2020 Hungaroring Feature Race

The 2020 Hungaroring Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Budapest Formula 2 Race 1, was the fifth race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Hungaroring near Budapest, Mogyoród, Hungary on 18 July 2020. The race, held in support of the Aramco Magyar Nagydíj 2020, would see Robert Shwartzman claim an impressive victory on the alternate tyre strategy.

Qualifying would see heavy rain sweep across the circuit shortly before the session, making conditions treacherous throughout the 30 minute session. Indeed, the session would be topped and tailed (and ultimately ended) by red flags as Guilherme Samaia and Jehan Daruvala both spun into the gravel, as Callum Ilott stormed to pole ahead of Luca Ghiotto.

The start of the race saw Ilott charge into an early lead, with Dan Ticktum getting a clear getaway to claim second. Behind, Mick Schumacher surged up to third as Ghiotto made a miserable getaway, while Shwartzman, the first driver on the alternate hard-soft strategy, leapt from eleventh to sixth.

At the back of the field, meanwhile, there would be some minor carnage, as Trident teammates Marino Sato and Roy Nissany collided, terminally damaging both cars. That also triggered a Safety Car with Sato stranded at turn one, while Nissany was later penalised for causing the collision.

The restart came after two laps behind the SC, although as the field dived towards turn three there would be more drama. Indeed, after losing out to Ghiotto at the restart, Christian Lundgaard would clip the back of the #25 Hitech Grand Prix on the run to turn four, destroying his front left tyre and wing. He duly began limping back to the pits with the field in his wake, resulting in teammate Marcus Armstrong knocking Artem Markelov off at turn six to trigger a second Safety Car.

The race resumed for a second time on lap seven, with Ticktum immediately diving into the pits to change his soft tyres for mediums, hoping to undercut Ilott. The Brit subsequently dived in from the lead at the end of the following tour, rejoining ahead of Ticktum as Schumacher inherited control of the race.

Schumacher stretched out his soft tyres until lap thirteen, rejoining just ahead of Ilott only to be passed by the Brit on his out-lap. They briefly battled until Schumacher finally gained the upper-hand and escaped, sitting in sixth behind the five drivers on the alternate strategy, led by Shwartzman.

Indeed, tyre wear combined with track evolution would steadily resolve the balance of the race in favour of those who started on the mediums, with Schumacher only just able to match the pace of his teammate, despite having significantly younger tyres. Regardless, the German racer would eventually reclaim the lead when Shwartzman and co. made their stops, although those who made the late change had a huge tyre advantage.

Ultimately, there would be no stopping Shwartzman in the closing stages, with the Russian racer carving his way up the field to claim the lead, going on to win the race by almost twenty seconds. Behind, compatriot Nikita Mazepin would storm through to claim second with fastest lap, while Schumacher held on to claim third ahead of Ghiotto as the first of those on the soft-medium strategy. Felipe Drugovich and Daruvala were next up ahead of Louis Delétraz, Ilott slipped to eight, while Ticktum and Guanyu Zhou rounded out the scorers.

Background
There was little news ahead of the trip to the Hungaroring, which would stage the third round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship after a massive reworking of the calendar as a result of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic. Regardless, the Hungaroring was unchanged ahead of the race meeting, with the familiar 4.381 km (2.722 mi) layout in use, and with no modifications to the two DRS zones. Furthermore, F2 would again race on the under-card for Formula One, with its sister series the FIA Formula 3 Championship also on the schedule.

Styrian Shuffles
Robert Shwartzman had retained the lead in the Championship despite failing to score for the first time in 2020 in the 2020 Spielberg Sprint Race, and had left Austria with a total of 48 points. Behind, Christian Lundgaard would leave the Red Bull Ring in second place, five off the lead after his maiden triumph, bumping Callum Ilott down to third. Dan Ticktum was next up ahead of Marcus Armstrong, the New Zealander fourteen off the lead, with sixteen drivers on the scoresheet.

