F2 – 2020 Aramco Magyar Nagydíj: Event Analysis

Qualifying:

With rain forecasted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it looked like most of the sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix would take place in the wet, and qualifying was certainly no exception.

The first of the red flags was caused by Campos’ Guilherme Samaia, who spun off at one of the fastest corners on the circuit in the opening 5 minutes.

Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto was looking set for pole, which would have been his first points of the season, however UNI-Virtuosi decided to leave their drivers out while everyone else pitted.

This lead to both Ilott and Zhou jumping from nowhere to P1 and P3, with Ilott getting the better of his teammate.

Mick Schumacher held the early provisional pole, but was unable to improve from that lap and ended up in P5. His laptime standing despite running off track at Turn 13, unlike Nikita Mazepin, who had his best lap deleted for track limits and as a result ended up 16th.

Championship leader Robert Schwartzman could only manage P11, and will have work to do to keep his championship lead, as Ilott’s 4 points earnt for pole puts him just 1 point off the championship leader.

However before the second runs could be completed, Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala spun into the gravel at Turn 10, bringing out the second red flag of the session, with the session not restarting after.

Feature Race:

Off the start, Guanyu Zhou dropped way back from 3rd, will polesitter Ilott nailed the start, only to need to defend from an attack from DAMS’ Dan Ticktum, as he tried to go round the outside at Turn 2.

However disaster struck for the Trident team, as Roy Nissany had a massive lockup going into Turn 1 on Lap 2, and careered into the side of his teammate Marino Sato, taking them both out of the race and bringing out the Safety Car.

On the restart, Styria Sprint race winner Christian Lundgaard misjudged a move on Luca Ghiotto and ran into the back of the Hitech, taking out his front wing and puncturing the front left tyre of the ART. As he slowed through Turns 4 and 5, everyone had to try and avoid him, however in doing so contact was made between the other ART of Marcus Armstrong and the HWA of Artem Markelov, with the Russian crashing heavily on the exit of Turn 5. Both ARTs retired from the race as a result.

Markelov crashes heavily after contact with Armstrong

Ilott pitted on Lap 8, gaining an undercut on Mick Schumacher who came in on Lap 12. As a result, Ilott was able to soar past the German, who’s tyres were not yet up to temperature on a cold Hungaroring, and retake the nett race lead.

However by Lap 18, the Prema of Schumacher was right back with Ilott, and overtook the Brit around the outside into Turn 1.

Meanwhile, the other Prema of Robert Schwartzman was on the alternate strategy, and had the faster Soft Tyre on the car for the 2nd phase of the race.

He began his charge on Lap 29, passing Ghiotto for P3 with ease, before getting Ilott just a few corners later. After starting Lap 30, the gap to race leader Schumacher was 4 seconds. By Lap 31, that gap was down to nothing as the teammates went side-by-side down the front straight, with Shwartzman gaining the lead of the race.

In the closing stages of the race, the Hitech teammates were battling for the final podium place, with Nikita Mazepin on the same strategy as Schwartzman passing Ghiotto into Turn 2, before going on to pass Schumacher for 2nd, an amazing race having started from P16.

No one could stop championship leader Schwartzman however, who dominated to become the first multi-race winner of 2020, despite having started in P11. He won by a crushing 16+ seconds ahead of Mazepin, singing on the radio on the cooldown lap out of joy.

The Feature Race results can be seen below:

Sprint Race:

Ilott was on pole for the Feature Race, but after finishing in 8th on Saturday he would start on pole again for the Sprint Race, this time alongside Charouz’s Louis Deletraz.

Deletraz got away poorly, with Ghiotto doing the opposite, and the 2 battled for 2nd through Turn 1 and into Turn 2 and 3, with Ghiotto finally managed to finish the move off into the fast Turn 4 in the greasy conditions.

Title contender Dan Ticktum suffered a major blow in his championship hunt, complaining of a ‘loss of power’ on Lap 2 as he tumbled down the order and into retirement.

After a podium in the Feature Race, Schumacher was once again on fire, making the move on Mazepin into P4 on Lap 6, before going around the outside of Deletraz despite being on harder tyres on Lap 10.

Unusually for a Sprint Race, Deletraz and Charouz started on the Soft tyre. Normally you would start on Mediums and not make a pitstop, however being on Softs meant Deletraz was committed to making a pitstop. His tyres quickly faded as the degradation was extremely high, dropping to 5th on Lap 10, with Shwartzman passing him 2 laps later.

Race leader Ilott then also made a pitstop on Lap 18 to move onto the Soft Tyres having started on Mediums, as he felt that even the Mediums weren’t going to reach the end of the race. It was a bold decision to give up the lead to the Hitechs of Ghiotto and Mazepin, but it was a move that was also made by championship leader Shwartzman just behind.

By Lap 23 Ilott was back up into P2, having passed HWA’s Alesi at the end of the lap, and only Luca Ghiotto and a 26 second gap stood between the FDA driver and his second win of the season.

Schumacher made a daring overtake into the final corner of Lap 24 on Deletraz, before instantly overtaking Alesi down the main straight. Teammate Schwartzman was soon passing Deletraz too into Turn 1 to take P4 away around the outside.

Onto the final lap, Ghiotto still had a 2 second lead, however that gap was coming down unbelievably fast, with Ilott looking to make a last corner overtake on the struggling Hitech.

However Luca Ghiotto survived the attack to take his first win of 2020 by just 0.4 seconds, with Schumacher taking 2 podiums in 2 days in Hungary.

Ghiotto celebrating his masterful Hungary win

The Sprint Race results can be seen below:

The Drivers' and Constructors' Championship after Round 3 are as follows:

Formula 2 returns on August 1st/2nd for the Pirelli British Grand Prix at Silverstone.