Callum Ilott steered clear of trouble to seal his maiden FIA Formula 2 win in a dramatic first race of the season. The UNI-Virtuosi racer was joined in the top three by fellow Ferrari juniors Marcus Armstrong and Robert Shwarztman, with the duo taking podiums in their F2 debuts.
Ilott spent the majority of the race in a dogfight with teammate Guanyu Zhou and fellow Ferrari Academy member Mick Schumacher, but saw the duo plummet to the back of the grid late on. Both would finish out of the points as Zhou suffered from mechanical issues, before Schumacher made a mistake and went wide.
Their problems handed Armstrong – who had started in 13th – a shot at the podium on his first F2 start and the ART Grand Prix racer duly delivered. Behind him, Shwartzman was handed third and despite his best efforts, couldn’t get past his former F3 teammate.
Christian Lundgaard also impressed on his first start for ART, with the rookie taking fourth ahead of Dan Ticktum. Behind them, Giuliano Alesi enjoyed a sublime race in the BWT HWA RACELAB machine, rising from 18th to sixth.
Fellow rookie Felipe Drugovich, who had begun on the front row, dropped back to eighth but will start the Sprint Race on reverse grid pole as a result.
Race results
Classidication, #, Driver, Team
1 4 Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi
2 5 Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix
3 21 Robert Shwartzman Prema Powerteam
4 6 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix
5 2 Dan Ticktum DAMS
6 17 Giuliano Alesi BWT HWA Racelab
7 11 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System
8 15 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport
9 14 Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport
10 22 Roy Nissany Trident
11 20 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam
12 8 Jehan Daruvala Carlin
13 12 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System
14 24 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix
15 9 Jack Aitken Campos Racing
16 10 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing
17 3 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi
18 7 Yuki Tsunoda Carlin
16 Artem Markelov BWT HWA Racelab
1 Sean Gelael DAMS
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