2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race

2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race
The Red Bull Ring was unchanged to host the 2020 season opener.
Race Information
Date	4 July 2020
No.	70
Event	myWorld Großer Preis Von Österreich 2020
Location	Red Bull Ring Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Format	170 km / 60 min (Feature Race)
Lap length	4.318 km (2.683 mi)
Distance	40 laps / 172.720 km (107.323 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Guanyu Zhou
Team	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
Time	1:14.416
Fastest Lap
Driver	Callum Ilott
Team	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
Time	1:17.016 on lap 27
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Callum Ilott	Marcus Armstrong	Robert Shwartzman
Winner Team	UNI-Virtuosi Racing
Time	54:21.050
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2019 Yas Marina Sprint Race		2020 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race

The 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Formula 2 Red Bull Ring Race 1, was the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 4 July 2020. The race, which was held in support of the myWorld Großer Preis Von Österreich 2020, saw Callum Ilott sweep to his maiden F2 victory.

There had been a lot of movement in the driver market over the winter, with two new seats on offer with the addition of Hitech Grand Prix to the field. They duly hired Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto to race for them, while Arden International sold their effort to HWA Racelab, who claimed Artem Markelov and Giuliano Alesi.

Elsewhere, reigning Champion Nyck de Vries would move into the FIA Formula E Championship for the 2020 season, while Nicholas Latifi secured a seat in Formula One. Teams' Champions DAMS, meanwhile, would hire a new line-up in the form of Sean Gelael and the controversial Dan Ticktum, as seven drivers made their F2 debuts.

There had been an extended winter break ahead of the opening round for 2020, after the COVID-19 Pandemic caused the original calendar to be scrapped. A new calendar was formed in May 2020 and announced on 2 June, with F2 supporting F1 at eight meetings across Europe.

Into the opening round itself and Guanyu Zhou claimed the first pole position of the season, after Mazepin spun off in the closing moments and triggered a yellow flag. Indeed, a turbulent session saw Alesi damage his car with an off before Marino Sato caused a red flag, leaving Zhou on pole ahead of debutante Felipe Drugovich.

The start of the race saw third placed Ilott make a stunning start, charging between Zhou and Drugovich to secure the lead into the first corner. Behind, the start was fairly clean, with Mick Schumacher getting a strong start to challenge Drugovich for third, with Shwartzman following his teammate up the field.

A stunning opening lap saw Zhou fight back against his teammate Ilott, with the pair running side-by-side for half a lap before the Chinese racer re-secured the initiative. Behind Schumacher and Shwartzman would both overhaul Drugovich to claim third and fourth for Prema Racing, while Yuki Tsunoda earned himself a penalty by spinning his teammate Jehan Daruvala around at turn three.

The early laps saw Zhou establish a small lead over Ilott, Schumacher and Shwartzman, with the top four breaking away from the rest of the field. Elsewhere, Marcus Armstrong opened the pit window with an early stop on lap eight, gambling on a long second stint on the hard Pirelli 18" tyres.

Zhou went on in the lead until lap seventeen, when he dived in for hards to hand the lead to teammate Ilott. The Brit was subsequently passed on the following tour by Schumacher before making his stop, with the German racer taking his soft Pirellis to half distance.

The longer first stint worked beautifully for the German racer, as he would rejoin from his stop in the lead of the race, albeit on cold tyres. That ultimately ensured that his joy would be brief as Zhou, with fully warmed up tyres was able to dance his way back past with DRS, with Ilott following him through a few moments later.

However, just a lap later and Zhou's race was ruined, with an engine issue causing him to lose drive and plummet down the field. He trundled into the pits to have the issue looked at as, on track, Markelov rolled to a stop with an unspecified issue to trigger a safety car.

The field were bunched back up and released with Schumacher attacking Ilott for all he was worth as they escaped from a third placed Armstrong. However, Schumacher's attack was the halted by an off at turn seven that dumped him to the back of the field, leaving Ilott on his own at the head of the field.

