2020 Silverstone Sprint Race

The 2020 Silverstone Sprint Race, otherwise officially known as the 2020 Silverstone Formula 2 Race 2, was the eighth race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship staged on 2 August 2020 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, UK. The race, held in support of the 2020 British Grand Prix, would see Dan Ticktum claim his maiden F2 victory, resisting a late-race crusade by Christian Lundgaard.

Ticktum would start the race from pole position, having finished eighth in the Feature Race which had been dictated by tyre strategy. Regardless, the entire field would start the race on hard Pirelli tyres, although several teams suggested that they had considered making a mid-race switch for mediums despite the reduced race distance.

Ticktum duly made a strong start from pole to claim an early lead, while fellow front row starter Felipe Drugovich slipped back into the pack. Instead, it was Lundgaard who stormed into second, with Louis Delétraz shadowing the #6 ART up to claim third ahead of Drugovich.

Callum Ilott would endure a miserable start to slip from third to sixth, before making contact with Yuki Tsunoda that earned him a five second penalty, and ended Tsunoda's race. Indeed, an eventful opening lap would see Guanyu Zhou take Drugovich and Mazepin in one fell sweep to claim fifth, while Ticktum found himself hounded by Lundgaard.

After that the focus of the race would be on Ilott, who would begin to pick his way up through the field after his early woes. A succession of early moves saw him climb from seventh to second and onto Ticktum's tail, with Ilott knowing he would have to break clear and build a five second lead if he was to claim victory.

This presented a dilemma for Ticktum, who had the pace to keep his compatriot at bay, but would likely ruin his tyres in the process, with several drivers reporting concerns about wear. This issue was partially resolved for Ticktum when Ilott spun on lap fifteen while attacking for the lead, only for the now stranded #4 UNI-Virtuosi to trigger a Safety Car.

Ticktum stayed out, while ART brought Lundgaard in from second, dropping him back to fifth, but with fresh tyres, a gamble also taken by his teammate Marcus Armstrong, as well as the lacklustre Premas. The rest of the top four would stay out, with Zhou in particular believing that Virtuosi had made a mistake.

With two laps to go the race resumed, with Zhou's worries instantly shown as Lundgaard blitzed his way back up to second before the start of the final tour. However, a delay in getting past Delétraz had meant that Lundgaard had fallen off the back of Ticktum, meaning he would have to catch-up and pass the Brit on the final tour.

Time would ultimately run out for Lundgaard, with Ticktum hanging on by three tenths of a second to secure his maiden F2 victory ahead of the charging Dane. Delétraz completed the podium in third, while a spin for Zhou saw the Chinese racer fall out of the points on the final tour. Jehan Daruvala hence inherited fourth ahead of Mazepin and Drugovich, while Nobuharu Matsushita and Jack Aitken completed the scorers.

Background
There had been no changes to the Silverstone Circuit after the Feature Race, with no rain overnight to affect the conditions on track. There had also been no changes to the results of the Feature overnight, meaning Dan Ticktum would start from pole position as expected having finished eighth, while Nikita Mazepin was to start from eighth after his victory.

Mazepin Mastery
Despite failing to score in the Silverstone Feature Robert Shwartzman had retained the initiative in the Championship hunt, and would head into the second race 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 having moving up to complete the top five.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a bad afternoon for Prema Racing on Saturday, 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.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:
 * * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Grid
The grid for the Sprint Race was formed from the finishing positions from the Feature Race, with the top eight reversed as per-FIA Formula 2 Championship rules:

Race
Temperatures had dropped ahead of the Formula 2 Sprint Race at Silverstone, with the track temperature hovering at 29°C, while the air temperature sat at 18°C. Otherwise the conditions were unchanged ahead of the race, with no threat of rain for the 40 minute race. Furthermore, there had been no late alterations to the grid, with Dan Ticktum starting the race from pole.

Report
It was an even start for front row starters Ticktum and Felipe Drugovich, with the Brit remaining just enough ahead to cut across the nose of the Brazilian into the first corner flick to secure the lead. Behind, Christian Lundgaard managed to scramble ahead of Louis Delétraz to secure third, before the Dane fired his car around the outside of Drugovich on the brakes for turn three. That handed the #6 ART the inside line for turn four, with Lundgaard duly emerging with second entering the Wellington Straight.

In the middle of the pack, meanwhile, there would be some minor chaos as Callum Ilott tangled with Yuki Tsunoda at turn three. Indeed, a poor initial getaway had seen the Brit fall from third to sixth on the run through the first corners, before an ill-judged lunged at Tsuonda ended with the #7 Carlin facing in the wrong direction at the exit of the right hander. Tsunoda then could not get his car going again which, combined with a stranded Giuliano Alesi who had stalled at the start, would trigger a Virtual Safety Car.

Shortly before the VSC was scrambled, however, there would be some changes to the order, with Guanyu Zhou getting down the inside of Mick Schumacher through Copse to claim seventh. Regardless, after two laps the race resumed, with Ticktum establishing a lead over Lundgaard, while Delétraz managed to elbow his way past Drugovich for third. Ilott, meanwhile, would run on in fifth place, although he would quickly be issued with a five second time penalty for spinning Tsunoda out of the race.

