2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race

The 2020 Red Bull Ring Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Formula 2 Red Bull Ring Race 1, was the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 4 July 2020. The race, which was held in support of the myWorld Großer Preis Von Österreich 2020, saw Callum Ilott sweep to his maiden F2 victory.

There had been a lot of movement in the driver market over the winter, with two new seats on offer with the addition of Hitech Grand Prix to the field. They duly hired Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto to race for them, while Arden International sold their effort to HWA Racelab, who claimed Artem Markelov and Giuliano Alesi.

Elsewhere, reigning Champion Nyck de Vries would move into the FIA Formula E Championship for the 2020 season, while Nicholas Latifi secured a seat in Formula One. Teams' Champions DAMS, meanwhile, would hire a new line-up in the form of Sean Gelael and the controversial Dan Ticktum, as seven drivers made their F2 debuts.

There had been an extended winter break ahead of the opening round for 2020, after the COVID-19 Pandemic caused the original calendar to be scrapped. A new calendar was formed in May 2020 and announced on 2 June, with F2 supporting F1 at eight meetings across Europe.

Into the opening round itself and Guanyu Zhou claimed the first pole position of the season, after Mazepin spun off in the closing moments and triggered a yellow flag. Indeed, a turbulent session saw Alesi damage his car with an off before Marino Sato caused a red flag, leaving Zhou on pole ahead of debutante Felipe Drugovich.

The start of the race saw third placed Ilott make a stunning start, charging between Zhou and Drugovich to secure the lead into the first corner. Behind, the start was fairly clean, with Mick Schumacher getting a strong start to challenge Drugovich for third, with Shwartzman following his teammate up the field.

A stunning opening lap saw Zhou fight back against his teammate Ilott, with the pair running side-by-side for half a lap before the Chinese racer re-secured the initiative. Behind Schumacher and Shwartzman would both overhaul Drugovich to claim third and fourth for Prema Racing, while Yuki Tsunoda earned himself a penalty by spinning his teammate Jehan Daruvala around at turn three.

The early laps saw Zhou establish a small lead over Ilott, Schumacher and Shwartzman, with the top four breaking away from the rest of the field. Elsewhere, Marcus Armstrong opened the pit window with an early stop on lap eight, gambling on a long second stint on the hard Pirelli 18" tyres.

Zhou went on in the lead until lap seventeen, when he dived in for hards to hand the lead to teammate Ilott. The Brit was subsequently passed on the following tour by Schumacher before making his stop, with the German racer taking his soft Pirellis to half distance.

The longer first stint worked beautifully for the German racer, as he would rejoin from his stop in the lead of the race, albeit on cold tyres. That ultimately ensured that his joy would be brief as Zhou, with fully warmed up tyres was able to dance his way back past with DRS, with Ilott following him through a few moments later.

However, just a lap later and Zhou's race was ruined, with an engine issue causing him to lose drive and plummet down the field. He trundled into the pits to have the issue looked at as, on track, Markelov rolled to a stop with an unspecified issue to trigger a safety car.

The field were bunched back up and released with Schumacher attacking Ilott for all he was worth as they escaped from a third placed Armstrong. However, Schumacher's attack was the halted by an off at turn seven that dumped him to the back of the field, leaving Ilott on his own at the head of the field.

Indeed, with that the race was over, with Ilott cruising to the chequered flag to secure his maiden F2 victory ahead of Armstrong and Shwartzman. Christian Lundgaard was next up ahead of Ticktum, while a late charge carried Alesi into the points ahead of Louis Delétraz. Drugovich finished eight to secure pole for the Sprint, while Nobuharu Matsushita and Roy Nissany scored the remaining points.

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
Yuki Tsunoda would lead the field out of the pitlane when the session opened, with the majority of the field venturing out within the first two minutes. The Japanese racer duly delivered a strong early lap to head the field, until teammate Jehan Daruvala flashed across the line in the middle of the field. The Indian racer was then supplanted at the top by Guanyu Zhou, with the Chinese racer the first driver to dip under the 1:15.000 mark.

After the opening bout of times the field would dive into the pits as one for their new sets of soft Pirelli tyres, although not before Giuliano Alesi threw his car into the gravel on his quick lap. The Frenchman dragged himself out and shuffled back to the pits, just as the first drivers emerged to build up to their second runs. However, their expeditions were to be brought to a premature end, as Marino Sato spun into the gravel and could not escape.