Indeed, with that the race was over, with Ilott cruising to the chequered flag to secure his maiden F2 victory ahead of Armstrong and Shwartzman. Christian Lundgaard was next up ahead of Ticktum, while a late charge carried Alesi into the points ahead of Louis Delétraz. Drugovich finished eight to secure pole for the Sprint, while Nobuharu Matsushita and Roy Nissany scored the remaining points.

Background

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race is displayed below:

2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Livery*
1	Sean Gelael	DAMS	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
11	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
16	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
17	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA Racelab	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
22	Roy Nissany	Trident	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
23	Marino Sato	Trident	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
24	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
25	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	Dallara	F2 2018	Mecachrome 3.4L V6t
Source:

• * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Qualifying

Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report

Guanyu Zhou Secures First F2 Pole Of The Season 2020 Austrian Grand Prix-0

Yuki Tsunoda would lead the field out of the pitlane when the session opened, with the majority of the field venturing out within the first two minutes. The Japanese racer duly delivered a strong early lap to head the field, until teammate Jehan Daruvala flashed across the line in the middle of the field. The Indian racer was then supplanted at the top by Guanyu Zhou, with the Chinese racer the first driver to dip under the 1:15.000 mark.

After the opening bout of times the field would dive into the pits as one for their new sets of soft Pirelli tyres, although not before Giuliano Alesi threw his car into the gravel on his quick lap. The Frenchman dragged himself out and shuffled back to the pits, just as the first drivers emerged to build up to their second runs. However, their expeditions were to be brought to a premature end, as Marino Sato spun into the gravel and could not escape.

Indeed, the beached Trident triggered a red flag, albeit not before Felipe Drugovich had improved to third with a strong effort. The session resumed with five minutes to go and an en-masse return to the circuit, with Christian Lundgaard going close to Zhou, before Drugovich leapt ahead of the Dane to claim second. Zhou then improved to a 1:14.416 to reinforce his grip on pole position, with his main challengers opening their laps just before the chequered flag fell.

Louis Delétraz, Jack Aitken and Tsunoda all claimed fastest first sectors on their final runs, and were all in the second sector when Nikita Mazepin spun off at turn six. That caused a yellow flag to be flown and prevented the trio from improving in the second and third sectors, and hence left Zhou at the head of the pack ahead of Drugovich for the Feature.

Results

The final qualifying result for the 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race are outlined below:

2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	1:14.416	—	208.890 km/h	1
2nd	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1:14.880	+0.464s	207.596 km/h	2
3rd	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	1:14.884	+0.468s	207.585 km/h	3
4th	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1:14.922	+0.506s	207.479 km/h	4
5th	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	1:14.952	+0.536s	207.396 km/h	5
6th	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1:15.028	+0.612s	207.186 km/h	6
7th	25	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	1:15.044	+0.628s	207.142 km/h	7
8th	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	1:15.051	+0.635s	207.123 km/h	8
9th	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	1:15.128	+0.712s	206.910 km/h	9
10th	11	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	1:15.151	+0.735s	206.847 km/h	10
11th	24	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	1:15.152	+0.736s	206.844 km/h	11
12th	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	1:15.157	+0.741s	206.831 km/h	12
13th	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	1:15.208	+0.792s	206.690 km/h	13
14th	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1:15.264	+0.848s	206.536 km/h	14
15th	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	1:15.376	+0.960s	206.230 km/h	15
16th	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	1:15.457	+1.041s	206.008 km/h	16
17th	1	Sean Gelael	DAMS	1:15.604	+1.188s	205.608 km/h	17
18th	17	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA Racelab	1:15.746	+1.272s	205.379 km/h	18
19th	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1:15.703	+1.287s	205.339 km/h	19
20th	16	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab	1:15.746	+1.330s	205.222 km/h	20
21st	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	1:15.897	+1.481s	204.814 km/h	21
22nd	23	Marino Sato	Trident	1:16.011	+1.595s	204.507 km/h	22
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Guanyu Zhou	2
	______________	Felipe Drugovich
Row 2	3	______________
	Callum Ilott	4
	______________	Christian Lundgaard
Row 3	5	______________
	Mick Schumacher	6
	______________	Jehan Daruvala
Row 4	7	______________
	Luca Ghiotto	8
	______________	Robert Shwartzman
Row 5	9	______________
	Dan Ticktum	10
	______________	Louis Delétraz
Row 6	11	______________
	Nikita Mazepin	12
	______________	Yuki Tsunoda
Row 7	13	______________
	Marcus Armstrong	14
	______________	Jack Aitken
Row 8	15	______________
	Pedro Piquet	16
	______________	Roy Nissany
Row 9	17	______________
	Sean Gelael	18
	______________	Giuliano Alesi
Row 10	19	______________
	Guilherme Samaia	20
	______________	Artem Markelov
Row 11	21	______________
	Nobuharu Matsushita	22
	______________	Marino Sato

