2019 Red Bull Ring Feature Race

The 2019 Red Bull Ring Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Spielberg Race 1, was the eleventh race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on the 29 June 2019. The race, which was held in support of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, and was the Series' sixth trip to the Styrian Mountains, and would see two drivers make the F2 debuts.

Qualifying would see Championship leader Nyck de Vries claim pole position, with rookie Anthoine Hubert securing second despite running mid-session. Guanyu Zhou was also an impressive performer, claiming third ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita, while debutantes Patricio O'Ward and Ryan Tveter mustered seventeenth and nineteenth respectively.

de Vries would make a barnstorming start off the line to grab an early lead from pole, while Hubert gave chase from second. Zhou briefly challenged the Frenchman for second, but his lunge into the first corner ultimately dropped him back behind Matsushita.

Matsushita would subsequently grab second from Hubert during the early stages, before working with race leader de Vries to pull clear of the chasing pack. Hubert, meanwhile, was left to defend from Zhou, while the two DAMS of Sérgio Sette Câmara and Nicholas Latifi came to blows, with the Brazilian hitting the back of the Canadian to earn himself a five second penalty.

The mid-race stops for tyres began on lap seven, with Sean Gelael left at the head head of the field as the leader made their stops. Zhou, meanwhile, would drop out of the lead group after a gearbox glitch destroyed his pace, while de Vries, leading those that had stopped, set about hunting down Gelael out front.

de Vries' charge would also drag Matsushita up the order, with the pair soon having to hunt down Nikita Mazepin after the Russian passed Gelael for the lead. The Dutchman duly threw everything he could to catch and pass his teammate, although in doing so he used up the best of his tyres.

With five laps to go de Vries' tyres were effectively shot, allowing Matsushita and Luca Ghiotto to dive past the Dutchman into the first corner. They duly went on to finish first and second ahead of Câmara, who caught and passed de Vries late on, although the Brazilian's earlier penalty dumped him back down to fifth behind de Vries and Hubert.

Background
The FIA Formula 2 Championship headed to an increasingly familiar venue for the sixth round of the season, arriving at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The 4.326 kilometre circuit was unchanged from 2018, with the three DRS zones unchanged from the series' last visit. There would, however, be a change to the entry list, for Mahaveer Raghunathan had received a one round ban for collecting too many penalty points on his license.

Hot-seating
Ultimately MP Motorsport, Ragunathan's employers, would pull off something of a swoop in finding a replacement for the Dutch registered racer, having looked outside of Europe for a replacement. Indeed, the Dutch based squad would secure the signature of Mexican racer Patricio O'Ward, one of the highest rated young drivers in the IndyCar Series. A member of the Red Bull Junior Team, O'Ward's debut would mark the Mexican racer's return to racing in Europe, having previously won the French F4 Championship in 2014.

There would also be a change of drivers at Campos Racing, for Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci was struggling to fund his seat in the #14 car alongside Jack Aitken. Adrian Campos therefore hired 2018 F2 debutante Arjun Maini to race in both Austria and Silverstone, with the Indian racer having funding for at least four races and with a potential budget to stretch for the rest of the season. Maini's appearance at the Red Bull Ring would mark his first run in a single-seater since the end of 2018, having switched to racing in Le Mans prototypes for 2019.

A further revision to the field was made on the eve of the weekend, with Ralph Boschung announcing that he had run out of money to fund his race-by-race seat at Trident. In his place, Trident would hire their former GP3 Series driver Ryan Tveter, handing the 25 year old American racer his debut in F2. Furthermore, Tveter, who had taken part in the 2018 Yas Marina Test with Trident and BWT Arden, would complete the season with the Italian team, with Boschung announcing that he would leave F2 indefinitely.

A French Fling
Nyck de Vries had seen his Championship lead reduced to twelve points at the end of the French weekend, having concluded the afternoon on 121 points. Nicholas Latifi had retained second after losing the lead to de Vries in the Le Castellet Feature, while Jack Aitken had retained third. Indeed, the Brit had done just enough to keep Sérgio Sette Câmara at bay, while Guanyu Zhou was up to fifth as the best placed rookie in the Championship.

