World of Sport: Formula 2; F3; GT World Challenge Europe; DTM; IMSA; Australian Supercars; Porsche Supercup; NASCAR Cup
FIA FORMULA 2 MONZA (ITA)
5-6 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/12
Mick Schumacher propelled himself firmly into FIA Formula 2 title contention with a dominant maiden feature-race victory at Monza. Schumacher’s second F2 season had delivered six podiums but he was yet to stand on the top step prior to Italy. He’s suffered from several near-misses, losing out to the far faster alternative strategy in Hungary, and clumsily colliding with his Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman in the second sprint race at Silverstone while they were fighting for the win. He also slid out of second in the season opener and then lost a podium a week later when debris set off the fire extinguisher in his cockpit.
Monza initially appeared to be another missed opportunity when he beached his car in the gravel on the exit of the Ascari chicane in qualifying, after leading the first half of the session. This consigned him to seventh on the grid, but he made the most impressive race start of the year to move into second by the exit of the first chicane. He tucked in behind fellow Ferrari junior Callum Ilott – who’d secured his fourth pole of 2020 – and built a healthy advantage over the cars behind.
Ilott came into the pits on lap 11 of 30 but stalled when exiting his pit box, handing the net lead of the race to Schumacher, who stopped a lap later. Ilott dropped to 21st in the 22-car field, admitting that he doesn’t “understand what to do differently” after “releasing the clutch as normal”.
Ilott began charging back through the pack as Schumacher cemented his advantage out front, avoiding the major errors or pace drop-offs that had previously cost him victories. It was instead secondplaced Christian Lundgaard who struggled with his Pirelli rubber at the end of the race, and he lost his position to F2 veteran Luca Ghiotto at the first chicane with three laps to go. Schumacher faced no such woes and took his second F2 victory, having previously won last year’s sprint race in
Hungary from reversed-grid pole position.
“Obviously it feels great, also being part of the driver academy for Ferrari, he said. “It is a great honour to win here and drive at this track. To do it in an Italian team [Prema] is even more special. The boys did an amazing job getting the car ready after yesterday’s [qualifying] incident and, therefore, this win goes to them.”
Second-placed Ghiotto’s result represented his first feature-race podium of the year for Hitech GP, while ART man Lundgaard returned to form in third. Ilott was able to recover to sixth behind his Virtuosi Racing team-mate Guanyu Zhou, who made an impressive charge of his own
from 17th on the grid to fifth, and Red Bull and Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda in fourth.
DAMS racer Dan Ticktum dominated proceedings in the reversed-grid sprint race after dispatching polesitting Haas Formula 1 reserve Louis Deletraz on the run to the first chicane on the opening lap. But Ticktum ground to a halt on his way back to parc ferme and, with just 0.05kg of the required 0.8kg fuel sample taken, Ticktum was stripped of his second sprint-race win of the season and disqualified from the race.
DAMS team principal Francois Sicard told Autosport it was down to a leaky fuel tank, an issue – along with consistent engine woes – that has plagued the French squad and many of its rivals this season.
“We [serviced the tank] three races ago and we still have some issues, and
I don’t know why, but it’s too many issues at the moment,” he said. “When it’s not the fuel tank, it’s the engine. It’s simply unacceptable. Every team on the grid has had far too many problems out of their control since the beginning of the season.”
Ticktum’s loss was fellow Briton Ilott’s gain as he inherited victory to reclaim the series lead, with fellow Ferrari proteges Schumacher and Shwartzman making it a Ferrari lock-out of the top three in the points. Lundgaard took his second podium of the weekend ahead of Schumacher, who earned his fifth consecutive top-three finish, despite nursing flat-spotted tyres.