Knowing he now faced a penalty Ilott decided to push his tyres as hard as he could, despite the fact that the 21 lap race distance was the upper limit of what the hard Pirelli tyres could cope with. He duly lunged down the inside of Drugovich into Stowe on lap seven to secure fourth, a simple enough move with the aid of DRS. However, his move was soon overshadowed by teammate Zhou, who managed to pass both Nikita Mazepin and Drugovich in one fell swoop into Stowe, with Mazepin also diving down the inside of Drugovich while attempting to squeeze the Chinese racer.

There was action further down the field too, with Roy Nissany having a bizarre spin all on his own exiting Vale, dumping him down to the back of the field ahead of a lapped Alesi. Elsewhere, Robert Shwartzman completed an excellent move around the outside of Jack Aitken through Vale to rise into the top ten, after starting a lowly fourteenth on the grid. Otherwise, the race was beginning to settle, with the majority of the field now having to nurse their hard tyres as the race approached half-distance.

Indeed, the only man not in a conservative mode was Ilott, who had now caught Delétraz and was lining up a move on the Swiss racer at the start of lap thirteen. That move came on the entry to Brooklands, with Ilott firing the #4 UNI-Virtuosi around the outside of Delétraz to secure third, which dropped him right onto the tail of Lundgaard. Indeed, just half a lap later and Ilott would make his bid for second at Stowe, driving right around the outside of the #6 ART to claim the position.

Ilott now faced a two second gap to Ticktum at the head of the field, and duly halved the gap in the space of a single lap. However, having closed to within a second of his compatriot, Ilott would make a rare mistake, spinning at the penultimate corner while trying to get on the throttle too early. Not only that, but Ilott's car came to a stop in the middle of the track and stalled, ending Ilott's race and triggering a Safety Car.

That late SC intervention saw the field be instructed to drive through the pitlane, as the removal of Ilott's car would require the circuit to be blocked at the final two corners. That caused some confusion, with several teams scrambling pit crews to wait for their drivers, in case they wanted to stop. Indeed, while Ticktum and Delétraz drove straight through the pits Lundgaard would dive in for fresh mediums, putting him back down to fifth behind Zhou and Mazepin.

Others to gamble on fresh mediums would be Lundgaard's teammate Marcus Armstrong, as well as the two Premas of Schumacher and Shwartzman. However, while Schumacher would only lose a handful of places due to his stop, Shwartzman would endure a miserable switch as the team had not brought out a new front left. He duly dropped right to the back of the field, although he would at least keep going, unlike Sean Gelael who stopped at the end of the pitlane with a loose front left.

The restart came at the start of lap nineteen, with Ticktum acing his getaway to escape into a one second lead from Delétraz. Behind, Lundgaard went on the offensive immediately, diving down the inside of Mazepin with ease into turn three to secure fourth. Elsewhere, there would be a mass brawl for eighth down the Wellington Straight, with Jehan Daruvala ultimately emerging with the position after an excellent double lunge around the outside of Aitken and Matsushita into Brooklands.

Opening the penultimate lap and Lundgaard was on the back of Zhou, and duly fired down the inside of the Chinese racer at Brooklands to secure third with his superior grip. He would then have to wait until the start of the final lap to secure second, forcing Delétraz to go defensive into turn three only for the Swiss racer to run wide. Lundgaard hence had to drive right around the outside of the #11 Charouz through turn four, leaving him a second behind Ticktum with two thirds of a lap to go.

It proved to be an intense final tour, with Lundgaard storming onto the back of Ticktum with a fastest first and second sector. However, Ticktum had enough in hand to avoid having to defend into Stowe, with Lundgaard still a third of a second behind as they braked for the right hander. Behind there was drama as Zhou lost the back of his car through Maggotts and Becketts, meaning he fell from fourth to ninth down the Hangar Straight.

Entering Vale for the final time Lundgaard had a half look at Ticktum, although he was too far back to throw a lunge down the inside of the #2 DAMS. Ticktum hence swept across the line to claim a deserved victory ahead of the Dane by three tenths of a second, while Delétraz was a relatively happy third, two seconds back. Behind, Daruvala stormed up the field to secure fourth ahead of Mazepin, while Drugovich, Matsushita and Aitken completed the scorers.

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

Milestones

 * Tenth race for Christian Lundgaard and Dan Ticktum.
 * Maiden victory for Ticktum.
 * DAMS registered their fifteenth victory in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
 * Also their 40th win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
There had been no changes to the top of the Drivers' Championship after the Silverstone Sprint, with Robert Shwartzman remaining in the lead of the title race with 81 points, despite failing to score. Callum Ilott had likewise held onto second having also failed to claim points, while Christian Lundgaard had gained a lot of ground in third, closing to within four of Ilott. Nikita Mazepin was next up in fourth ahead of race winner Dan Ticktum, with four drivers still yet to score in 2020.

UNI-Virtuosi would end their home race weekend at the head of the field, holding a two point lead over Prema Racing. ART Grand Prix were next up in third, having become the latest team to break through the 100 point barrier, and hence sat 21 points off the lead. Another eighteen point gap followed before Hitech Grand Prix appeared in fourth, while DAMS had moved back up to fifth.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.