2019 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race

The 2019 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Spielberg Race 2, was the twelfth race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on the 30 June 2019. The race, held in support of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix would see Sérgio Sette Câmara secure his first victory since 2017, as Nyck de Vries extended his lead atop the Championship.

Jordan King would start the race from pole position, with Louis Delétraz starting alongside. Those two duly made good starts to retain their positions into the first corner, while Câmara, who started from third, was one of three drivers to be mugged by de Vries on the run to the newly re-named Niki Lauda Kurve.

All eyes were on de Vries during the early stages, with the Dutchman sweeping into the lead with successive moves on King and Delétraz to move into the lead. However, the Dutchman's joy was not to last, for a glitch in his electronics caused his pit-lane speed limiter to activate, sending him back to sixth before he got back up to speed.

That left Delétraz at the head of the field, although he was almost instantly mugged for the lead by Câmara as de Vries recovered. The Brazilian racer duly eased clear over the following laps while, further down the field, Mick Schumacher was carving his way up the order after starting a lowly eighteenth.

The order would, however, remain fairly static out front until the closing stages, when a failure for Delétraz sent his car skating into the barriers. That brought out the safety car to allow the Carlin to be pulled out of the barriers, with the entire field now right behind Câmara's DAMS.

The race resumed with two laps to go, with Câmara bunching up the field dramatically before he blasted clear. The resulting bunching saw Guanyu Zhou, then in third, fall behind de Vries, with the Chinese driver ultimately slipping further down the field in the closing stages with worn tyres.

Câmara would duly go on to claim victory ahead of Ghiotto, while de Vries had to put up a furious defence to keep a hard charging Schumacher at bay for third. The Dutchman would also collect the fastest lap points to extend his Championship lead to 37 points over Nicholas Latifi, who only managed to claim sixth.

Background
The Red Bull Ring required no further changes after the Feature, with the DRS zones not requiring any adjustment. There was, however, a revision to the starting order, with Arjun Maini sent to the back of the grid due to being disqualified from the feature race for using the wrong tyres. Regardless, Jordan King would start the Sprint from pole position ahead of Louis Delétraz and Guanyu Zhou.

Nyck de Vries had extended his lead in the Championship after securing pole and a podium finish, pulling out a 29 point advantage over Nicholas Latifi. Sérgio Sette Câmara was next up, having moved ahead of Jack Aitken, while Luca Ghiotto completed the top five, a point off of the Brit. Guanyu Zhou was still the best placed rookie in sixth, a point off of teammate Ghiotto, while Nobuharu Matsushita had shot into eighth after his first win of the season.

In the Teams Championship it was DAMS who continued to command the title hunt, heading into the Sprint with a 34 point lead. UNI-Virtuosi were their closest challengers, with a small gap between themselves and third placed ART Grand Prix. Campos Racing were next ahead of Carlin, while Trident remained glued to the foot of the table.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Race
Conditions remained warm and dry on Sunday morning for the F2 sprint race, with no threat of rain for the 40 minute race around the Red Bull Ring. Likewise, there would be no late revisions to the grid ahead of the race, with Jordan King starting from pole position after finishing eighth in the 2019 Red Bull Ring Feature Race.

Report
Unfortunately for King his start was not good enough when the lights went out, with the Brit coming under instant pressure from Louis Delétraz on the sprint to the first corner. Indeed, Delétraz was alongside the #16 MP Motorsport before King could respond to grab the inside line into the first corner, although King bravely ran right around the outside of the #1 Carlin to secure the lead. Behind, the rest of the field would make it through the first corner without issue, with Delétraz coming under attack for third on the next sprint to turn three.

