2019 Le Castellet Feature Race

The 2019 Le Castellet Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Circuit Paul Ricard Race 1, was the ninth race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France, on the 22 June 2019. The race saw Nyck de Vries sweep to victory ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara after blitzing his start.

Qualifying had seen Câmara claim pole position, surviving two red flags in order to beat F2 rookie Guanyu Zhou by 0.320s. Best of the rest was Jack Aitken in third, ahead of de Vries, while Callum Ilott and Nicholas Latifi, Championship leader, shared the third row.

A dramatic start to the race saw de Vries streak into the lead off the line, with Aitken following him through past Câmara and Zhou. The rest of the field thundered into the first corner behind them, with Sean Gelael shooting straight into the side of teammate Mick Schumacher to cause chaos at the back of the field.

Amid that chaos Nikita Mazepin and Ralph Boschung came together, and removed each other from the race, while Dorian Boccolacci stopped further around the lap. With five cars littered across the circuit the race was halted by a red flag, with the order set as the field had completed the opening tour.

de Vries duly aced the restart to secure a lead, and would continue to lead through to his stop for harder tyres. He subsequently rejoined behind Aitken, but instantly passed the Brit, while Luca Ghiotto led the race for a handful of laps on the alternate strategy.

In between the race would be punctuated by a series of FCYs, with a high number of retirements and incidents thinning the field. Ghiotto, meanwhile, would drop down the field after his stop, before being taken out of the race after getting clipped by Juan Manuel Correa.

Jordan King inherited the lead when Ghiotto pitted, although when he swept into the pits it left de Vries ahead of Aitken at the head of the field. de Vries ultimately powered away from the Brit to claim the victory, while Aitken made a minor mistake in the closing stages to hand second to Câmara with the aid of DRS.

After the race it was announced that Mahaveer Raghunathan had picked up nine penalty points on his licence, the result of ignoring FCY conditions on no fewer than three occasions. That put the Dutch registered driver on twelve penalty points for the season, meaning he was banned from competing at the following round at the Red Bull Ring.

Background
The Circuit Paul Ricard was picked to host an FIA Formula 2 Championship round for a second successive season in 2019. Once again supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship after missing the former's trip to Canada, F2 would use the same layout of the Le Castellet circuit that it had in 2018, with no changes to the DRS zones either. Furthermore, F2 would also be supported by its sister series, the FIA Formula 3 Championship, with no changes to the entry list.

Nicholas Latifi had retained his slim lead in the Championship hunt after collecting the fastest lap points in the Monaco Sprint, meaning he remained a point clear of Nyck de Vries. Luca Ghiotto, meanwhile, had slipped even further behind in third, leaving Monte Carlo 28 points behind, with Jack Aitken having also lost ground in fourth. Elsewhere, Guanyu Zhou had moved back into the top five, getting back ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara, while race winner Anthoine Hubert had closed in behind those two in seventh.

The Teams Championship was in a far simpler state arriving in France, with DAMS remaining at the head of the pack, and holding a healthy 26 point lead. UNI-Virtuosi, meanwhile, had inched slightly closer to the French squad in second, while ART Grand Prix had lost ground in third, in-spite of breaking the 100 point barrier. Carlin completed the top five behind Campos Racing, while Trident remained at the foot of the table.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Ghiotto and Raghunathan were awarded three place grid penalties in for incidents during the 2019 Monaco Sprint Race.
 * † Mazepin was unable to set a time but was allowed to start the race at the stewards' discretion.
 * ‡ Alesi was excluded from the results after causing a collision during qualifying, and would start the race from pitlane.

Race
There were no concerns regarding the weather ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday afternoon, with no threat of rain and temperatures hovering in the low 30°Cs. There would, however, be several revisions to the grid ahead of the start, with Luca Ghiotto and Mahaveer Raghunathan serving three place grid penalties, while Giuliano Alesi was instructed to start from the pitlane after causing a collision during qualifying. That, however, was of little concern to pole sitter Sérgio Sette Câmara, who would lead the field onto the grid with Guanyu Zhou lining up alongside.

Report
The start of the race saw Sette Câmara get a significant amount of wheelspin, meaning he instantly slipped behind Zhou in the #7 UNI-Virtuosi. However, both would be beaten off the line by Nyck de Vries, who darted past the pair of them, squeezing between Zhou and the pitwall to challenge for the lead into the first corner. Furthermore, Jack Aitken would also make a strong start on the opposite side of the second row to entertain hopes of a lunge into the first complex of corners, having aborted an attempt to dive between Sette Câmara and Zhou, meaning it would be four abreast for the lead.

