2020 Sakhir Feature Race

The 2020 Sakhir Feature Race, formally known as the 2020 Sakhir Formula 2 Race 2, was the twenty-third and penultimate race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Bahrain International Circuit on the Outer Circuit on the 5 December 2020. The race would see Mick Schumacher get his first chance to claim the Championship title, having started the weekend with a fourteen point lead over Callum Ilott.

The final weekend would not start well for Schumacher, however, with a disastrous qualifying session seeing him slump to eighteenth after a collision with Roy Nissany late on. Main title rival Ilott would claim ninth, one of his worst performances of the season, while Yuki Tsunoda, an outsider for the title, claimed pole position just ahead of fellow outside shot Nikita Mazepin.

The start of the race would see Tsunoda make a reasonably good launch, although he would be distracted by an issue with his helmet as the field approached the first corner and backed off. That allowed Mazepin and Robert Shwartzman to sweep past him to claim first and second, with Tsunoda himself ending up in third.

Behind, the title protagonists had gained a little ground, with Ilott up to seventh while Schumacher had ascended to sixteenth, the latter having started on the harder compound of tyres. Schumacher would continue to climb up the order to eleventh as the early laps ticked away, while Ilott's pace faded as his soft Pirelli tyres faded.

The two main title protagonists would then almost come face-to-face as the pit stop phase began, although Ilott would dart into the pits for fresh hard tyres moments after Schumacher dived past Marcus Armstrong to claim tenth. Ilott duly rejoined at the bottom end of the field, well behind Mazepin, Shwartzman and Tsunoda who had already pitted.

The pitstop phase continued to shuffle the order, with Schumacher ultimately pitting from the lead with twenty laps to go, rejoining in thirteenth behind Dan Ticktum. Ilott, meanwhile, had managed to get back into the lead group as a result of a quick turn around, although he was not in the fight for victory, with Mazepin, Shwartzman and Tsunoda staging an enticing truel.

Tsunoda was the man to watch, with a brave lunge carrying him past Shwartzman for second just as Christian Lundgaard emerged from the pits from his stop. The Japanese racer then engaged Mazepin for the lead, with a flowing duel between them coming to a conclusion when Tsunoda threw the #7 Carlin down the inside of the #24 Hitech.

With that the fight for victory was over, although the closing laps would see more fighting for the podium as those on softs came to the fore. Indeed, a barnstorming Guanyu Zhou would fly up the order having been one of the last stoppers, the Chinese racer elbowing his way up into second with a stunning double move on Mazepin and Felipe Drugovich.

That ultimately settled the race, with Tsunoda holding a comfortable five second lead over Zhou to the chequered flag to claim his third win of the campaign. Mazepin then completed the podium ahead of Drugovich and Shwartzman, while Ilott claimed sixth just ahead of Schumacher. Indeed, the German racer had made some late ground with moves of Jehan Daruvala, Ticktum and Pedro Piquet, while also claiming fastest lap to ensure that he held a fourteen point lead ahead of the Finale.

After the race, however, there would be a change to the final classification, with Mazepin awarded two time penalties that relegated him from third to ninth for forcing other drivers off track. His demotion hence elevated Felipe Drugovich onto the podium, while Dan Ticktum would start the Finale from pole.

Background
A week after the chequered flag fell on the 2020 Bahrain Sprint Race, the FIA Formula 2 class of 2020 reconvened in the Bahraini paddock for the final two races of the campaign. However, unlike the previous week, the finale would be staged on a heavily modified version of the Sakhir circuit, with the series using a cut-through between turns four and thirteen. The new route was expected to potentially allow the F2 field to threaten the 1:00.000 barrier for a flying lap in qualifying, with DRS zones down the start/finish straight and on the run between turns three and four.

The Hamilton Effect
Ahead of the final F2 round of the campaign there would be a series of moves in F2's parent series Formula One, after reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton tested positive for Covid-19. His absence opened a seat at the dominant Mercedes team, which was duly taken by 2018 F2 Champion George Russell, with the Brit himself leaving a vacant seat at Williams. That duly led the Williams drafting in their reserve driver Jack Aitken for the Sakhir Grand Prix, with the Anglo-Korean racer therefore unable to race in F2 at the finale.

With Aitken making his F1 debut, Campos Racing were left to place Ralph Boschung in Aitken's now driver-less car for the finale, marking the Swiss racer's return to the series. Indeed, having announced earlier in the build-up to the finale that he was joining the Spanish squad for the 2021 season, Boschung was placed in the #9 car for his first taste of F2 since the 2018 Monza Sprint Race. It also marked Boschung's return to Campos, having previously raced for them during the 2017 Formula 2 Championship.

Dreams Achieved
Elsewhere, there were more transfers from F2 to F1, with two drivers from the class of 2020 earning themselves seats ahead of the 2020 finale. The first driver to be announced was Nikita Mazepin who, despite not having the requisite FIA Super Licence points to race in F1, was signed by the Haas F1 Team for the 2021 F1 season. The Russian racer would hence enter the finale knowing that he had to finish in the top seven in the Championship to ensure that he officially earned his Super Licence on points, rather than have to rely on getting a waver from the FIA.

A day later and Haas announced their second driver for the 2021 season, with little surprise in either of the F1 and F2 paddocks when that driver was revealed as 2020 F2 Championship leader Mick Schumacher. Indeed, Schumacher had been widely expected to claim a F1 seat in 2021 since the start of the 2020 season, with most reports having linked Schumacher with a seat at Alfa Romeo, before they gave Antonio Giovinazzi an additional season in-spite of his mixed form. Instead Schumacher took his chance in F1 with Haas with backing from Ferrari and the Ferrari Driver Academy, who were widely rumoured to have used their leverage as a major supplier to Haas to get Schumacher a seat.

