2019 Silverstone Feature Race

The 2019 Silverstone Circuit Race 1, otherwise known as the 2019 Silverstone Feature Race, was the thirteenth round of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, UK, on the 13 July 2019. The race, which was held in support of the 2019 British Grand Prix, would see Luca Ghiotto finally claim a Feature Race victory.

It was Ghiotto's teammate Guanyu Zhou who had set the pace in qualifying, the Chinese youngster claiming his maiden pole position ahead of teammate Ghiotto. Indeed, the two UNI-Virtuosis would ended the session just 0.012s apart, with Championship leader Nyck de Vries down in seventh.

A dramatic start to the race saw the two Virtuosis run into the first corner side-by-side, with ultimately emerging in the lead as they hit the brakes for turn three. An identical duel would occur behind them with the two DAMS of Sérgio Sette Câmara and Nicholas Latifi duelling for third, with everyone else flying into the first few corners without issue.

The race would not run cleanly for very long, however, with Dorian Boccolacci bringing out a full course yellow after stopping with a failure on track. Fortunately it was a short delay and so the race resumed having lost just a single lap, with Latifi immediately going on the offensive to pass teammate Câmara.

Latifi duly went on to catch and pass Zhou on the following lap, before leading the charge into the pits on lap seven. Ghiotto, a couple of seconds up the road, opted to pit on the following tour to deny the Canadian the under-cut, only to rejoin right alongside the #6 DAMS as he charged out of the pit lane.

Ghiotto would retain the de facto lead, holding the inside line into turn three, only for a lock-up into Brooklands a few moments later to gift the lead to Latifi. The Canadian duly eased clear as Ghiotto brought his tyres up to temperature, with the pair steadily catching Nikita Mazepin and Tatiana Caldéron, the only two drivers ahead on the alternate hard-soft strategy.

Ghiotto ultimately caught and passed Latifi before the Canadian got onto the back of the lead duo, before scything past Caldéron to claim second. When Mazepin pitted Ghiotto was hence left int he lead ahead of Latifi, while Jack Aitken got the home fans on their feet with an ambitious dive up the inside of de Vries into turn three.

With that the race was run, with Ghiotto cruising to the finish ahead of Latifi, registering only his second win of the season. Zhou, meanwhile, would finish a lonely third ahead of Câmara, while Aitken's late lunge on de Vries was enough to hand the Brit fifth.

Background
The FIA Formula 2 Championship rolled into one of its strongholds for the seventh round of the 2019 campaign, arriving at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK in mid-July. However, the circuit had received some minor modifications since F2's last visit in 2018, with a full track re-surface as well as a major revision to the DRS zones. Indeed, the controversial DRS zone that ran through turns one and two had been dropped entirely, while the second DRS zone on the Wellington straight had been marginally lengthened.

A Boccolacci Bounce
Ahead of the race it was revealed that Dorian Boccolacci would be returning to the F2 field, rejoining his former employers Trident Racing in place of Ryan Tveter. Indeed, just three weeks after being dropped by Campos Racing for lacking the funding to continue, Boccolacci would get back into an F2 cockpit, partnering Giuliano Alesi for the British round. It was expected that Boccolacci was to complete the season with Trident, although Tveter and Ralph Boschung, their former drivers, were still registered as reserve drivers.

Dutch Delights
Nyck de Vries arrived in the UK with an enhanced lead in the Championship, having moved 37 points clear of his closest challenger as a result of the 2019 Red Bull Ring Sprint Race. Nicholas Latifi was that challenger, with race winner Sérgio Sette Câmara having closed up to the back of the Canadian in third. Luca Ghiotto was next, the first man yet to break the 100 point barrier prior to the Silverstone weekend, while Jack Aitken completed the top five.

In The Teams Championship it was DAMS who, as ever, arrived at a race weekend in control of the title hunt, 40 points clear of UNI-Virtuosi. Those two were also clear of ART Grand Prix in third, the French squad 64 points off the lead, while Campos Racing and Carlin completed the top five. BWT Arden were next, the first of those yet to break into triple figures at the halfway point, while Trident would head into the second half of the season with just four points to their name.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Gelael was handed a three place grid penalty retroactively for causing a collision during practice.

Grid

 * * Gelael decided to withdraw from the race in protest of his revised post-practice penalty.

Race
Conditions were clear and dry ahead of the Feature Race, with no threat of rain after the Formula One qualifying session came to a conclusion. There would, however, be some changes to the grid, with Sean Gelael withdrawing from the race weekend after being retroactively issued with a three place grid penalty. That meant that there would only be nineteen starts, although it had no impact on the front of the field, with Guanyu Zhou set to start the race from pole position as expected.

Report
When the lights went out it would prove to be a fairly even initial launch for Zhou and teammate Luca Ghiotto, resulting in the pair thundering into the first corner side-by=side. However, Ghiotto had the inside line into the right-hander, and hence was able to charge into the lead, with Zhou backing off on the outside to avoid hitting the sister #8 UNI-Virtuosi. Otherwise it was a miraculously clean start, with the back half of the field all managing to squeeze past a stalled Anthoine Hubert.

