2019 Barcelona Sprint Race

The 2019 Barcelona Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Catalunya Race Two, was the sixth round of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, on the 12 May 2019. The race, staged in support of the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix, would see Nyck de Vries claim victory, having battled his way into the lead during the early stages of the race.

Callum Ilott would start the race from pole position, although he would not lead the race beyond the end of the pit wall. Instead, a fast starting Anthoine Hubert would surge into the lead, the Frenchman making a perfect getaway from third to scythe past Ilott and Jordan King.

de Vries also made a strong start, and duly moved into second on the brakes for the first corner having followed the pink BWT Arden through. The rest of the field made it around without issue, although an engine failure for Nobuharu Matsushita towards the end of the lap left his Carlin burning at the side of the circuit.

Matsushita escaped the burning car without issue, although his choice of abandoning the car at turn ten ensured that the safety car was required to remove it. The restart would see de Vries throw a half-hearted lunge at Hubert for the lead, resulting in the Frenchman opening out a small lead over the rest of the lap.

de Vries would require a few laps to get back on terms with Hubert, before sending his ART slithering inside the Arden into turn one before the Frenchman could react. With that de Vries was away, and duly left Hubert to defend second from a now charging Ilott.

Indeed, Ilott was making a mid-race push in order to keep Luca Ghiotto at bay, the Italian having scythed his way op the order with a series of stunning moves. When the Italian cleared Guanyu Zhou to secure fourth Ilott forced a move on Hubert, and duly secured second to leave the Frenchman in a very vulnerable third.

Hubert fell to Ghiotto a few laps later, before tracking down and taking second from Ilott in the closing stages. Out front, meanwhile, de Vries was able to cruise home to claim victory a few seconds clear of the Italian, while Hubert would be relegated to fifth by Zhou on the final lap.

Background
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was unchanged ahead of the Sprint Race, with no changes made to the field either. Furthermore, there were no post-Feature Race penalties to redefine the grid, meaning Callum Ilott would start from pole as expected.

Into the Championship and Nicholas Latifi had used his third win of the season in the Feature to extend his lead, moving 26 points clear of his closest challenger Jack Aitken. The Brit himself had also reinforced his hold on second, moving six clear of Luca Ghiotto, with the Italian very satisfied with his recovery drive. Nyck de Vries had, in contrast, lost ground in fourth, while Sérgio Sette Câmara retained fifth ahead of Guanyu Zhou.

DAMS, meanwhile, had smashed through the 100 point barrier in the Feature, moving onto 120 points after just five races. Behind UNI-Virtuosi had reclaimed second from Campos Racing, and had shaved a point out of DAMS' lead. Indeed, the British squad were now 39 points behind the French squad, while Campos had slipped 47 points off the leaders.

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

Race
Conditions remained warm and dry at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Sprint race on Sunday morning, with no threat of rain to confuse the field. Furthermore, there would be no revisions to the grid ahead of the race, with Callum Ilott to start from pole position having finished eighth in the Feature Race.

Report
Unfortunately Ilott would make a mess of his start when the lights went out, although King also made a poor getaway from second place on the grid. That allowed Anthoine Hubert to rocket into the lead from third, darting around Ilott before moving across to the inside of the track on the run to the first corner. Nyck de Vries would also get a stunning start to shoot from fourth to second, and would mirror Hubert's move to claim the outside line on the run to the opening right-hander.

Hubert would win their battle on the brakes for the first corner, with de Vries slotting in behind the Frenchman to plot a bid for the lead further around the opening tour. Behind, Ilott was braver than King on the outside of the first corner to secure third, while behind Jack Aitken fired his Campos down the inside of both Guanyu Zhou and Luca Ghiotto for fifth. The rest of the field would make it through without issue, with Zhou coming back at Aitken around the outside of turn three to reclaim fifth on the run to turn four.

The fight between Aitken and Zhou would last through the rest of the opening tour, as Hubert and de Vries broke away from Ilott at the head of the field. However, a fire for Nobuharu Matsushita at turn ten towards the end of the lap would trigger a Safety Car, with the Japanese racer escaping from the cockpit as flames erupted across the spine of the engine cover. Fortunately the marshals were able to react quickly to put the fire out and drag the #2 Carlin away without issue.

The race resumed at the end of lap four, with Hubert pacing himself well, although he had to go very defensive into the first corner to keep de Vries at bay as they started the following lap. After that de Vries tucked in behind the #19 BWT Arden to escape from Ilott in third, with the Brit having to keep compatriot King at bay to hold onto the final podium spot. Elsewhere, Mick Schumacher managed to get ahead of Tatiana Caldéron, having initially passed her as the SC was scrambled and hence had to hand her back the position, with the rest of the field making it through the first corners post-restart without issue.