Indeed, the beached Trident triggered a red flag, albeit not before Felipe Drugovich had improved to third with a strong effort. The session resumed with five minutes to go and an en-masse return to the circuit, with Christian Lundgaard going close to Zhou, before Drugovich leapt ahead of the Dane to claim second. Zhou then improved to a 1:14.416 to reinforce his grip on pole position, with his main challengers opening their laps just before the chequered flag fell.

Louis Delétraz, Jack Aitken and Tsunoda all claimed fastest first sectors on their final runs, and were all in the second sector when Nikita Mazepin spun off at turn six. That caused a yellow flag to be flown and prevented the trio from improving in the second and third sectors, and hence left Zhou at the head of the pack ahead of Drugovich for the Feature.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

Race
It was a warm afternoon ahead of the opening round of the season, with the track temperature threatening to break 50°C after the qualifying session for Formula One had concluded. Otherwise, there would be no issues ahead of the first bout of the season, with Guanyu Zhou leading the field around for the formation lap ahead of the familiar standing start.

Report
When the lights went out it proved to be a fairly even getaway for Zhou and fellow front row started Felipe Drugovich, although would both be stunned by a charging Callum Ilott off the line. Indeed, the #4 UNI-Virtuosi scythed between the two front row cars to secure an unopposed lead into turn one, leaving teammate Zhou to sweep around the outside of Drugovich to secure second. Behind, it was a clean start for the rest of the field, with several drivers having to climb over the outside kerb on the exit of turn one to get through.

Zhou would get a run on his British teammate into turn three, although Ilott held the inside line into the corner and was able to hold the lead on the exit, with Drugovich briefly getting inside Zhou as well. As they powered out of the corner there would be minor chaos behind, with Yuki Tsunoda clumsily tagging the back of teammate Jehan Daruvala in the middle of the pack, sending the #8 Carlin into a pirouette. That incident broke the Japanese racer's front wing and earned him a five second penalty as, out front, Zhou challenged Ilott for the lead around turn four, resulting in the pair running side-by-side through to turn seven.

Indeed, after trying take Ilott around the outside of turn four, Zhou managed to get inside of the Brit on the exit as the #4 Virtuosi washed wide, although that only put him on the outside of the sister car through turn five. Yet, Ilott gave his teammate room and so the pair flashed through turn five side-by-side, with Ilott maintaining the inside line through turn six, with Zhou still hanging on on the outside. That gave the Chinese racer the initiative and inside line for turn seven, which he duly used to ease ahead of Ilott to claim the lead, as Mick Schumacher claimed third from Drugovich.

After a thrilling opening lap the race quickly calmed, with Zhou establishing a small lead over Ilott, while Schumacher stalked the pair ahead of Drugovich, with majority of the field starting on the soft compound Pirelli tyres. Elsewhere, Tsunoda served his five second penalty when he stopped for a new front-wing at the end of lap two, while Sean Gelael had engine problems and retired on lap six. He joined Luca Ghiotto and Marino Sato on the sidelines, the former having failed to start, while the latter had dropped out on lap two, both with mechanical woes.

Drugovich was the first of the leaders to stop on lap nine as Dan Ticktum was on the warpath, diving past Christian Lundgaard for fifth as the Dane held up a bunch of cars behind the lead group. Elsewhere, Robert Shwartzman was harassing teammate Schumacher for third after Drugovich's stop, while the two Virtuosi's ran on without issue at the head of the hunt. At the back, meanwhile, Marcus Armstrong was setting the timing screens alight after making an early stop, with the Kiwi setting a series of fastest laps to move into contention for the points as Drugovich emerged behind him.

It would be a little longer before Zhou ventured into the pits on lap eighteen, handing the lead to Ilott as the Virtuosi crew replaced the Chinese racer's worn softs for hards. On track, meanwhile, Schumacher would line up a move on Ilott for the lead at turn four on the following tour, and duly emerged ahead as the Brit ventured into the pits for his stop. The #4 car rejoined ahead of Zhou as the first of the drivers to have stopped, with Schumacher now left leading Giuliano Alesi, Artem Markelov and Nobuharu Matsushita on the alternate hard-soft strategy.

However, with cold tyres Ilott would come under fire from Zhou, although the Brit held on to the position on his out-lap as Schumacher dived in for his stop on lap twenty. A quick turn-around by Prema Racing got the German youth out ahead of Ilott and Zhou, although with cold tyres himself the #20 Prema was vulnerable to attack from the battling Virtuosis, particularly after Zhou had dived past Ilott at turn three in the German's wake. Indeed, come the end of lap 20 the two Virtuosis were baring down on the back of Schumacher, and would both get DRS at the start of the 21st lap of the race.

