2019 Sochi Feature Race

The 2019 Sochi Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Sochi Formula 2 Race 1, was the twentieth race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia, on 28 September 2019. The race, held in support of the 2019 Russian Grand Prix, would see Nyck de Vries claim the F2 Championship with three races to spare, as he claimed an impressive victory ahead of his main title rivals.

There were several changes to the entry list once again ahead of the meeting in Sochi, with BWT Arden, Trident and the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz all back up to full strength. Trident had the least amount of change, slotting Ralph Boschung back into his car after Giuliano Alesi had used it in Monza, while Charouz hired Russian racer Matevos Isaakyan to replace the injured, but recovering, Juan Manuel Correa. Arden, meanwhile, would hire F2 veteran Artem Markelov to complete the season alongside Tatiana Caldéron, albeit using #22 as his race number as F2 decided to retire #19 in honour of the late Anthoine Hubert.

Qualifying for the Sochi Feature would see de Vries claim pole position, acing the final sector in the dying seconds to beat title rival Nicholas Latifi to the front of the field. Callum Ilott also made a late charge to secure third ahead of Luca Ghiotto, while Guanyu Zhou beat Sérgio Sette Câmara to fifth.

The race started with a clear track in spite of morning rain, with de Vries easing into the lead on the long run to the first chicane. That left Latifi, Ghiotto and Ilott to squabble for second, with Latifi ultimately emerging ahead with Ilott in his wake.

Mick Schumacher was the man to watch on the opening lap, storming through to seventh, although his charge would be halted when Markelov retired, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car. When the race resumed Schumacher was instantly on the attack, sweeping past Zhou to secure sixth, before claiming fifth by vaulting past Ilott.

Indeed, Ilott's race took a nose-dive after the restart, for the British rookie could not get his tyres up to temperature and so lacked the pace of those around him. He quickly tumbled to twelfth to leave Ghiotto on the back of Latifi for second, who duly dived past the Canadian to secure second.

A lap later and the Italian had charged onto the back of race leader de Vries, and used a similar lunge to secure the lead at the first chicane, with de Vries and Latifi shooting into the pits at the end of the lap. Those two emerged in tenth and eleventh as the leaders of those on a supersoft-medium Pirelli strategy, while Ghiotto led those on the opposite strategy. Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Nobuharu Matsushita were also running to the same plan.

A battle on the timesheets began at that moment, with de Vries and Latifi weaving their way through traffic to get within 27s of Ghiotto, the amount of time lost in the pits. Their charge was aided by the demise of Schumacher with an engine failure, although with five laps to go Ghiotto, still yet to pit, still had 26s in hand over the duo.

With three laps to go Ghiotto finally dived in, with a swift stop from UNI-Virtuosi getting him back out in fourth, a few seconds behind Latifi and with Louis Delétraz in between. With that the hunt was on, although time was fast running out to challenge for the lead as de Vries had established a small lead over Latifi and Delétraz.

Ultimately time would run out for Ghiotto, with the Italian initially passing Delétraz, only to lock up at the final corner and surrender third to the Swiss racer, who was himself just shy of Latifi in second. Out front, meanwhile, de Vries swept across the line to secure his fourth win of the season, as well as mathematically secure the F2 Championship with three rounds to go.

The rest of the points were shared between Câmara, Matsushita, Jack Aitken, Mazepin, Ilott and Zhou.

Background
The FIA Formula 2 Championship class of 2019 arrived at the Sochi Autodrom in the Sochi Olympic Park in Russia for the penultimate race meeting of the season, supporting Formula One and the 2019 Russian Grand Prix. Using an unchanged layout of the Sochi Autodrom, the pair of races in Russia had the potential to decide the Championship, with Nyck de Vries and DAMS both arriving with significant leads in the respective title bids.

Correa's Condition
The most important news ahead of the Sochi races was an update on the status of Juan Manuel Correa, who had been critically injured in the fatal accident at the 2019 Spa Feature Race that had claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert. The American racer had been taken out of his medically induced coma and removed from the ECMO machine, and had regained consciousness, but was not fully awake. Correa's progress meant that doctors could finally operate on Correa's legs, having had to initially focus on his lungs which were too weak to allow them to safety operate.

Russian Racers
The F2 field would be back up to full strength for the two Sochi races, as two Russian born racers joined the field to fill the seats left empty by the tragic events of the Spa Feature Race. The Sauber Junior Team by Charouz were the first to announce their replacement for the injured Correa, hiring Matevos Isaakyan for his F2 debut. Backed by Russian banker Boris Rotenberg's SMP Racing, Isaakyan joined F2 from the FIA World Endurance Championship, marking his return to single seaters having last raced in 2017 in the World Series Formula V8 3.5.