When DRS came on-line de Vries would again begin pressuring Hubert for the lead, before pulling an audacious move down the inside of the Frenchman into the first corner on lap eight, having drifted from one side of the track to the other. Hubert tried to defend but could not deny the Dutchman, having reacted too slowly to the Dutchman's sweep to the inside of the circuit. Behind, Ilott continued to keep King at bay, while Ghiotto managed to get back ahead of Aitken with a lunge inside the #15 Campos into turn seven, having initially got inside the Brit at turn five.

Ghiotto's charge continued over the following laps, with the Italian racer first following teammate Zhou past a fading King, before throwing his car inside of the sister #7 UNI-Virtuosi into turn ten on lap ten. Up ahead, meanwhile, Ilott would latch onto the back of Hubert for second and, with the aid of DRS, would subsequently dance his Charouz-Sauber past the #19 Arden into the first corner. That was not, however, affecting the run of race leader de Vries, who had established a three second lead at the head of the field as the fights continued behind him.

Elsewhere, Nicholas Latifi was having a difficult Sprint having won the Feature, and found himself stuck behind Sean Gelael as the race approached half-distance, as his main title rivals ran at the head of the field. Indeed, he would only manage to scramble ahead of Gelael with a late lunge inside the #10 Prema into turn ten to grab eighth. He was, however, being stalked by Mick Schumacher, although the German racer would find himself being squeezed by teammate Gelael when he lunged inside the sister car a lap later at the same corner.

As the race wore on Aitken would try to go around the outside of King into the first corner, although the elder Brit would manage to force the Anglo-Korean racer to run wide and across the escape road. As he rejoined on the exit of turn two Latifi would sneak ahead of the #15 Campos for seventh, leaving him on the tail of King to challenge for sixth. The Canadian racer duly sent his #6 DAMS diving inside the #16 MP Motorsport into turn ten later in the lap, leaving him in sixth and chasing after Zhou.

Back with Ghiotto and with ten laps to go the Italian was finally within striking distance of Hubert, who was unable to match the pace of de Vries or Ilott after they had passed him. The Italian duly repeated their moves on the Frenchman, sweeping past the #19 Arden with the aid of DRS to secure third, with Hubert unable to defend. Behind, Sérgio Sette Câmara would attempt to make a similar move stick on Nikita Mazepin for a lowly fourteenth place, although the Russian racer moved across the Brazilian's nose to block the move midway down the start/finish straight, forcing the #5 DAMS to lift.

Into the closing stages and Ghiotto had caught onto the tail of Ilott, who was himself beginning to chip away at de Vries' lead, although not enough to trouble the Dutchman for the win. However, the Italian racer would plot his move having got within DRS range with three laps to go, and instead waited until the start of the final move to finally pounce. Indeed, with DRS and slipstream there was little Ilott could do to deny the more experienced pilot, although the Brit almost managed to hold off the Italian on the brakes into turn one, only for Ghiotto to hold enough momentum to grab second around the outside.

With that the race was run, with de Vries running to the chequered flag unopposed to secure victory, with Ghiotto trailing by three seconds, and Ilott by five. Zhou was next up having completed a late move on Hubert, while the Frenchman just held fifth from a late charge from Latifi, who claimed fastest lap. King was next up in seventh ahead of Schumacher, although the German racer was awarded a five second time penalty for cutting turn two, after his do-or-die lunge around the outside of Aitken into the first corner on the final tour ended with the #9 Prema running off-track.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Schumacher was handed a five second time penalty for cutting turn two.

Milestones

 * Fifth career win for Nyck de Vries.
 * ART Grand Prix secured their eleventh victory in Formula 2.
 * It was also their 59th F2/GP2 Series victory.
 * Maiden podium for Callum Ilott.
 * Sixth fastest lap recorded by Nicholas Latifi.

Standings
Nicholas Latifi had extended his lead in the Championship after claiming a handful of points in the Sprint, ending the weekend on 93 points. Luca Ghiotto, meanwhile, had climbed back into second after his podium charge, leaving Barcelona 26 points off of the Canadian out front. Nyck de Vries, meanwhile, had settled into third after his first win of the campaign, while Jack Aitken slipped to fourth.

DAMS had seen their lead reduced in the Teams Championship, having only claimed six points to leave them on 126 points after six rounds. That had allowed UNI-Virtuosi to close the gap to 25 points leaving Spain, while also moving past the 100 point barrier. Elsewhere, Campos Racing had lost more ground in third, slipping 27 behind the British squad, while ART Grand Prix and the Sauber Junior Team completed the top five

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.