In the Teams' Championship, meanwhile, ART Grand Prix had returned to the top of the table after their double podium in the Spielberg Sprint, which had left them on 77 points for the season. UNI-Virtuosi had retained second, but slipped seven off the lead, while Prema Racing had slipped to third, fifteen behind the leaders. Behind, DAMS had moved ahead of MP Motorsport to complete the top five, while Hitech Grand Prix were on the board for the first time, and had moved ahead of Trident.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:
 * * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Qualifying
Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report
Heavy rain had been order of the day at the Hungaroring on Friday afternoon, with the entire circuit soaked before the start of the F2 session, although not bad enough to delay qualifying with a well timed break in the weather. Yuki Tsunoda was the first to venture out onto the circuit with the wet Pirelli tyres, with teammate Jehan Daruvala on his tail, with those two duly setting the first flying laps of the session. A steady stream of drivers would then set their times, before Guilherme Samaia slid into the gravel to trigger a red flag.

Once the #10 Campos had been dragged away the session resumed, with the two Carlins once again leading the field out of the pits and onto the circuit. Tsunoda duly got the ball rolling in terms of flying laps, with the positions rapidly changing amid rumours of heavy rain rolling towards the circuit. Indeed, the early flurry saw Tsunoda, Louis Delétraz, Luca Ghiotto and Mick Schumacher all briefly set atop the table, while Christian Lundgaard was amongst them, just 0.005s off Ghiotto.

Schumacher and Ghiotto subsequently engaged each other in a duel for the honours at the top of the field, a battle won by the Italian, before the majority of the field dived in for fresh wets with fifteen minutes left. Only the two UNI-Virtuosis of Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott remained out on circuit, having failed to threaten the top half of the field in the opening melee. Yet, with a clear track the duo would quickly ramp up their pace, with two quick-fire laps for each leaving Ilott on provisional pole with a 1:50.767, while Zhou claimed third.

The rest of the field had, by that stage, returned to the circuit, although the Pirelli wets were notoriously difficult to get up to temperature, and hence required a couple of laps to get up to temperature. As such everyone would fail to get a decent run in before Daruvala spun into the gravel with four minutes to go, triggering a second red flag. That, ultimately, settled the session, with the officials opting not to restart the session due to tyre heating issues, as well as the threat of heavy rain skirting the circuit.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Sato and Nissany were both awarded one place grid penalties for driving to the pitlane from the paddock with illegal tyres.

Race
After rain had disrupted the FIA Formula 3 Championship race as well as the qualifying session for Formula One, there would be a break in the weather for the F2 Feature Race. Indeed, conditions had improved so much that the field would start the race on full slick tyres, with damp patches only to be found well away from the racing line. However, what rain had fallen had washed away any of the rubber laid down earlier in the weekend, meaning teams were unsure how tyre degradation would develop as the race wore on.

Report
An excellent start for pole sitter Callum Ilott would see the #4 UNI-Virtuosi streak into an early lead, while Luca Ghiotto struggled away on the damper side of the circuit. That allowed Dan Ticktum to run past him on the outside, while Mick Schumacher controlled his launch well to dive from the inside of the outside of the track to challenge both Ticktum and Ghiotto into turn one. Their battle on the brakes was duly won by Ticktum in the middle, while Ghiotto backed off on the inside line to let Schumacher into third.

Ticktum went on to challenge Ilott for the lead around the outside of turn two, although Ilott managed to squeeze his compatriot out wide to hold the lead into turn three. Behind, Robert Shwartzman combined an excellent start with a well timed lunge on the brakes into the first corner to leap from eleventh to sixth, despite starting on the medium compound Pirelli tyres. Elsewhere Guanyu Zhou had slumped to the back into the middle of the pack after a miserable start, while Christian Lundgaard would slip past Ghiotto with a dive to the inside of turn three.

The rest of the opening tour proved to be fairly clean, barring some minor hip-checks in the middle of the pack as drivers sought to gain early track position. Out front, meanwhile, Ilott would establish a small lead over Ticktum during the opening lap, while Schumacher stalked them in third. Artem Markelov, meanwhile, would get an excellent double-tow in a fight with Nikita Mazepin and Louis Delétraz on the start/finish straight, although he would ultimately bail on a lunge to the inside of turn one, braking early instead.