Race

It was a warm afternoon ahead of the opening round of the season, with the track temperature threatening to break 50°C after the qualifying session for Formula One had concluded. Otherwise, there would be no issues ahead of the first bout of the season, with Guanyu Zhou leading the field around for the formation lap ahead of the familiar standing start.

Report

When the lights went out it proved to be a fairly even getaway for Zhou and fellow front row started Felipe Drugovich, although would both be stunned by a charging Callum Ilott off the line. Indeed, the #4 UNI-Virtuosi scythed between the two front row cars to secure an unopposed lead into turn one, leaving teammate Zhou to sweep around the outside of Drugovich to secure second. Behind, it was a clean start for the rest of the field, with several drivers having to climb over the outside kerb on the exit of turn one to get through.

Zhou would get a run on his British teammate into turn three, although Ilott held the inside line into the corner and was able to hold the lead on the exit, with Drugovich briefly getting inside Zhou as well. As they powered out of the corner there would be minor chaos behind, with Yuki Tsunoda clumsily tagging the back of teammate Jehan Daruvala in the middle of the pack, sending the #8 Carlin into a pirouette. That incident broke the Japanese racer's front wing and earned him a five second penalty as, out front, Zhou challenged Ilott for the lead around turn four, resulting in the pair running side-by-side through to turn seven.

Indeed, after trying take Ilott around the outside of turn four, Zhou managed to get inside of the Brit on the exit as the #4 Virtuosi washed wide, although that only put him on the outside of the sister car through turn five. Yet, Ilott gave his teammate room and so the pair flashed through turn five side-by-side, with Ilott maintaining the inside line through turn six, with Zhou still hanging on on the outside. That gave the Chinese racer the initiative and inside line for turn seven, which he duly used to ease ahead of Ilott to claim the lead, as Mick Schumacher claimed third from Drugovich.

After a thrilling opening lap the race quickly calmed, with Zhou establishing a small lead over Ilott, while Schumacher stalked the pair ahead of Drugovich, with majority of the field starting on the soft compound Pirelli tyres. Elsewhere, Tsunoda served his five second penalty when he stopped for a new front-wing at the end of lap two, while Sean Gelael had engine problems and retired on lap six. He joined Luca Ghiotto and Marino Sato on the sidelines, the former having failed to start, while the latter had dropped out on lap two, both with mechanical woes.

Drugovich was the first of the leaders to stop on lap nine as Dan Ticktum was on the warpath, diving past Christian Lundgaard for fifth as the Dane held up a bunch of cars behind the lead group. Elsewhere, Robert Shwartzman was harassing teammate Schumacher for third after Drugovich's stop, while the two Virtuosi's ran on without issue at the head of the hunt. At the back, meanwhile, Marcus Armstrong was setting the timing screens alight after making an early stop, with the Kiwi setting a series of fastest laps to move into contention for the points as Drugovich emerged behind him.