DAMS had retained the lead in the Teams Championship as their home weekend came to a conclusion, remaining 46 points clear of UNI-Virtuosi in second. Indeed, both teams had scored ten points in the Le Castellet Sprint, and hence had inched further ahead of third placed ART Grand Prix. Behind Campos Racing had gained a little ground in fourth, while BWT Arden had closed to within a point of reigning Champions Carlin in fifth.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Race
It was a dry, warm, afternoon in the Styrian Mountains for the Feature Race, with no threat of rain for the Formula 2 race as the field assembled onto the grid. Furthermore, there had been no changes to the grid ahead of the race, meaning Nyck de Vries would start the race from pole position as expected. However, there would be drama on the formation lap, as Mick Schumacher stalled on the formation lap, meaning he would attempt to start from the pitlane, while Ryan Tveter almost spun when warming up his rear tyres.

Report
With Schumacher dragged away the rest of the field would take the start, with de Vries and Anthoine Hubert making even starts, prompting de Vries to sweep across to the inside of the circuit to block the Frenchman. Hubert hence dived to the outside of de Vries as they approached the braking zone for turn one, with de Vries coming perilously close to weaving as he swept back across the nose of the Frenchman to secure the lead. Behind, the rest of the field made it through the first corner without issue, with Jack Aitken the only driver to be pushed out onto the escape road through the tight right-hander.

The charge through the turn two kink and into turn three would see Guanyu Zhou get a run on Hubert to challenge for second, although the Frenchman was able to hold the position and run Zhou wide on exit. Behind, Nobuharu Matsushita would pounce on Zhou to claim third, while Nicholas Latifi lunged inside of Luca Ghiotto, only for the Italian racer to get a better exit. Indeed, Ghiotto's exit was so strong that he even managed to draw alongside teammate Zhou on the sprint to turn four, although his attempts to run around the outside of the sister #7 UNI-Virtuosi would allow Latifi to move through to fifth.

After that the race began to settle down, with de Vries establishing a lead out front, while Hubert was passed by Matsushita at the end of the opening tour. Indeed, Hubert and Zhou would become the centre of attention in the early laps, with the Frenchman having to put up a furious defence from his fellow Renault Academy member into turns one and three. Zhou then got a run on the #19 BWT Arden on the outside of turn four, although his up-and-under manoeuvre on the exit was likewise repulsed.

However, Zhou would get the chance to repeat the move through turn six, and duly squeezed inside of Hubert to briefly claim the position, a move replicated by his teammate Ghiotto on Latifi a few metres behind. However, Hubert would retaliate on the outside of the Chinese racer, and duly fired the #19 Arden back past the #7 Virtuosi through turn seven to reclaim the position. That fight would rumble on with Ghiotto stalking the two Renault backed youths, while Latifi dropped away and into the sights of Louis Delétraz.

Indeed, Latifi's race was to go from bad to worse a few laps later, as he was pushed into a spin to the back of the field at turn three by teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara. Indeed, the Brazilian racer had simply misjudged his braking point while fending off Nikita Mazepin and Sean Gelael, and hit the back of the sister #6 DAMS as Latifi turned into the apex. After a quick completion to his pirouette Latifi was down in fourteenth, and quickly decided to dive into the pits to change his now ruined tyres.

Fortunately for Latifi his stop was not too far out of sequence with those on the standard supersoft-soft tyre strategy, with Matsushita the first of the leaders to stop a lap later. de Vries was next in with Hubert and Zhou following him, with Hubert just managing to get out ahead of his Renault rival. Ghiotto was next in and duly managed to jump the pair of them, before Zhou's race was ruined by a sudden drive issue exiting the final corner on lap nine, which dumped him back down the field before he managed to get another gear.

With that the race began to settle down, with Gelael left in the lead of the race ahead of Mazepin, with Arjun Maini, Tatiana Caldéron and Patricio O'Ward completing the top five, all on the alternate strategy. That quintet was being reeled in by de Vries as the first driver to have completed his stop, with the Dutchman having passed Tveter, the sixth man on the alternate strategy, soon after his stop. Indeed, by lap fourteen de Vries was already within eighteen seconds of Gelael out-front, with a pitstop taking over thirty.

