2019 Spa Feature Race

The 2019 Spa-Francorchamps Formula 2 Race 1, otherwise known as the 2019 Spa Feature Race, was the seventeenth round of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, on 30 August 2019. The race would be one of the darkest day's in F2's history, as a huge accident at Raidillon claimed the life of rookie Anthoine Hubert.

Championship leader Nyck de Vries had claimed pole position during qualifying, beating Sérgio Sette Câmara by two tenths. Jack Aitken and Nobuharu Matsushita would share the second row, while Hubert qualified down in thirteenth.

The race would start with de Vries claiming an early lead, while Câmara fended off the attentions of Aitken into La Source. The rest of the field made it through without issue, with the order remaining fairly stable throughout the opening lap.

Unfortunately the clean running was not to last, as Giuliano Alesi suffered a puncture on the run through Eau Rouge, and subsequently spun at Raidillon. Ralph Boschung and Hubert dodged to avoid but made contact with each other, breaking Hubert's front wing and sending him skating into the barriers.

Hubert's car then rebounded back onto the circuit, where it was struck by Juan Manuel Correa, who had hit some debris from Alesi's crash and had broken suspension. The T-Bone collision between the two at 135.5 mph caused fatal head injuries to Hubert, while Correa suffered multiple leg fractures.

The race was immediately red flagged, and subsequently abandoned when the seriousness of Hubert's injuries were detailed en-route to hospital. After Hubert succumbed to his injuries F2 decided to cancel the Sprint Race, and would later immortalise Hubert by withdrawing #19 as a race number, and naming a trophy for best rookie after him.

Correra would survive the collision, under going several intensive operations and being placed in a medically induced coma at the scene, from which he was awoken on 20 September. On 29 September Correa would undergo major reconstructive surgery on his right leg to avoid full amputation, with the operation deemed a success.

Background
The 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship tour reconvened at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the first race meeting after the summer-break, once again supporting the Belgian Grand Prix. The Series would use an unchanged Spa circuit, although there were plans to extend run-off areas and increase the amount of gravel traps at the circuit, in a bid to attract MotoGP and WSBK. There would, however, be a change to the entry list, as Marino Sato replaced Arjun Maini at Campos Racing as the Indian racer was away racing in the ELMS.

Hungaroring High jinks
Nyck de Vries saw his Championship lead extended as a result of the Hungaroring Sprint Race, leaving the Hungarian circuit with a 30 point advantage. Nicholas Latifi had retained his status as the Dutchman's closest challenger in second, while Sérgio Sette Câmara had secured third, moving six ahead of Luca Ghiotto. Jack Aitken completed the top five, just a point off of Ghiotto, while race winner Mick Schumacher had moved into eleventh.

In the Teams' Championship DAMS had broken the 300 point barrier as they continued to their domination of the Championship, leaving Hungary on 307 points and with a 65 point lead. UNI-Virtuosi were their closest challengers, albeit with their own healthy margin over third placed ART Grand Prix. Campos Racing and Carlin were therefore the closest Teams in the top five, sat on 164 and 145 points respectively, while Prema Racing had moved closer to the Sauber Junior Team at the bottom end of the table.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * King and Raghunathan were both awarded three place grid penalties for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flag conditions.

Race
Conditions were near perfect ahead of the Feature Race, with clear skies and warm sunshine belaying any fears of rain for the 60 minute battle around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. There were likewise no revisions to the grid after the post-qualifying penalties had been applied to Jordan King and Mahaveer Raghunathan, with Nyck de Vries starting from pole position as planned.

Report
de Vries would get a perfect launch away from the grid when the lights went out, and hence led the sprint into La Source without opposition. Behind, Sérgio Sette Câmara and Jack Aitken would be caught flat footed by Nobuharu Matsushita, who shot between the duo to claim second. Sette Câmara tried to make amends with a lunge around the outside of the hairpin, although he ran too wide and hence slipped behind Aitken too on the run to Eau Rouge.

Fighting continued down the Kemmel Straight on the opening tour, with Mick Schumacher diving past Guanyu Zhou, after the Chinese racer had run wide entering Raidillon. Jordan King was likewise on the move with a lunge around the outside of Ralph Boschung, with the pair going on to run side-by-side through Les Combes and Bruxelles before King got ahead at Speakers' Corner. Elsewhere, Nicholas Latifi was out of contention after picking up a puncture, with the rest of the field completing the opening tour without issue.