A few moments later and Zhou would be weaving the #7 Virtuosi around in the wake of his teammate down the Wellington Straight, although his lunge around the outside of Brooklands was resisted by Ghiotto. Behind, an equally ferocious duel was being fought for third between the two DAMS, with Nicholas Latifi challenging teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara into Copse, resulting in the #5 DAMS running wide. The pair then ran side-by-side through the Maggotts-Becketts complex, with the Canadian lunging ahead on the brakes for the near-flat chicane.

With that the race began to settle, with Ghiotto enforcing his lead over Zhou, while Latifi settled into third ahead of Sette Câmara. Elsewhere, Mick Schumacher had been pushed down the field after being knocked wide at turn three, while Hubert's car had been dragged into the pitlane without the need for a Safety Car. The BWT Arden squad duly got the Frenchman's car fired up and underway, although Hubert would lose a lap to the rest of the field.

The race would soon develop into a procession in the early stages, with the only incident of note coming when Dorian Boccolacci pulled off track with an issue at the back of the field. Elsewhere, Schumacher made a brave lunge at Arjun Maini into Becketts for fourteenth, while Callum Ilott was forced to fight off the attentions of Jack Aitken and Nikita Mazepin for eighth. Otherwise, the field would quickly space itself out, with Ghiotto building a one second lead over Zhou, Zhou holding a two second lead over Latifi, while Sette Câmara would slip five seconds behind in fourth.

Zhou and Latifi duly made their stops at the end of lap seven, ditching their soft tyres for a set of hard Pirelli tyres. Unfortunately for Zhou he would get held in his pit box due to other traffic coming out, resulting in Latifi managing to scramble out of his pit just ahead of the #7 Virtuosi. A lap later and Ghiotto would make his stop and rejoin without issue, emerging ahead of Latifi but with cold tyres.

Latifi instantly went on the attack with his warmed up tyres, forcing Ghiotto to take a defensive line into Brooklands while he tried to throw the #6 DAMS around the outside of the #8 Virtuosi. Ghiotto held on with Latifi again trying an outside run through Woodcote, although Ghiotto would once again fend him off. A better run through Copse then saw Latifi nudge the back of Ghiotto as the duo entered the Maggotts-Becketts complex, costing him valuable momentum onto the Hangar Straight.

Their battle raged onto the following tour, with Latifi unable to take advantage of the fact that Ghiotto had to pass Mahaveer Raghunathan down the start/finish straight. Latifi then tried again into Brooklands by forcing Ghiotto onto a defensive line, and was this time rewarded when the Italian racer locked-up his left front and ran wide, with Latifi duly cutting back inside to secure the de jure lead. However, Ghiotto was not out of the fight by any means, and duly managed to fire the #8 Virtuosi back past the #6 DAMS on the brakes for Stowe two laps later.

After that the race would settle down, with Ghiotto escaping from Latifi, while Zhou fended off a series of half-hearted challenges from Sette Câmara. Elsewhere, Mazepin and Tatiana Caldéron would lead the race on the alternate strategy before making their stops late on, while Aitken would launch a series of attacks on Nyck de Vries for fifth. Aitken's chance came with three laps to go, with a lunge inside of the #4 ART Grand Prix into turn three getting the job done.

With that the race was run, with Ghiotto cruising through the closing stages to secure an impressive victory, three seconds clear of Latifi in second. Zhou duly completed the podium a few seconds clear of Sette Câmara, who had Aitken bearing down on him as they flashed across the line. A somewhat disheartened de Vries was next up just ahead of Louis Delétraz, while the remaining points went to Ilott, Nobuharu Matsushita and King.

There was also time for one last on-track incident, as Maini clumsily took out Mazepin at the penultimate corner with a punt in the back, resulting in the #3 ART failing to finish.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Maini was awarded a five second time penalty for causing a collision.
 * † Mazepin was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance. The Russian racer was also hit with a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane by 0.1km/h.
 * ‡ Alesi received multiple penalties for speeding in the pitlane and for being released in an unsafe manor.
 * § Gelael withdrew from the race in protest.

Milestones

 * Luca Ghiotto claimed his third victory in FIA Formula 2.
 * It was also the Italian's fourth at GP2 Series/F2 level and his first win in a Feature Race.
 * Second victory for Virtuosi Racing as an entrant in F2.

Standings
Victory had moved Luca Ghiotto back into the top three of the Championship after the opening race of the Silverstone weekend, although the Italian was still 48 points of the Championship leader. Indeed, Nyck de Vries had managed to maintain his lead at the head of the field after claiming his handful of points, with Nicholas Latifi able to chip the gap down to 27 points in second. Elsewhere, Sérgio Sette Câmara had slipped to fourth to make way for Ghiotto, while Guanyu Zhou had claimed a spot in the top five at the expense of Jack Aitken.

In the Teams Championship, meanwhile, there had been very little change, although UNI-Virtuosi had managed chip away at DAMS' lead at the head of the field. Indeed, the British squad would head into the Sprint race just 28 points behind their French rivals, having started the weekend 40 off the early-season pace setters. Elsewhere, ART Grand Prix had lost more ground in third, as had Campos Racing in fifth.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.