Elsewhere, there would be some fighting between those that had stopped, with Callum Ilott pulling off a perfect lunge down the inside of Delétraz into turn three to secure twelfth on track. Tveter, meanwhile, would put up an immense defensive effort to keep Matsushita at bay for several laps, before the Japanese racer finally scrambled ahead on the brakes into turn three shortly before half-distance. That had, however, dropped him eight seconds behind de Vries, who had, by that stage, also caught and passed debutante O'Ward, as well as Caldéron to sit in fourth.

Gelael's pace would begin to waver after half-distance, resulting in the Indonesia racer falling to Mazepin, Maini and then de Vries in short order. Matsushita, meanwhile, would easily pass O'Ward and Caldéron to move into fifth, taking Ghiotto with him, with O'Ward also tumbling down the field as his tyres degraded. With fifteen laps to go de Vries would move past Mainin with a lunge through turn one, leaving him eight seconds behind race leader Mazepin.

However, in his bid to clear the traffic rapidly de Vries would burn through the best of his tyres, and after completing an easy lunge past teammate Mazepin for the lead into turn one, the Dutchman would ease off. Indeed, the #4 ART Grand Prix was showing signs of severe blistering, meaning he would now begin to lose time to Matsushita behind. Matsushita duly cruised past Mazepin with ease down the inside of turn one with seven laps to go, with Ghiotto following him past the #3 ART through turn four.

A lap later and Matsushita was on de Vries' tail, and sweeping down the inside of the #4 ART on the run to turn one with the aid of DRS. de Vries did his best to hang on but ultimately had to cede the position through the tight right-hander, with Matsushita just managing to hit the apex and not run wide to allow the ART to cut back under him. With that Matsushita was away, with de Vries duly falling into the sights of Ghiotto as the race entered its final throes.

Ghiotto was also able to pass the #4 ART with little resistance with three laps to go, although by that stage Matsushita had established a fair two second lead, and appeared to have more life in his tyres. That left de Vries to fend off a charging Sette Câmara, who was storming up the order having been one of the last drivers to stop for soft tyres. Indeed, at the start of the final tour the Brazilian racer would copy Matsushita's move on de Vries into turn one to claim third, although Sette Câmara would have to serve a five second time penalty for spinning teammate Latifi around earlier in the race.

Out front, meanwhile, Matsushita would complete the final five laps unopposed to claim victory, his first since the 2017 Hungaroring Sprint Race. Ghiotto was next up ahead of fastest lap setter Sette Câmara, although Brazilian was relegated to fifth once his five second time penalty was applied. de Vries was hence put onto the podium in third ahead of Hubert, Zhou finished sixth ahead of Delétraz, Jordan King would claim reverse-grid pole with eighth, while Latifi and Aitken rounded out the scorers.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Câmara received a five second time penalty for causing a collision.
 * † Maini was disqualified from the results of the race for incorrect tyre use.

Milestones

 * Debut race for Ryan Tveter and Patricio O'Ward.
 * Arjun Maini made his first FIA Formula 2 Championship start since the 2018 Yas Marina Sprint Race.
 * Third career victory for Nobuharu Matsushita in F2.
 * This was also Matsushita's fifth win at GP2/F2 level.
 * First win for Matsushita since the 2017 Hungaroring Sprint Race.
 * Carlin claimed their second victory in F2.
 * It was also the British team's tenth victory at GP2/F2 level.
 * First win for Carlin since the 2018 Bahrain Feature Race.

Standings
Nyck de Vries had extended his lead in the Championship after securing pole and a podium finish, pulling out a 29 point advantage over Nicholas Latifi. Sérgio Sette Câmara was next up, having moved ahead of Jack Aitken, while Luca Ghiotto completed the top five, a point off of the Brit. Guanyu Zhou was still the best placed rookie in sixth, a point off of teammate Ghiotto, while Nobuharu Matsushita had shot into eighth after his first win of the season.

In the Teams Championship it was DAMS who continued to command the title hunt, heading into the Sprint with a 34 point lead. UNI-Virtuosi were their closest challengers, with a small gap between themselves and third placed ART Grand Prix. Campos Racing were next ahead of Carlin, while Trident remained glued to the foot of the table.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.