Elsewhere, BWT Arden announced their replacement for the late Anthoine Hubert, hiring F2 veteran Artem Markelov. The Russian racer, who had last competed with Campos Racing in the two Monte Carlo races earlier in the season, signed a deal to complete the campaign with Arden, although he would use #22 rather than #19 as his race number. This was due to the fact that the FIA and F2 had agreed to retire #19 as a race number, deciding it was an appropriate mark of respect for Hubert.

Trident, meanwhile, were back up to full strength, with Ralph Boschung back in his car, after having had to sit out the two Monza Races as Giuliano Alesi used his car. Alesi's car had been impounded following the 2019 Spa Feature Race, and as Trident's lead driver and main source of income, the Frenchman had been given priority to race in Monza.

2020 Plans
The Sochi race would also see the unveiling of the calendar for the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, which would once again exclusively support the F1 World Championship. As such F2's 2020 schedule was dictated by F1's calendar plans, although there were some major changes undertaken by F2 as to which Grand Prix they would support in the Series' fourth full season. Indeed, F2 opted to support the reincarnated Dutch Grand Prix instead of the French Grand Prix, opening out more space in the middle of the season, while the visit to Azerbaijan had been pushed into June.

Monza Machinations
Nyck de Vries had left Italy on the verge of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship title after his podium finish in the Monza Sprint, which had put him on 225 points. That meant that the Dutchman could seal the title in the Sochi Feature Race, if he secured a maximum score, won from pole position, or claimed victory with Nicholas Latifi off the podium. The Canadian racer was hence likely to face a fight for second for the rest of the campaign, with race winner Jack Aitken joining the hunt in between Luca Ghiotto and Sérgio Sette Câmara.

In the Teams' Championship DAMS had suffered a rare non-score, allowing UNI-Virtuosi to shuffle closer. However, the French squad still had a fair advantage over their British rivals, and had left Italy with 47 points in hand, while Virtuosi themselves had a 39 point hold on second ahead of ART Grand Prix. Behind, Campos Racing and Carlin had swapped places again in the Sprint, with the Spanish outfit having regained the initiative in the fight for fourth.

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

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Race
It was in Sochi for the penultimate F2 Feature Race of the campaign, with no threat of rain as sunset approached on Saturday afternoon. There was also some stability with the grid ahead of the race, with no changes to the final order after qualifying to leave Nyck de Vries on pole, knowing he could wrap up the Championship title with victory.

Report
de Vries duly aced his start when the lights went out to secure an early lead, with main title rival Nicholas Latifi making a less spectacular getaway from second. Indeed, the Canadian racer's start meant that he came under attack from Callum Ilott on the long sprint through turn one to the turn two/three chicane, with Luca Ghiotto also a threat. Latifi would, however, manage to secure the position on the inside of Ilott, elbowing the Brit off, as behind Ghiotto pulled a similar manoeuvre to keep teammate Guanyu Zhou behind.

There would be a lot of intense fighting on the opening tour, with Zhou running Louis Delétraz wide through turn four, although the Swiss racer would bravely hang on around the outside. That allowed Delétraz to throw a lunge down the inside of Zhou into turn five, although Zhou held him off but compromised his exit. That hence allowed Delétraz to try again into turn six, with Zhou moving to the inside to defend, and allowed Mick Schumacher close right onto their tail.

Indeed, Schumacher had already been a big winner through turn four, streaking past three cars as Mazepin got out of shape on the dust, and hence delayed Nobuharu Matsushita and Sérgio Sette Câmara. His charge was, however, halted by a Virtual Safety Car, as the returning Artem Markelov became the race's first casualty. Indeed, the Russian racer had been clobbered in the middle of the pack during the early fighting, which had broken part of the front.

At the restart Schumacher would resume his early charge, storming past Delétraz with a lunge into the first chicane. Out front, meanwhile, de Vries would break clear, while Ilott had lost too much temperature in his tyres, and lacked the pace to keep up with the Dutchman. As a result he would immediately plummet down the field, with Latifi and Ghiotto instantly passing him before the Italian racer went diving past the Canadian to secure second.

Ghiotto's charge continued throughout the early laps, and by midway through lap five he would be right on de Vries' tail. A significant part of that was due to the fact that he was on the harder medium compound Pirelli tyres, while de Vries and co. had all started on the fast wearing supersofts. As a result the Dutchman was unable to really defend the lead on lap five, although Ghiotto would send a surprise lunge down the inside of de Vries into turn ten to grab the lead.

As that fight resolved itself Schumacher continued his climb up the field, lunging straight past Zhou on the brakes for turn six, again with a tyre wear advantage. That left the German racer in fourth behind Latifi, with the German racer quickly closing onto the Canadian's tail. A lap later and the #9 Prema copied Ghiotto's lunge on de Vries into turn turn ten on Latifi, leaving him in third and right on the back of de Vries.