Guanyu Zhou was the man to challenge Delétraz for second into turn three, although his lunge around the outside only succeeded in allowing Delétraz to push him wide. That allowed Nyck de Vries and Sérgio Sette Câmara to breeze past on the exit of the hairpin, with Sette Câmara going on to attack de Vries into turn four, although the Dutchman would dive to the inside of the corner to hold the position. Behind, Luca Ghiotto swept to the inside of Anthoine Hubert as the Frenchman himself dived inside of Nobuharu Matsushita into turn four, resulting in Matsushita getting squeezed out onto the gravel on the outside.

The rest of the opening tour was less eventful, with King reinforcing his lead out front, while Delétraz held onto second, a second behind the Brit. Behind, de Vries would fend off an over-under from Sette Câmara through turn six to hold third, while Zhou managed to hold fifth from Ghiotto. Jack Aitken, meanwhile, would pounce on Hubert to secure seventh, while Matsushita found himself down in twelfth after his brief gravel bounce.

The early stages saw de Vries move up into the lead of the race first managing to fire the #4 ART Grand Prix past Delétraz into turn four on lap two. A lap later and the Dutchman was able to make an identical move on the Brit into the very same corner to secure the lead, before immediately darting clear to establish control of the race. King was hence left to fend off the attentions of Delétraz and Sette Câmara, before all three, as well as the two UNI-Virtuosis, suddenly shot past the #4 ART midway through lap five.

Indeed, de Vries would suffer an electrical issue exiting turn four on the fifth tour, when his pit-lane speed limiter activated and restricted his speed. Although the Dutchman would react quickly and get back up to racing speed, the lost momentum saw him tumble from first to sixth, with King reclaiming the lead. However, Delétraz was right on the #16 MP's tail, and duly fired the #1 Carlin down the inside of King for the lead into turn three, moments after they had shot past de Vries.

King just managed to hang on around the outside, before getting a better exit out of the hairpin to briefly reclaim the lead. However, Delétraz would have the aid of DRS to draw fully alongside, while Sette Câmara and Zhou got slipstream and DRS from both to setup a four car shootout into turn four. Ultimately, however, Delétraz was the man to win the battle, sweeping inside of King to secure the lead, although King just managed to hold onto second from a lunging Sette Câmara on exit.

However, it was only a matter of time before the Brazilian got past the Brit, with Sette Câmara duly streaking down the inside of King into turn three a lap later to claim second. That move allowed Zhou to get a run on the #16 MP on the run to turn four, with the #7 Virtuosi duly diving past through the right-hander to secure third. After that, King would continue to fall down the field and out of contention, with Ghiotto and de Vries also moving past the Brit without issue.

Out front, meanwhile, Sette Câmara was stalking race leader Delétraz, with the Swiss racer having been unable to escape after taking the lead from King. On lap nine there was little he could do to prevent the Brazilian from sweeping into the lead, with another conventional lunge into turn three getting the job done for the Brazilian. With that Sette Câmara was away, establishing a small lead over Delétraz, while Zhou chased them in third.

Elsewhere, Hubert and Aitken were fighting over seventh, with the Frenchman rather rudely bumping his way past the Brit on the brakes for turn three. Hubert hence emerged from the hairpin with the position, although Aitken would get a better exit and had DRS to try and reclaim the position. Unfortunately the Brit would misjudge his attempt to jink from the inside to the outside of the #19 BWT Arden, and duly removed his own front wing on the back of Hubert's car as they hit the brakes.

As the race settled down as it reached half-distance it was Mick Schumacher who proved to be the man to watch, with the German racer managing to squeeze past Hubert having watched Aitken smack the back of the #19 Arden. With that the German youth quickly latched onto the tail of King, before pulling an audacious attempt to pass the Brit through turn six with an over-under. That failed although Schumacher managed to muscle the #9 Prema down the inside of King through turn seven, with the pair duly running side-by-side through turn eight.

Indeed, their fight would carry on through to turn nine, with Schumacher ultimately backing down on the entry to the deceptively tight right hand flick, having been on the outside of King. Schumacher hence moved back into the queue ahead of Hubert, causing the Frenchman to lose momentum and hence lose out to a lunging Nicholas Latifi into turn one at the start of the following tour. King, however, could not escape the German racer, with Schumacher duly firing past on the brakes for turn three a few moments later.