Unfortunately the clean running was not to last.

Accident
As the field thundered through Eau Rouge tenth placed Giuliano Alesi would experience a sudden deflation in his right rear tyre, which sent the #21 Trident slamming into the outside wall, before rebounding across the circuit at Raidillon. Ralph Boschung and Anthoine Hubert were next on scene and jinked to avoid, only for Hubert to hit the back of Boschung before having an accident on the outside wall at Raidillon, hitting the tyre barrier at 135 mph. Bits of the #19 BWT Arden were flung across the run-off area, while the rest of Hubert's car slid back towards the circuit.

As that was going on Juan Manuel Correa would hit debris for Alesi's deflated tyre as he crested Raidillon, smashing the front wing and making it impossible for the American racer to steer. The #12 Charouz-Sauber would subsequently slam nose first into the side of Hubert's car, splitting the Arden in two between the cockpit and engine, while also ripping apart Correa's nose. The two cars were then sent skating back onto the circuit, with neither driver moving after the huge collision at 130 mph.

Less than five seconds after their collision the race was halted by a red flag, with marshals swarming to the now destroyed cars of Hubert and Correa. Hubert was seen by a medical officer inside of a minute, although the Frenchman was declared dead upon arrival at the medical centre. Correa, meanwhile, was extracted from his car and put into a medically induced coma at his behest after being sent to Liège Hospital.

Post-race
With Hubert and Correa in critical conditions and Alesi also taken to hospital the officials decided to abandon the race, with no points awarded due to the fact that the field had only completed one lap. After the announcement of Hubert's death the Sprint Race was cancelled, while the cars of Hubert, Correa, Alesi and Boschung were impounded by the police pending a manslaughter investigation.

FIA Investigation
The FIA launched an immediate investigation into the events of the accident, with the official report released on 7 February 2020. The report first concluded with "reasonable probability" that the reason for Alesi's accident, the catalyst of the incident, was a sudden deflation of his right rear tyre. It also ruled that there had been no fault on the part of either Boschung nor Hubert in avoiding Alesi's car, nor with Correa who had suffered suspension damage after hitting debris left from the #21 Trident.

The report also released figures regarding the incident, noting that Hubert hit the barriers at Raidillon at an angle c.40° at 135 mph, before coming to a near full-stop relative to the direction of traffic on track. Correa's impact with the #19 Arden was registered at 135.5 mph, with Hubert receiving a 81.8g of peak force at point of impact, briefly catapulting the Frenchman's car to 65.5 mph. The entire incident from Alesi's off to Hubert and Correa's cars coming to a stop took 14.6 seconds.

The FIA also concluded that the reaction from the marshals were "timely and good", with the first yellow flag appearing 1.8s after Alesi's initial incident. That was escalated to a double yellow 2.5s after Correa struck Hubert, before the red flag was shown 2.7s as Hubert's car "came to rest on track on its left-hand side". Finally, Hubert received his first on-scene medical evaluation within 54s of the red flag.

Milestones

 * Fourteenth and final start for Anthoine Hubert and Juan Manuel Correa.
 * First FIA FIA Formula 2 Championship race to be abandoned.
 * Hubert became the first driver to die at a Grand Prix weekend since Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
 * It was also the first fatal accident to occur at a Grand Prix meeting since Jules Bianchi's accident at the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix.

Standings
After an awful weekend in Spa-Francorchamps only one driver had officially registered points, with Nyck de Vries having received four points for claiming pole position. That ensured that the Dutchman increased his points tally to 200 points, and moved 34 points clear of second placed Nicholas Latifi. Sérgio Sette Câmara was next ahead of Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken, while the late Anthoine Hubert remained in seventh.

In the Teams Championship it was, unsurprisingly, DAMS who led the charge after the difficult day in Spa, holding their lead with 307 points. UNI-Virtuosi were still in second, on 242 points, while ART Grand Prix had been the only scorers, moving onto 206 points. Campos Racing and Carlin then completed the top five, with no changes to the rest of the field.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.