Piastri Promotion
As Schumacher moved up to the top echelon of motorsport, his replacement in F2 was unveiled as Prema Racing made another rather unsurprising announcement. The Italian squad revealed that they had promoted Oscar Piastri to F2 for the 2021 season, having equipped the Australian driver with the equipment he required to win the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship, F2's sister series. Piastri hence became the first driver to be named as a driver for the 2021 campaign, with Boschung's announcement made a few hours later.

Bahraini Bouncer
Mick Schumacher had eked out his Championship lead as a result of the Bahrain Sprint Race, and would head into the finale with a fourteen point lead. Indeed, a non-score for Callum Ilott meant that the Brit would have to prevent Schumacher outscoring him by four points in the 2020 Sakhir Feature Race to keep his title hopes alive heading into the final day, and would likely have to beat the German racer to entertain any hope of the title. Behind Nikita Mazepin, Robert Shwartzman and Yuki Tsunoda all remained in mathematical contention for the title, although they were realistically too far back to challenge.

In the Teams' Championship the title fight would also roll onto the finale, although it was more a matter of when, not if, Prema Racing would seal the title. Indeed, the Italian squad would start the final Feature Race of the campaign with a 47.5 point lead over UNI-Virtuosi, meaning they would take the title in the Feature Race if Virtuosi failed to outscore them by nineteen points. Behind, Hitech Grand Prix had all but secured third ahead of Carlin, with the latter in a fight with ART Grand Prix for fourth at the final two races.

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
With the lights on around the revised Sakhir circuit the F2 field ventured out onto the circuit, with everyone bar the two Premas heading out as soon as the pits opened. Christian Lundgaard would lead the rest out, and after some brief exchanges, was the first driver to set a representative flying lap, a 1:03.798. Yuki Tsunoda would follow the Dane across the line and go second, with Nikita Mazepin the next man in the barrage to set a time to go third.

The nature of the short, near one minute, lap meant that drivers were able to complete two or three flying laps before they returned to the pits, with the order constantly shuffling as a result. Indeed, Mazepin's next effort saw the Russian youth break into the 1:02.000s to go fastest, with Tsunoda again slotting into second having almost eclipsed Mazepin's mark. Tsunoda then managed to go fastest with his third flying lap as Mazepin failed to improve, before the field began to venture back into the pits for fresh soft tyres with half of the session left to run.

As the rest filtered into the pitlane, Prema sent out Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher onto an empty track, hoping that the quiet circuit would allow their duo to dictate their own pace. The ploy did not, however, go to plan, with both Schumacher and Shwartzman failing to break into the top ten with their first laps, with Schumacher making a mistake to boot. Shwartzman then found some time on his second flying lap, storming up to fourth, while another mistake for Schumacher left him still well outside the top ten.

By that stage the rest of the field had returned to the circuit, with the two Premas now finding themselves weaving through drivers completing warm-up laps. However, everyone would be halted when Luca Ghiotto spun into the gravel at turn two, resulting in a red flag as the stranded #25 Hitech had to be dragged clear. As a result the session resumed with four minutes to go, with everyone bar the stricken Ghiotto rejoining the fray immediately.

This time Schumacher was desperate to set a competitive time, although he would constantly find himself baulked in traffic. Indeed, that would be the German racer's undoing, for he would fire past Roy Nissany into the final corner, only to leave the Israeli racer too little space on the apex. Inevitably the #22 Trident slammed into the back of the #20 Prema, destroying Schumacher's rear wing and leaving both cars with heavy damage at the side of the track.

Another red flag was thrown and, with only a minute left on the clock, the final results of qualifying were declared. As a result, Tsunoda was left on pole ahead of Mazepin, while Jehan Daruvala claimed third ahead of Shwartzman, with no major changes to the order post-Ghiotto's red flag. Elsewhere, Callum Ilott would only manage ninth after a quiet session, while Schumacher was a frustrated eighteenth after a mistake filled session.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Mazepin was handed two five second time penalties, the first for forcing Tsunoda off track, and the second for forcing Drugovich off track.

Milestones

 * Prema Racing declared as the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Teams' Champions.
 * This was Prema's first F2 Championship title and their second at GP2/F2 level.
 * First race for Ralph Boschung since the 2018 Monza Sprint Race.
 * Third career victory for Yuki Tsunoda.
 * Carlin secured their sixth F2 victory.

Standings
In spite of the dramatic difference in starting position between the two title protagonists, come the end of the Feature Race it was status quo atop the table. Indeed, Mick Schumacher would hold his fourteen point lead over Callum Ilott into the final race, meaning he would claim the title if he finished in sixth in the finale. Ilott, meanwhile, could only win the title if he claimed victory with Schumacher in eighth, or second with fastest lap with Schumacher out of the points.

The Teams' Championship, meanwhile, was over for the 2020 season, as Prema Racing established an unassailable tally of 386 with a race to spare. UNI-Virtuosi would hence have to settle for second, while Hitech Grand Prix had almost secured third, before Nikita Mazepin had his penalties from the Feature Race applied. That meant that the British squad would head into the final with the potential to slip behind compatriots Carlin, although the latter squad would likely need a perfect score just to overhaul their rivals.