2020 Silverstone Feature Race

The 2020 Silverstone Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Silverstone Race 1, was the seventh race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK, on 1 August 2020. The race would be the first of four to be held at Silverstone during the 2020 season, running in support of the 2020 British Grand Prix.

Qualifying would see Felipe Drugovich sweep to his and MP Motorsport's maiden pole position, beating Callum Ilott by a tenth of a second. Elsewhere, Roy Nissany caused a stir by blocking now fewer than three drivers during the first part of the session, while Championship leader Robert Shwartzman claimed a lowly eighteenth on the grid.

Before the start of the race there would be drama for home racer Ilott, who was left stranded on the grid after his engine failed to start for the formation lap. He was dragged into the pitlane to be fired up, although as a result he would start from the pitlane, rather than second on the grid.

With Ilott in the pits Drugovich should have had it all his own way into the first corner at the start, although he would instead get a poor launch. Indeed, the Brazilian racer was dumped back to fourth on the hard Pirelli tyres, as Mick Schumacher shot past to claim the lead, with Mazepin and Christian Lundgaard following him through.

The early laps were led by Schumacher on the mediums, although Mazepin remained on his tail and duly eased into the lead when DRS came online on lap three, lunging around the outside of the Prema at Stowe. After that the Russian racer was clear, although it was now those on the harder tyres who had the pace advantage, with Drugovich harassing Lundgaard for third for all his worth.

The pit window for those on mediums opened on lap eight, with Mazepin and Schumacher the first to stop of the leaders, rejoining in thirteenth and fourteenth. Lundgaard inherited the lead for a lap before making his stop, with Drugovich duly making his way back into the lead, with several other drivers on the alternate strategy.

Mazepin would make quick progress up the field, leaping up to eighth in the space of a few laps, while Schumacher dropped away after getting caught in traffic. Indeed, as Drugovich and co. made their stops in the final third of the race, Mazepin and Schumacher would filter back up to the front of the field, albeit not before the German racer had been passed by Lundgaard and Louis Delétraz.

Schumacher's pace deteriorated after that point, seeing him slip behind a host of drivers in the closings stages. Instead, the star of the show would be Guanyu Zhou on a fresh set of mediums, who stormed up from eighth to third in a single lap with a succession of stunning moves. He duly darted past Lundgaard for second before going hunting after Mazepin with two laps to go, although he faced a six second deficit.

That factor ultimately proved decisive, with Mazepin's lead absorbing Zhou's late barrage of fastest laps to leave him the victor by five seconds from Zhou. Behind, Yuki Tsunoda caught and passed Lundgaard late on to complete the podium, while Ilott stormed up to fifth from the pitlane. Delétraz was next up ahead of a disappointed Drugovich, Dan Ticktum claimed reverse grid pole in eighth, while Schumacher slipped to ninth ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita.

Background
After finally getting the 2020 season underway with a triple header at the Red Bull Ring and the Hungaroring, the F2 field would get a week break, allowing teams to service cars and drivers to recover. After that, the field would assemble at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK for the fourth round of the season, beginning another three week run of races, with a second race weekend at Silverstone, before moving to Barcelona in mid-August. Regardless, the Silverstone circuit was unchanged for the first of its 2020 races, with the same pair of DRS zones on the Wellington and Hangar Straights.

Hungaroring Habituation
Robert Shwartzman had rounded out the weekend in Hungary with a healthy Championship lead, having moved eighteen clear at the head of the hunt. Callum Ilott had held onto second with 63 points, while Christian Lundgaard had retained third on 43. Mick Schumacher, meanwhile, had risen to fourth ahead of Dan Ticktum, with eighteen of the twenty-two drivers on the scoresheet.

In the Teams' Championship Prema Racing had rounded out arguably their best weekend since the introduction of the Dallara F2 2018 at the Hungaroring at the head of the table, leaving Hungary with 120 points to their credit. UNI-Virtuosi were sat in second, six shy of the 100 point barrier on 94 points, while a pointless Sprint Race for ART Grand Prix had left them in third on 77. Hitech Grand Prix were next up after claiming their maiden victory, while DAMS rounded out the top five having made way for the rookie squad.

