Monza F2: Schumacher charges to first victory of 2020

Schumacher had taken more podiums than any other driver prior to the weekend but was still awaiting a race victory in his second season racing in F2 with Prema.   

He led the early stages of qualifying but beached his car in the gravel on the exit of Ascari and ended up seventh on the grid.  

However, Schumacher was able to make his characteristic fast getaway off the line and moved into second place on the opening lap behind polesitter Ilott (Virtuosi).  

He remained within two seconds of race leader Ilott in the early stages of the race whilst the drivers behind frenetically squabbled for the final place on the podium.  

Ilott pitted at the end of the 11th of 30 laps but stalled when exiting his pit box and fell to 21st position, handing Schumacher the net-lead of the race.  

Renault junior Christian Lundgaard then became Schumacher’s main challenger but Schumacher was able to keep a consistent buffer of around three seconds to the ART Grand Prix driver, who was forced to switch his attention to third-placed Luca Ghiotto.  

Luca Ghiotto reeled in Lundgaard and passed him for second place at the first chicane with just three laps of the race remaining.  

But the Hitech GP driver was unable to make significant inroads into Schumacher’s advantage, eventually finishing 3.185s behind.

It marked Schumacher's first F2 victory since he won the Hungarian sprint race from reverse-grid pole position last year and it vaults him to third in the drivers’ championship.  

Lundgaard settled for third place ahead of Red Bull and Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda, who made a poor start from the first row of the grid.  

Ilott’s teammate Guanyu Zhou charged from 17^th on the grid to complete the top five on the alternative strategy.  

Ilott was able to recover from his pitlane drama to finish in sixth place, just edging Williams F1 development driver Dan Ticktum by one-tenth of a second.  

Haas F1 reserve driver Louis Deletraz finished in eighth place to claim reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s sprint race.  

Schumacher’s teammate Robert Shwartzman had a muted run to ninth place from 16th on the grid, with Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala claiming the final point in 10th place.  

Red Bull junior Juri Vips was 11th for the third successive race for DAMS.  

Nikita Mazepin, who lost his Spa feature race win following a post-race penalty, retired with mechanical woes whilst fighting for a top-five finish.  

Monza F2 - Feature race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time
1	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam
2	25	Luca Ghiotto	HitechGP	3.100
3	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	7.300
4	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	9.200
5	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	12.500
6	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	15.100
7	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	15.200
8	11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	17.500
9	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	18.200
10	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	21.100
11	1	Jüri Vips	DAMS	23.900
12	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	25.000
13	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	27.800
14	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	28.300
15	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	28.600
16	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	29.200
17	16	Artem Markelov	HWA AG	29.900
18	17	Giuliano Alesi	HWA AG	30.300
19	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	33.000
20	23	Marino Sato	Trident	51.400
21	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	52.400
	24	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	6 laps
View full results