Ultimately it was de Vries who won the battle of the brakes on the outside line, sweeping across to secure the lead as Aitken lunged inside of the middle pair to claim second. Sette Câmara would hence emerge in third ahead of Zhou, while the rest of the field would make it through without issue. However, the clean start was only to last until the end of the opening sector, as the two Premas came together in the middle of the pack.

Mick Schumacher was the victim of the incident, having been watching Nicholas Latifi try and fail to lunge around the outside of Callum Ilott at turn three before the #6 DAMS slid out wide. With his attention divided the German was powerless to avoid teammate Sean Gelael, who got out of control on the brakes and smashed into his teammate as Schumacher turned in. The #9 car was thrown into the air and landed with heavy suspension damage, while Gelael was spun around and stranded on the inside of the extended chicane.

In the wake of that accident there would be another collision, with Nikita Mazepin and Ralph Boschung clashing on the sweep to join the Mistral, a few yards on from the Prema scene. They both ended up stranded to the side of the circuit, resulting in a Virtual Safety Car being initiated, freezing the field as it stood. Only Schumacher would make it back to the pits from the quartet of damaged cars, although one look from the Prema pitcrew was needed to confirm that the German's day was already done.

Two laps into the VSC and there was another retirement, this time in the form of Dorian Boccolacci after the Frenchman encountered mechanical woes. That, ultimately, caused the race to be halted by a red flag, with multiple cars stranded across the circuit, all needing recovery. After a brief intervention the race was resumed behind the real world Safety Car, with fifteen cars left in the field.

The restart saw de Vries control the pace well enough to maintain the lead into the first corner, with Aitken likewise able to keep Sette Câmara at bay to hold second. Indeed, the entire field was fairly spread out when the race resumed on a lap five, meaning there were no close calls or incidents as there had been on the opening tour. As such the race quickly settled into a procession, with de Vries escaping to build a lead, while Aitken led the chase with Sette Câmara on his tail.

Barring an attempt from Luca Ghiotto to pass Juan Manuel Correa into the first corner, which saw the Italian having to bail and take to the escape road, there would be no major on-track action before the pit stops began. Aitken was the first to stop lap eight with Sette Câmara on his tail, while de Vries stayed out ab additional lap on his worn soft Pirelli tyres. He duly managed to scramble out of the pitlane ahead of Aitken, who had escaped from Sette Câmara, although the Anglo-Korean racer was close enough to lunge inside the rejoining Dutchman, on cold tyres, to secure the lead into turn one.

However, de Vries was not out of the fight, and a good run out of turn seven combined with DRS down the Mistral allowed the Dutchman to draw alongside Aitken on the run to the chicane. Aitken duly moved to take the inside line, although he was powerless to prevent de Vries lunging around the outside of him on the racing line on the brakes, with de Vries just managing to keep the #4 ART on the circuit. de Vries subsequently escaped from the Anglo-Korean racer to re-secure the de facto lead, with six drivers still to stop before the end of lap ten.

One of those drivers would be Mahaveer Raghunathan, who was using the alternate hard-soft strategy to try and stay in contention for an unlikely points finish. de Vries and Aitken would quickly catch the struggling #19 MP Motorsport, with de Vries' hastily built lead evaporating as he had to wait until they reached the Mistral to get past. That allowed Aitken to entertain hopes of reclaiming the de jure lead, although de Vries had enough momentum to hold the position.

Elsewhere, Nobuharu Matsushita was in the wars, first battling with Latifi into the chicane on the Mistral only for the Canadian to make a mess of his braking point and slide down the escape road. He was subsequently challenged by Ilott as the race reached half-distance, with the Brit backing out of a brave move around the outside of Signes, before instead trying to dive inside the Japanese racer through the following right-hander. Ilott got alongside the #2 Carlin on the inside of the multi-apex turn eleven, but would lose downforce and have a tank-slapper, sending him into the side of Matsushita.