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
Despite temperatures having hovered well into the mid 30°Cs, clouds would gather around the Silverstone Circuit, prompting a significant increase in the chance of rain. As a result everyone bar the two Premas would venture out onto the circuit at the very start of the session, with Louis Delétraz leading the queue. The two Premas would wait a few seconds before they too joined the fray, although with the rest of the field clumped together and trying to find space, they quickly caught the back of the pack.

Delétraz duly set the first flying lap of the session, although it was Yuki Tsunoda who set the pace after the first bunch of laps, the first driver to break into the 1:40.000s. Jack Aitken was another early pace setter in the middle of the field, finishing his first flying lap just 0.040s slower than the Japanese racer. At the back, meanwhile, Roy Nissany seemingly lacked any pace, and in the process of limping around the track he would hold up Mick Schumacher twice, as well as two others.

In the final flurry before the field dived in for fresh tyres Jehan Daruvala would hit the top of the timesheets, with Tsuonda slipping back to fourth. With ten minutes to go the field began to return to the circuit, with the two Premas once again waiting until everyone else had gone to venture out. This time, Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman would wait a full lap before heading out of the circuit, as Delétraz again led the field onto their second set of flying laps.

However, there would be a shock in store during the final flurry, as Felipe Drugovich stormed to the front of the field with five minutes to go. Indeed, after matching Daruvala's first sector, the Brazilian racer found half a second in the middle sector, before acing the final part of the lap to go fastest by six tenths. Callum Ilott followed him across the line to go second fastest, having beaten his time in the final sector, with Nikita Mazepin also moving up the order.

After that, however, there would be far fewer major improvements, with only Schumacher setting another outright fastest sector before the end of the session to jump to third. That was the result of a sudden drop in track temperature in the closing stages, with most of the field only completing one flying lap on their second set of tyres. Drugovich hence ended up on pole by over a tenth from Ilott, while Championship leader Shwartzman ended up down in eighteenth after a poor session.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Race
Conditions were near perfect for the FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at Silverstone, with the track temperature hovering a 35°C, and the air sitting at 22.5°C. There was, however, a minor threat of rain to cause some concern for the teams, although the skies around Silverstone remained clear ahead of the start. Furthermore, there were no late changes to the grid, with Felipe Drugovich starting from pole as expected, although as one of a number of drivers to start on the harder compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report
There would be drama before the race even began, as front row started Callum Ilott stalled on the grid as the field pulled away for the formation lap. He was duly dragged into the pitlane by the marshals once the rest of the field had pulled clear, with the UNI-Virtuosi squad able to fire his car back up. However, he was therefore consigned to start from the pitlane, and would have to wait until the rest of the field had dived through turn two before he could join the fray.

On track, meanwhile, Drugovich was left on his own on the front row for the start proper, and so would be expecting to head the charge into the first corner. However, the Brazilian racer would make a poorer start than he had hoped on the hard Pirellis, with Mick Schumacher instead darting around the #15 MP Motorsport to secure the lead from third. Drugovich would therefore head into the first corner flick in second, while behind Nikita Mazepin muscled his way past Christian Lundgaard to secure third.

There would be a lot of action in the midfield too, with Guanyu Zhou and Jack Aitken running side-by-side through to turn four before the Chinese racer gained superiority, with Yuki Tsunoda also involved. Behind, Nobuharu Matsushita tried to lunge inside his compatriot entering the Wellington Straight, although he had to back off and hence became the centre of a six-car fight into Brooklands. The #14 MP Motorsport would enter the curving left-hander with Dan Ticktum to one side and Louis Delétraz to the other, and would only just hang on by braking later then his rivals.