It would be a little longer before Zhou ventured into the pits on lap eighteen, handing the lead to Ilott as the Virtuosi crew replaced the Chinese racer's worn softs for hards. On track, meanwhile, Schumacher would line up a move on Ilott for the lead at turn four on the following tour, and duly emerged ahead as the Brit ventured into the pits for his stop. The #4 car rejoined ahead of Zhou as the first of the drivers to have stopped, with Schumacher now left leading Giuliano Alesi, Artem Markelov and Nobuharu Matsushita on the alternate hard-soft strategy.

However, with cold tyres Ilott would come under fire from Zhou, although the Brit held on to the position on his out-lap as Schumacher dived in for his stop on lap twenty. A quick turn-around by Prema Racing got the German youth out ahead of Ilott and Zhou, although with cold tyres himself the #20 Prema was vulnerable to attack from the battling Virtuosis, particularly after Zhou had dived past Ilott at turn three in the German's wake. Indeed, come the end of lap 20 the two Virtuosis were baring down on the back of Schumacher, and would both get DRS at the start of the 21st lap of the race.

Zhou made his first bid for the lead at turn three on lap 21, although Schumacher moved across to block the inside line to deny the Chinese racer a lunge on the brakes. That would, however, compromise his exit, and with DRS and full warmed up tyres the Virtuosi was able to draft ahead of the #20 Prema on the run to turn four, and had enough momentum to retake the racing line. A chop across the nose of Schumacher affirmed the position, and caused the German to slightly lock-up and lose momentum, allowing Ilott to move into striking position for the next lap.

Indeed, a far simpler lunge on the brakes into turn three would get the #4 Virtuosi ahead of the #20 Prema on the following tour, before the Brit worked with teammate Zhou to build a small lead over Schumacher. Yet, there was drama to come as Zhou dramatically lost power exiting turn one on lap 26, the sign that his engine had cried enough after battling in the summer heat of the Styrian mountains. Ilott was hence left to fend off Schumacher on his own at the head of the field, for Alesi, Markelov and Matsushita had all come in for their soft tyres, but rejoined outside of the top ten.

Zhou managed to get his car back to the pits, with a quick reset allowing him to rejoin at the back of the field, albeit a lap down. However, a few moments later and Markelov had suffered a similar issue, although the Russian racer was forced to pull his HWA Racelab off to the side of turn three, triggering a Safety Car. Zhou hence tagged onto the back of the field, but was still a lap down, while Schumacher was able to draw right onto Ilott's tail, ahead of early stopper Armstrong and Shwartzman.

The restart came on lap 31, with Ilott powering away to escape from Schumacher, while Armstrong fended off the attentions of Shwartzman, despite having significantly older tyres. Behind, Ticktum tried to make a move on Lundgaard after the Dane had got back ahead of him at the stops, although that was thwarted by a defensive dive to the inside of turn one by the #6 ART Grand Prix. That would rumble through to turn four with Ticktum ultimately falling victim to a lunge around the outside from Louis Delétraz, while there fighting further back as Roy Nissany got inside Daruvala for ninth.

Yet, further around the restart lap there would be drama for Schumacher, who got off-line while stalking Ilott through turn six and ran across the gravel, dumping him down to fourteenth in the field. He duly got back up to speed with and pulled an immediate move on debutante Pedro Piquet for thirteenth, before hunting down and passing Daruvala and Mazepin. That left him in eleventh behind Nissany, although with time running out the German racer simply could not find an opportunity to pass the Israeli driver.