With that the lead drivers on supersoft tyres began diving in to remove their worn tyres, with de Vries, Latifi, Zhou and Delétraz all sweeping in at the end of lap six. A clean stop for de Vries saw him get out ahead of Latifi, while a miserable stop for Zhou saw him drop behind Delétraz, Ilott and Sette Câmara. That hence left Ghiotto on his own at the head of the field, while Schumacher ran in second ahead of Mazepin.

That was not to last, however, for Mazepin would fire the #3 ART down the inside of the #9 Prema into the first chicane at the start of lap eight to snatch second. However, Schumacher got a better exit and hence managed to squeeze down the inside of the Mazepin through the sweeping left-hander of turn four, emerging ahead as they hit the brakes for turn five. They continued to fight before Schumacher gained the initiative, only to lock-up into turn thirteen, run wide, and lose the position to Mazepin.

As the race approached half-distance de Vries was beginning to catch those who had yet to stop on their starting mediums, easing past Marino Sato into the first chicane. That left him thirty seconds behind Ghiotto, although their pace would slowly begin to equalise as de Vries switched to tyre preservation to make the finish. Schumacher, meanwhile, appeared to have damaged his tyres, for he would lose pace significantly for several laps, and hence slipped behind Matsushita having been comfortably ahead of the Japanese racer prior to his lock-up.

Things would only get worse for Schumacher as the race wore on, with smoke beginning to streak out of the back of the #9 Prema as he began to close back up onto Matsushita with ten laps to go. That would prove to be a sign of a worsening engine issue, with King receiving a face full of smoke, prompting him to comment over the radio that he was struggling to breath. On lap twenty Schumacher finally relented and pitted, with the team ultimately retiring the car as a result.

With Schumacher out of the way Matsushita would move up past Mazepin to claim second on track, while King became the first of those on the alternate strategy to stop with seven laps to go. The Brit duly began setting a series of fastest laps, prompting the rest of the alternate runners to make their stops. Significantly, however, Ghiotto would plough on at the head of the field, sitting ten seconds clear of Matsushita, and 25 seconds clear of de Vries in fourth with five laps to go.

The Italian racer would finally make his stop with four laps to go, handing the lead de Vries, with Latifi and Delétraz also streaking past. Ghiotto hence rejoined in fourth, six seconds off the leader, but had significantly quicker tyres in order to try and carve his way back up the order. However, the supersoft tyres were still wearing at an alarming rate, with King's pace already wavering after just three laps.

After getting his tyres up to temperature Ghiotto began his bid for the lead, sweeping onto the back of Delétraz to challenge for third. On the penultimate tour he pulled a clever over-under manoeuvre through turns thirteen and fourteen to grab third, courtesy of his superior grip. He duly went darting off to catch Latifi, although as the race entered its final lap time was very much against him.

Not only that, but Ghiotto's tyres would suddenly lose grip at the start of the final tour, meaning he could no longer threaten Latifi. Instead, he came under attack from Delétraz as they completed the first sector, with the Swiss racer duly dancing past the #8 UNI-Virtuosi down the back straight to reclaim third, darting around a lapped Matevos Isaakyan as he did so. Ghiotto tried to fire back past on the brakes for turn thirteen, although he would lock-up his front-right badly as he tried to lunge down the inside of Delétraz, settling the fight in the Swiss racer's favour.

With that the race was run, with de Vries able to cruise through the final sector to claim victory and the Championship title with three races to spare. Latifi was second across the line to cede the Championship title, while Delétraz beat Ghiotto to the line to complete the podium. Sette Câmara was on his own in fifth ahead of Matsushita and Aitken, Mazepin claimed reverse-grid pole in eighth, while Ilott and Zhou rounded out the scorers after a late duel between themselves.

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

 * Nyck de Vries declared as the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship Champion.
 * Debut race for Matevos Isaakyan.
 * Fifth pole position of the season for de Vries.
 * Eighth and final F2 victory for de Vries.
 * ART Grand Prix secured their fourteenth win in Formula 2.
 * Also their 62nd win at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Pole position combined with victory in the 2019 Sochi Feature Race ensured that Nyck de Vries had done enough to secure the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship with three races to spare, having moved 70 points clear. Nicholas Latifi was hence left to fight for second despite doing all he could to deny the Dutchman in the Feature, but had crucially moved fifteen clear of Luca Ghiotto in third. The Italian racer himself had a ten point margin over Sérgio Sette Câmara in fourth, while Jack Aitken remained in the hunt for second in fifth.

DAMS were once again the standout names in the Teams' Championship with three races to go, having moved 60 points clear with a podium and a fifth place in the Sochi Feature. UNI-Virtuosi had hence lost ground in second, while ART Grand Prix had closed in on the British squad, largely due to de Vries' victory. Just 21 points separated the pair as the season entered its final throes, as behind Carlin moved ahead of Campos Racing in the latest edition of their game of leapfrog for fourth.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.