Up ahead, Aitken would muscle his way back ahead of Zhou through Luffield and Woodcote, allowing Matsushita to entertain thoughts of challenging into Stowe a few moments later. Out front, meanwhile, Schumacher would escape to build an early lead over Drugovich, who was struggling on his hard tyres compared to his immediate rivals on the mediums. As a result, he would be passed by both Mazepin and Lundgaard before the end of the opening tour, the Russian firing past down the inside of Stowe, while the Dane went through at Vale.

Indeed, after dispatching of Drugovich, Mazepin would begin to close up on Schumacher, and as the early laps developed managed to get onto the German racer's tail towards the end of lap three. He duly made his bid for the lead at Stowe, forcing Schumacher to take the defensive inside line into the right hander, while he swept around the outside. That compromised Schumacher's exit as he had to give room to the #24 Hitech Grand Prix on the exit, with Mazepin duly easing ahead into Vale to fully claim the lead of the race.

With that Mazepin was away, setting a succession of fastest laps to break clear of the German racer, who instead slipped back towards Lundgaard. However, the race was beginning to settle, with the only change to the order before those on mediums began stopping coming when Tsuonda fired past Zhou into Stowe with the aid of DRS. That left the Japanese racer in sixth ahead of the Chinese ace, with those pair still running nose-to-tail when Delétraz led Ticktum into the pits at the end of lap six for hards.

Zhou would muscle his way back past Tsunoda at turn four on lap seven, having forced the #7 Carlin to take a compromising defensive line into turn three, before diving down the inside into four. A lap later and Zhou completed an identical manoeuvre on Aitken to secure fifth, although Aitken, like Tsunoda before him, would have a half-hearted look at Zhou entering Brooklands. Regardless, Zhou was away to hunt after Drugovich, the lead driver on hards, as three more drivers including his Virtuosi teammate Ilott made their stops for fresh hards.

At the end of the eighth tour Mazepin and Schumacher bailed into the pits, handing the lead to Lundgaard as the Dane stayed out for one more lap. They duly rejoined in twelfth and thirteenth, with a slower stop for Schumacher ensuring that he dropped further off the back of Mazepin then before. It also allowed Lundgaard to close up after the Dane had a flawless stop, with Drugovich moving into the lead, two seconds clear of Zhou.

As the race approached half-distance there were still nine drivers yet to stop, all of whom were using the alternate hard-medium strategy. Drugovich was still the lead driver, 23 seconds clear of ninth placed Mazepin, with Zhou, Aitken, Matsushita and Marcus Armstrong completing the top five. Championship leader Robert Shwartzman was having a quiet race to run in sixth ahead of Sean Gelael and Luca Ghiotto, while the ninth man in the ennead, Artem Markelov, had already been passed by Mazepin.

Indeed, Mazepin's move on Markelov looked to have been pivotal in the outcome of the race, for his main medium rival Schumacher could not find a way past the Russian racer. Instead, the German racer came under attack from Lundgaard, who made his bid for de jure second into Brooklands, taking the outside while Schumacher went to the inside. Unfortunately for Schumacher he would have to slow more than expected due to Markelov's slower car on the apex, allowing Lundgaard to cut back inside and get a better exit. The Dane duly eased ahead entering Luffield, before dancing the #5 ART around the outside of the #20 Prema through the right hander to secure the position.

Lundgaard quickly dealt with Markelov to go hunting after Mazepin, while Schumacher remained mired behind the #16 BWT HWA Racelab. Elsewhere, Daruvala was having similar issues with the sister HWA of Giuliano Alesi, and would require the aid of DRS to pass the Frenchman down the Wellington Straight on lap seventeen. However, they were both being stalked by a charging Ilott, who would subsequently fire past Alesi with ease a lap later as he continued to climb up the field.

Drugovich, meanwhile, would hold onto the lead until the end of lap 20, sweeping into the pits for his stop for fresh mediums before rejoining in eleventh behind Ticktum and Ilott. Zhou came in a lap later from the, having pulled out an impressive gap of ten seconds over Aitken since his move earlier in the race, with the Anglo-Korean ace joining him in the pits. Zhou would rejoin just behind Drugovich some ten seconds off the lead, with Mazepin shuffled back to the head of the field ahead of Lundgaard, with Schumacher in third.