That contact tipped Ilott into a full spin, while Matsushita was pushed off track but crucially kept pointing in the right direction. The #2 Carlin duly scrambled back onto the circuit at the exit of the corner getting passed by former foe Latifi, while Ilott ended up on the outside of turn eleven and stalling. The #11 Charouz-Sauber hence had to be plucked from the circuit under the cover of a VSC, with none of those yet to stop coming in to serve their stops.

Indeed, race leader Ghiotto would wait until the race entered the final third to ditch his old hard compound tyres, with Correa and Giuliano Alesi joining him in the pits as Jordan King assumed the lead. Ghiotto rejoined just ahead of teammate Zhou on cold tyres in a de jure fourth position, although Zhou would instantly move into striking position behind. Indeed, warm tyres for the Chinese rookie meant that Zhou was able to throw his car right around the outside of his teammate at turn three, with the two UNI-Virtuosis avoiding contact.

Unfortunately for Ghiotto he would be unable to get his soft tyres up to temperature quickly enough, and hence came under fire from a charging Latifi, desperate to climb the field with main title rival de Vries in the de jure lead. Yet, his attempt to lunge inside Ghiotto into turn one was met with a late block by the Italian, with Latifi having to back out of the move. However, Latifi was not to be outdone, and duly managed to elbow his way past the Italian through turn eleven with a clever over-under move through the multi-apex right.

Two laps later and Ghiotto's race was over, for he would come under attack from Correa having failed to get his tyres into their proper operating window. Indeed, the American racer would try a lunge around the outside of the #8 UNI-Virtuosi into turn one, before throwing his car inside of Ghiotto through the second corner as they turned in. Contact between the two would leave Ghiotto with a broken tow-arm on his front right, ending his race on the spot.

Into the closing stages and de Vries had finally retaken the lead once King had stopped, and had established a fair lead over Aitken. Indeed, as the second stint wore on Aitken would increasingly struggle with his tyres, and would steadily fall into the sights of Sette Câmara as the laps ticked away. On the penultimate tour the Brazilian racer made his move, selling Aitken a dummy into turn one to sweep around the outside of the #15 Campos to snatch second.

There would be a further revision to the order on the penultimate tour, as Matsushita tried to lunge inside of Correa into the first corner, only for the American's defensive move to cause him to run into braking zone boards on the inside of the circuit. That cost the #2 Carlin momentum and allowed a quiet Anthoine Hubert to move into striking position behind him, although the Frenchman resisted a lunge into the Mistral chicane. Instead, Hubert would wait for Matsushita to make a mistake on the brakes for the final corner at the end of the lap, with the #19 Arden sneaking through to claim eighth at the start of the final tour.

With that the race was run, with de Vries running unopposed to the chequered flag to claim a seemingly dominant victory and the Championship lead, eight seconds clear of Sette Câmara. Aitken duly completed the podium in third, ten seconds ahead of Zhou, with Latifi just keeping ahead of King who had made a late charge on the alternate strategy. Correa was next up ahead of the aforementioned Hubert, who also secured reverse-grid pole, while Matsushita and Alesi secured the remaining points.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Calderón awarded a ten second time penalty for speeding during FCY conditions.
 * † Raghunathan received a one round suspension for the Red Bull Ring after picking up too may penalty points on his license.
 * ‡ Delétraz was unable to be classified as he failed to complete 90% of the race distance.
 * § Gelael forced to start the 2019 Le Castellet Sprint Race from the pitlane for causing a collision.

Milestones

 * Nyck de Vries secured his seventh victory.
 * ART Grand Prix claimed their thirteenth victory as an FIA Formula 2 Championship entrant.
 * Also their 61st triumph at GP2/F2 level.
 * Maiden points finish for Giuliano Alesi.

Standings
Nyck de Vries claimed the lead in the Championship having secured his second successive Feature race win of the season, moving sixteen clear of former leader Nicholas Latifi. Their closest challenger was now Jack Aitken, up to third ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara, while Luca Ghiotto slipped to fifth. Guanyu Zhou, meanwhile, had remained the best rookie in the field in sixth, with Anthoine Hubert also looking impressive in seventh.

In the Teams Championship it was still DAMS who led the charge, opening out a 46 point lead over UNI-Virtuosi. Indeed, the British squad were looking increasingly likely to be be fighting for second, with ART Grand Prix having made ground in third, while Campos Racing had also closed up in fourth. Carlin, meanwhile, had lost ground in fifth, yet to break the 100 point barrier, with Arden International closing them down in sixth.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.