That manoeuvre would not help Roy Nissany, who had already missed his braking point and was hence forced to jump on his brakes and jink to avoid the Russian's BWT HWA. That jink carried him straight into the path of teammate Marino Sato, resulting in the left-front suspension collapsing on Nissany's car, while Sato limped back to the pits with damage. Sato duly retired, while Nissany's car was too damaged to move from the escape road at turn one under its own power, resulting in a Full Course Yellow.

The FCY was withdrawn at the end of lap three, with Ilott maintaining the lead at the restart ahead of Ticktum and Schumacher. Behind, Lundgaard would come under fire from Ghiotto for fourth, and duly lost out to the Italian racer when the #6 ART locked up and ran wide a turn two. However, the Dane would get a stunning exit from turn three and moved right onto the tail of Ghiotto, and began to move across to the right of Ghiotto to eye up a move into turn four.

Ghiotto, however, would move to block the manoeuvre and drifted across the #6 ART's path, resulting in contact between the left-front corner of Lundgaard's car and the right-rear of Ghiotto's. That nudge would not only break Lundgaard's from wing but also push his left-front tyre off of the rim, meaning it deflated instantly. The Dane instantly backed off in order to limp back to the pits, causing a lot of bunching behind.

Indeed, one driver to get badly baulked by the #6 ART was the sister car of Marcus Armstrong, who had tried to go inside of his limping teammate through turn five, but ultimately got caught behind. Armstrong then tried to jink out of the wake of his limping teammate with a stream of cars passing around the outside, and would drive straight into the side of Markelov. That contact sent Markelov straight off and into the tyre barriers nose first, an impact the lifted the back of the car two feet off the ground, while Armstrong was left to follow his teammate into the pits for repairs.

A furious Markelov would escape his damaged car without issue, with the Safety Car scrambled to allow the #16 BWT HWA to be dragged clear. The race would resume again at the end of lap seven, with Ilott able to re-establish his lead unopposed, for Ticktum would instantly dive into the pits to switch his soft tyres for mediums. Indeed, the DAMS squad were hoping that Ticktum could effectively undercut the #4 UNI-Virtuosi with fresh tyres, although with 30 laps to go there was a question as to whether Ticktum had gone too soon.

Regardless, Ilott would react at the end of the following tour, diving in to hand the lead to Schumacher, and would rejoin safely ahead of Ticktum. The rest of the field began to dive in to remove their softs over the following laps, with Ghiotto the next of the top five to stop on lap eleven, rejoining just ahead of Ilott, although the Brit was able to instantly pass due to having warmer tyres, with Ticktum following him through. Out front, meanwhile, Schumacher was left in control of the race five seconds clear of teammate Shwartzman, and would go on until lap thirteen before finally making his stop.

Schumacher, much like Ghiotto, would rejoin ahead of Ilott in sixth, although with cold tyres he was powerless to prevent Ilott lunging past on the run to turn two a few moments after leaving the pits. However, he would not succumb to Ticktum behind, for the Brit was already having to nurse his tyres after DAMS opted for a more aggressive setup for the weekend to improve their qualifying pace. As a result the #2 DAMS was instead having to fend off the attentions of Ghiotto, allowing Schumacher to build up temperature and remain in Ilott's wake.

Out front, meanwhile, Shwartzman would inherit a very comfortable lead, with compatriot Mazepin up into second. Felipe Drugovich was next up ahead of Jehan Daruvala, all four having started on the medium compound tyre, while Guilherme Samaia sat in fifth. However, despite having significantly older tyres than those that had stopped, their pace was on par with the best of those behind, meaning they were all in contention to win the race.

Indeed, the only driver running at a better pace than race-leader Shwartzman would be his teammate Schumacher, although the German racer would first have to find a way past Ilott. His move came at the start of lap eighteen, with the German racer sending his #20 Prema right around the outside of Ilott's #4 UNI-Virtuosi into the first corner to secure fifth. That left him in the de jure lead of those that had stopped, although he was still 25 seconds shy of Shwartzman out front, with a pitstop taking c.30 seconds.