Seven laps to go and with warm tyres all eyes were on Zhou, who would quickly dispatched of Drugovich, before easing past teammate Ilott unopposed into Brooklands on lap 23. Moments later and the Chinese racer was muscling the #3 Virtuosi down the inside of Daruvala into Stowe on the same lap for sixth, and would close up onto the back of Tsunoda before the end of the lap. Tsunoda himself was occupied with the prospect of taking fourth away from Schumacher, whom had already been passed by Delétraz and was fading badly.

Indeed, just as Zhou moved into striking position behind Tsuonda, the Japanese racer made his move on Schumacher, repeating Zhou's move on him from earlier in the race. Tsunoda would force Schumacher to defend into turn three, before muscling his way down the inside of the #20 Prema through turns four and five, before easing away with the aid of DRS down the Wellington Straight. That left Zhou on the German racer's tail, with the Chinese racer duly driving right around the outside of the #20 Prema at Luffield having pulled off an over-under through Brooklands.

Half a lap later and Tsunoda had fallen to Zhou's charge, with the #3 Virtuosi firing down the inside of the #7 Carlin into Stowe to claim fourth. A mistake from Delétraz in the penultimate corner then allowed Zhou to close right onto the Swiss racer's tail, with he and Tsunoda getting a brilliant tow from the #11 Charouz into turn three. Zhou subsequently used his superior grip to out-brake and drive around the outside of Delétraz through the right-hand hairpin, while Tsuonda muscled his way past through turns four and five.

Ilott was also making a late tear up the order after his pre-race woes, passing Schumacher and Delétraz in the wake of Zhou's storming run. Indeed, Schumacher's race was fading badly in the closing stages, with Drugovich firing past the #20 Prema without issue for seventh, leaving Schumacher on reverse-grid pole. However, the German's pace was still wavering, and on the penultimate tour the German racer was relegated to ninth by Ticktum, who had already pulled a well timed lunge on Daruvala to secure ninth through turn three.

Back with Zhou and the Chinese racer would ease ahead of Lundgaard into Stowe, diving down the inside of the #5 ART to claim second. That left him five seconds down on Mazepin with two laps to go, although it seemed that he had used the best of his tyres in his prior exploits to climb up through the field. Indeed, by the start of the final lap the race for victory was over, with Zhou failing to close the gap at all. Behind, however, there was action to be had, as Tsunoda darted around the outside of Lundgaard at Stowe on the final lap to claim third.

With that the race was run, with Mazepin sweeping across the line to secure his maiden F2 victory, while Zhou was a satisfied second. Tsunoda's late rally secured him third ahead of Lundgaard, while Ilott was left rueing his early woes as he secured fifth ahead of Delétraz. Drugovich was seventh ahead of Ticktum, who hence claimed reverse-grid pole, while Schumacher held onto ninth ahead of Matsushita.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

 * Felipe Drugovich claimed his maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship pole position.
 * MP Motorsport secured their maiden pole position in F2 as an entrant.
 * Maiden victory for Nikita Mazepin.
 * Hitech Grand Prix secured their second F2 victory as an entrant.
 * Also their third win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Despite failing to score Robert Shwartzman had retained the initiative in the Championship hunt, and would head into the second race at Silverstone with his lead intact, albeit reduced. Callum Ilott had likewise remained his closest challenge in second, but closed the gap to eight points, while Christian Lundgaard had held third and gained ground. However, Nikita Mazepin was the big winner of the day, leaping from eleventh to fourth after his maiden triumph, with Guanyu Zhou likewise moving up to complete the top five.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a bad afternoon for Prema Racing, as they lost the lead in the Championship hunt for the first time since leaving Austria. They had been supplanted by UNI-Virtuosi, although the British squad had only established a slim two point margin over the Italians. Behind, ART Grand Prix had held third ahead of Hitech Grand Prix, while Carlin rounded out the top half of the table.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.