Motorsport car of Matsushita, and lost a net second position when Felipe Drugovich sent his MP machine down the inside at Turn 5.
The pivotal moment came when Giuliano Alesi spun after contact with Sean Gelael and his car ended up stuck at the exit of Turn 10, bringing out the safety car.
Matsushita used the neutralised period to make his mandatory stop, while Ilott, Shwartzman and Drugovich were among those to pit for a second time. Carlin rolled the dice and left Yuki Tsunoda out on track in the lead with 22-lap-old hard tyres.
Ilott attempted to use his fresher rubber to pass Tsunoda at the restart, but found Matsushita driving around his outside at Turn 4. The duo ran side by side all the way to Turn 7, where Ilott was forced off track and was left vulnerable to the chasing pack. Shwartzman capitalised by passing both Ilott and Mazepin to move back up to third. With six laps to go, Matsushita used his tyre advantage to ease past Red Bull and Honda protege Tsunoda at Turn 1 and take the lead, and Shwartzman followed him through with a move around the outside of Turn 3.
The final safety car period was triggered when Roy Nissany – fresh from making
his Formula 1 first-practice debut with Williams the previous day– crashed heavily into the barriers at Turn 3, setting up a frenetic final-lap shootout. Matsushita and Shwartzman scampered away out front, while chaos ensued behind. Points leader Ilott tried to pass Tsunoda on the inside of Turn 5, but instead was overtaken on the outside by Mazepin. The Russian passed Tsunoda for the final podium place at
Turn 10, and Tsunoda inadvertently blocked Ilott on corner exit, allowing Renault junior Guanyu Zhou to pass them both to further Ilott’s frustration. Zhou then picked up third place after the race when Mazepin was penalised for rejoining the track on the wrong side of the cone at Turn 2 following an incident earlier in the race.
Matsushita suffered from no such drama as he registered MP’S first feature race win since joining F1’s second tier in 2013. Team-mate Drugovich was left fuming in eighth, believing MP left it too late to pit him under the first of the late safety cars. But he was able to turn that frustration into a dominant sprint race victory, beating F2 veteran Luca Ghiotto by 9.536s. Schumacher completed the podium.
ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard, who came into the weekend as Ilott’s closest challenger, failed to score a point all weekend. The Renault junior was eighth on Sunday, but lost that via a penalty for an illegal last-lap overtake on Ilott.