Back with the lead group and Ghiotto was challenging teammate Zhou for third, and would send the #8 Virtuosi lunging inside of the sister #7 car into turn four, before running out wide on the exit. That allowed Zhou to get back inside the Italian racer on the exit of the corner with better traction, resulting in the pair going side-by-side through turn five, with Zhou not quite ahead, but on the outside line for turn six. As a result the Chinese racer would ultimately back off heading into turn six, leaving Ghiotto in third.

That would soon become second a few laps later, for Delétraz would go flying off the circuit on lap twenty after a failure under braking for turn one, having just got back into striking position behind Sette Câmara. The #1 Carlin was left buried in the tyre barrier with terminal damage, although Delétraz was able to escape the car without injury. Regardless, the ruined Carlin would trigger a Safety Car, bunching the field back up ahead of the restart with six laps to go.

Sette Câmara duly aced the restart to reinforce the lead ahead of Ghiotto, while Zhou held third from de Vries. Indeed, the restart proved fairly tame, with the only change to the order at the head of the field coming when Matsushita fired around the outside of Juan Manuel Correa for eighth on the brakes for turn three. Out front, meanwhile, Sette Câmara would break a second clear of Ghiotto, while the Italian was quickly able to escape from Zhou over the rest of the restart lap.

Indeed, Zhou would struggle after the restart, and was powerless to prevent de Vries from diving past into turn one on lap 25, a lunge which would also allow Schumacher to drag ahead on the run to turn three. Behind, Matsushita pulled an identical move on Latifi to secure seventh, with third through ninth separated by just two seconds with four laps to go. Matsushita's work was not over, however, as just moments after passing Latifi, the Japanese racer would try an ambitious lunge on the brakes into turn four, although King was able to fend him off by allowing his car to run wide and block the #2 Carlin.

Matsushita would eventually force his way past the Brit, before leading King past the struggling Zhou in the closing stages. However, that delay had dropped them off the back of the fight for third, with Schumacher trying to lunge around the outside of de Vries into turn three, only for the Dutchman to defend the inside line. Schumacher then tried an over-under on the exit to try and get a run into turn four, although de Vries ultimately managed to hold the inside line into the corner to hold third.

With that the race was run, with Sette Câmara sweeping across the line to secure victory, a second clear of Ghiotto. de Vries was next up ahead of Schumacher, with Matsushita almost catching them in fifth, while Latifi grabbed sixth from King on the final tour. Zhou, meanwhile, would just manage to nurse his tyres to the chequered flag to secure the final point, narrowly keeping Callum Ilott at bay by half a second.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Hubert was hit with a five second time penalty for causing a collision with Aitken.
 * † Aitken was awarded a five second time penalty for causing a collision with Hubert.

Milestones

 * Second career victory for Sérgio Sette Câmara.
 * It was also the Brazilian's first win since the 2017 Spa Sprint Race.
 * DAMS registered their twelfth win as an entrant in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
 * It was also DAMS' 37th victory at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Nyck de Vries would leave Austria with an even more enhanced lead in the Championship, having moved 37 points clear of his closest challenger. Nicholas Latifi was that challenger, with race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara having closed up to the back of the Canadian in third. Luca Ghiotto was next, the first man yet to break the 100 point barrier, while Jack Aitken completed the top five.

In The Teams Championship it was DAMS who, as ever, left a race weekend in control of the title hunt, 40 points clear of UNI-Virtuosi. Those two were also clear of ART Grand Prix in third, the French squad 64 points off the lead, while Campos Racing and Carlin completed the top five. BWT Arden were next, the first of those yet to break into triple figures at the halfway point, while Trident would head into the second half of the season with just four points to their name.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.