Now clear, Schumacher began to nibble away at Shwartzman's lead, with Ilott falling away from the back of the #20 car having switched to full preservation mode. Ticktum, meanwhile, was in an even worse position, and would plummet down the field by virtue of quick-fire moves from Zhou and Louis Delétraz. Furthermore, once the race reached half distance the pace between the fastest of the stoppers and the non-stoppers would begin to equalise, with graining appearing on everyone's rubber.

Indeed, it would be status quo until the lead quartet made their stops, with Daruvala and Drugovich the first to pit, before Shwartzman abandoned the lead at the end of lap 27. He subsequently made ignominious return to the circuit on his fresh softs by locking up into the first corner that allowed Ghiotto to flash through, with the Russian racer left six seconds off the lead once Mazepin stopped on the following tour. That would setup an interesting final phase to the race, with the quartet on softs expected to carve their way up the order.

Unfortunately any hopes of a real tussle for the lead would be destroyed within five laps of Shwartzman's stop, for the Russian racer would simply dart past Ghiotto with ease down the inside of turn twelve to claim third, just two laps after his stop. A few moments later and Shwartzman swept inside of Ilott exiting the final corner to secure second, before charging away to catch teammate Schumacher. Two laps later and Schumacher's four second advantage was gone, with Shwartzman easing past down the start/finish straight to secure the lead, blasting away to secure victory.

With Shwartzman away out front it was left to his compatriot Mazepin to provide the entertainment late in the race, with the #24 Hitech likewise carving its way through the field. Indeed, having dropped to eleventh after his stop, Mazepin would quickly break back into the top ten, before a stunning double move on the struggling Ticktum and Daruvala into turn one put him into seventh. Zhou and Ilott were the next to fall to the Russian racer, before he danced right around the outside of teammate Ghiotto at turn two to secure third.

Mazepin duly eased past Schumacher on the penultimate tour to secure second to complete his charge, with a daring move around the outside of turn four getting the job done. Likewise, Daruvala would enjoy a late surge up the field, notably completing a trio of moves around the outside of the final corner on Ilott, Zhou and Delétraz on successive laps to climb to fifth. He was stalked by Drugovich, who used his superior grip out of the final corner to blast past the same trio in the closing stages, with Ilott also losing out to Delétraz on the final tour.

Out front, meanwhile, there was simply no catching Shwartzman, who had built a huge fifteen second lead by the time the chequered flag fell, purely due to his superior strategy. Mazepin claimed fastest lap and a maiden podium finish with second, while Schumacher was a battle hardened third as the best of those on the conventional strategy. Ghiotto was next up ahead of Daruvala and Drugovich, Delétraz and Ilott trailed them with the latter securing reverse-grid pole, with the rest of the points handed to Ticktum and Zhou.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Nissany received a five place grid penalty for causing a collision.

Milestones

 * Nobuharu Matsushita made his 50th FIA Formula 2 Championship start.
 * Roy Nissany made his 25th start.
 * Second career victory for Robert Shwartzman.
 * Prema Racing scored their fourteenth win as an entrant in F2.
 * This was also their 23rd at GP2/F2 level.
 * Nikita Mazepin scored his maiden podium finish.
 * Mazepin also recorded his first fastest lap.
 * Maiden podium finish for Hitech Grand Prix in F2.
 * This was their first podium finish at GP2/F2 level since the 2005 Spa Feature Race.
 * Jehan Daruvala scored his maiden points finish.

Standings
Robert Shwartzman became the first driver to claim a second victory of the campaign, and hence had managed to extend his Championship lead. Furthermore, the Russian racer would head into the Sprint Race with an eighteen point lead over Callum Ilott in second, meaning he would still hold the lead regardless of the result. Behind, Christian Lundgaard had slipped thirty points behind in third, Dan Ticktum remained in fourth, while there were just four drivers left having yet to score in 2020.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a very strong afternoon for Prema Racing, who smashed through the 100 point barrier after their double podium. They had hence leap frogged UNI-Virtuosi in second to secure the Championship lead, swapping places with former leaders ART Grand Prix to leave the French squad in third. Behind, DAMS had held fourth, four ahead of MP Motorsport, while Hitech Grand Prix had leapt from tenth to sixth.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.