Zhou made his first bid for the lead at turn three on lap 21, although Schumacher moved across to block the inside line to deny the Chinese racer a lunge on the brakes. That would, however, compromise his exit, and with DRS and full warmed up tyres the Virtuosi was able to draft ahead of the #20 Prema on the run to turn four, and had enough momentum to retake the racing line. A chop across the nose of Schumacher affirmed the position, and caused the German to slightly lock-up and lose momentum, allowing Ilott to move into striking position for the next lap.

Indeed, a far simpler lunge on the brakes into turn three would get the #4 Virtuosi ahead of the #20 Prema on the following tour, before the Brit worked with teammate Zhou to build a small lead over Schumacher. Yet, there was drama to come as Zhou dramatically lost power exiting turn one on lap 26, the sign that his engine had cried enough after battling in the summer heat of the Styrian mountains. Ilott was hence left to fend off Schumacher on his own at the head of the field, for Alesi, Markelov and Matsushita had all come in for their soft tyres, but rejoined outside of the top ten.

Zhou managed to get his car back to the pits, with a quick reset allowing him to rejoin at the back of the field, albeit a lap down. However, a few moments later and Markelov had suffered a similar issue, although the Russian racer was forced to pull his HWA Racelab off to the side of turn three, triggering a Safety Car. Zhou hence tagged onto the back of the field, but was still a lap down, while Schumacher was able to draw right onto Ilott's tail, ahead of early stopper Armstrong and Shwartzman.

The restart came on lap 31, with Ilott powering away to escape from Schumacher, while Armstrong fended off the attentions of Shwartzman, despite having significantly older tyres. Behind, Ticktum tried to make a move on Lundgaard after the Dane had got back ahead of him at the stops, although that was thwarted by a defensive dive to the inside of turn one by the #6 ART Grand Prix. That would rumble through to turn four with Ticktum ultimately falling victim to a lunge around the outside from Louis Delétraz, while there fighting further back as Roy Nissany got inside Daruvala for ninth.

Yet, further around the restart lap there would be drama for Schumacher, who got off-line while stalking Ilott through turn six and ran across the gravel, dumping him down to fourteenth in the field. He duly got back up to speed with and pulled an immediate move on debutante Pedro Piquet for thirteenth, before hunting down and passing Daruvala and Mazepin. That left him in eleventh behind Nissany, although with time running out the German racer simply could not find an opportunity to pass the Israeli driver.

Out front, meanwhile, Ilott would command the closing stages of the race to claim a comfortable victory, sweeping across the line with an eight second lead over Armstrong. Armstrong himself was a delighted second on his debut, having kept fellow debutante Shwartzman at bay through to the chequered flag on heavily worn tyres, while Lundgaard managed to fend off Ticktum to the line to claim fourth. Alesi was next up after a late surge up the order on the softer compound of tyres, while Delétraz, Drugovich, Matsushita and Nissany claimed the remaining points.

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

 * First race for HWA Racelab and Hitech Grand Prix as entrants in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
 * Debut race for Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Felipe Drugovich, Pedro Piquet, Guilherme Samaia, Robert Shwartzman and Yuki Tsunoda.
 * First race for Roy Nissany since the 2018 Monza Sprint Race.
 * First race for Dan Ticktum since the 2018 Yas Marina Sprint Race.
 * Maiden victory for Callum Ilott.
 * UNI-Virtuosi Racing secured their fifth win as an entrant.
 * Maiden podium finish for Armstrong and Shwartzman.
 * First points finish for Armstrong, Schwartzman, Christian Lundgaard, Ticktum and Drugovich.
 * Ilott recorded his maiden fastest lap.

Standings
Victory on the opening day ensured that Callum Ilott headed the field with one race in the books, with two points for fastest lap leaving him on 27 points. Marcus Armstrong was next up in second, nine behind, while Robert Shwartzman, Christian Lundgaard and Dan Ticktum completed the top five with eleven drivers on the scoresheet.

In the Teams' Championship it was, unsurprisingly, UNI-Virtuosi who headed the charge, having claimed 31 points across the opening day. However, their lead was only a single point from ART Grand Prix after a strong opening day for Armstrong and Lundgaard, while Prema Racing had half of their tally in third. Behind, there were five other teams on the scoresheet after the opening day, with Carlin, Hitech Grand Prix and Campos Racing having failed to score.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.