Out front, meanwhile, Ilott would command the closing stages of the race to claim a comfortable victory, sweeping across the line with an eight second lead over Armstrong. Armstrong himself was a delighted second on his debut, having kept fellow debutante Shwartzman at bay through to the chequered flag on heavily worn tyres, while Lundgaard managed to fend off Ticktum to the line to claim fourth. Alesi was next up after a late surge up the order on the softer compound of tyres, while Delétraz, Drugovich, Matsushita and Nissany claimed the remaining points.

Results

The final classification of the 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race is displayed below:

2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	40	54:21.050	-	1:17.016	27
2nd	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	40	+8.856s	-	1:17.624	18
3rd	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	40	+9.291s	-	1:17.437	15
4th	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	40	+10.878s	-	1:17.455	12
5th	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	40	+11.277s	-	1:17.355	10
6th	17	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA Racelab	40	+12.828s	-	1:17.431	8
7th	11	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	40	+16.267s	-	1:17.654	6
8th	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	40	+17.033s	-	1:18.026	4
9th	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	40	+17.435s	-	1:17.859	2
10th	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	40	+19.543s	-	1:17.952	1
11th	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	40	+20.049s	-	1:17.239
12th	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	40	+22.008s	-	1:17.985
13th	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	40	+24.996s	-	1:17.951
14th	24	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	40	+25.885s	-	1:17.715
15th	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	40	+30.138s	-	1:17.713
16th	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	40	+53.934s	-	1:18.292
17th	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	39	+1 Lap	-	1:16.983	4
18th	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	39	+1 Lap	-	1:17.240
Ret	16	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab	26	Retired	-	1:18.584
Ret	1	Sean Gelael	DAMS	16	Retired		1:19.171
Ret	23	Marino Sato	Trident	2	Retired		—
DNS	25	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

• First race for HWA Racelab and Hitech Grand Prix as entrants in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
• Debut race for Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Felipe Drugovich, Pedro Piquet, Guilherme Samaia, Robert Shwartzman and Yuki Tsunoda.
• First race for Roy Nissany since the 2018 Monza Sprint Race.
• First race for Dan Ticktum since the 2018 Yas Marina Sprint Race.
• Maiden victory for Callum Ilott.
• UNI-Virtuosi Racing secured their fifth win as an entrant.
• Maiden podium finish for Armstrong and Shwartzman.
• First points finish for Armstrong, Schwartzman, Christian Lundgaard, Ticktum and Drugovich.
• Ilott recorded his maiden fastest lap.

Standings

Victory on the opening day ensured that Callum Ilott headed the field with one race in the books, with two points for fastest lap leaving him on 27 points. Marcus Armstrong was next up in second, nine behind, while Robert Shwartzman, Christian Lundgaard and Dan Ticktum completed the top five with eleven drivers on the scoresheet.

In the Teams' Championship it was, unsurprisingly, UNI-Virtuosi who headed the charge, having claimed 31 points across the opening day. However, their lead was only a single point from ART Grand Prix after a strong opening day for Armstrong and Lundgaard, while Prema Racing had half of their tally in third. Behind, there were five other teams on the scoresheet after the opening day, with Carlin, Hitech Grand Prix and Campos Racing having failed to score.

2020 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Callum Ilott 27 ◄0 2nd Marcus Armstrong 18 ◄0 3rd Robert Shwartzman 15 ◄0 4th Christian Lundgaard 12 ◄0 5th Dan Ticktum 10 ◄0 6th Giuliano Alesi 8 ◄0 7th Louis Delétraz 6 ◄0 8th Felipe Drugovich 4 ◄0 9th Guanyu Zhou 4 ◄0 10th Nobuharu Matsushita 2 ◄0 11th Roy Nissany 1 ◄0

2020 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st UNI-Virtuosi Racing 31 ◄0 2nd ART Grand Prix 30 ◄0 3rd Prema Racing 15 ◄0 4th DAMS 10 ◄0 5th BWT HWA Racelab 8 ◄0 6th Charouz Racing System 6 ◄0 7th MP Motorsport 6 ◄0 8th Trident 1 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

References: