2020 Sochi Feature Race

The 2020 Sochi Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Sochi Formula 2 Race 1, was the nineteenth race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia on 26 September 2020. The race, held in support of the Formula 1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2020, would see Mick Schumacher sweep to victory to enhance his Championship lead.

Yuki Tsunoda would emerge from qualifying with pole position, with a late effort beating teammate Jehan Daruvala by 0.006s. Behind, Championship leader Schumacher would claim third ahead of main rival Callum Ilott, while fellow title pretenders Christian Lundgaard and Robert Shwartzman qualified in sixth and seventh.

The start of the race saw Tsunoda leap into the lead, while behind Daruvala was powerless to prevent Schumacher from storming past for second. The German racer then moved to challenge Tsunoda around the outside of turn two, although the Japanese racer would hang on, as behind one of the German's title rivals was to be removed from the race.

Lundgaard was the unfortunate victim, getting hit by a wayward Pedro Piquet after the Brazilian had been smacked into by Jüri Vips on the brakes for turn two. Louis Delétraz, Felipe Drugovich and Roy Nissany also got tangled in the incident and would hence have to make their way back to the pits, while a Safety Car was scrambled to remove Vips and Lundgaard's ruined cars.

When the race resumed Tsunoda again made an early break away, sprinting clear of Schumacher as the German racer himself eased away from Daruvala. Indeed, it would be status quo throughout the field after the restart, with the opening laps of the race proving similarly tame.

Into the pit phase and Daruvala was the first to pit of the leaders, rejoining down in twelfth before Tsunoda lead Schumacher and Ilott into the pits a lap later. They duly rejoined ahead of the Indian racer in ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively, with Jack Aitken inheriting the lead as the first driver on the alternate medium-supersoft strategy.

The pace of those who started on the mediums would waver after half-distance, allowing Tsunoda, Schumacher and Ilott to steadily climb up the order, and reel in Aitken's overall advantage. With ten laps to go Aitken was in and rejoined well behind the trio, with Nikita Mazepin and Guanyu Zhou completing an additional tour before making their stops.

With those two out of the way Tsunoda reclaimed the lead, just in time to have Schumacher lunge past on the brakes for turn two to claim the lead for himself. With that the #20 Prema was away, with Tsunoda soon falling to Ilott as the Brit chased after his title rival.

The closing stages of the race were about the fading fortunes of Ilott who, having broken clear of Tsunoda, could not break into DRS range of Schumacher. Furthermore, in the closing stages the Brit's pace would collapse and dump him back into the sights of Tsunoda and Luca Ghiotto, with the Japanese racer firing back ahead around turn three on the penultimate tour.

Out front, meanwhile, Schumacher collected an ominiously strong victory to enhance his Championship lead, some six seconds clear of Tsunoda in second. Behind, Ilott just kept Ghiotto at bay in a sprint to the chequered flag to complete the podium, while Daruvala claimed fifth ahead of Aitken. Mazepin was next up ahead of Zhou, who claimed reverse-grid pole for the Sprint Race, while Marcus Armstrong and Dan Ticktum rounded out the scorers.

Background
The Formula 2 class of 2020 would arrive at the familiar sights of the Sochi Olympic Park in Krasnodar Krai, Russia in late September, with the Sochi Autodrom playing host as usual. The Sochi round had been restored to the calendar after an initial cancellation due to the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, with F2 supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship at the unchanged Russian circuit. Likewise, there would be no changes to the field, with Estonian racer Jüri Vips set to sub in for the injured Sean Gelael once again at DAMS.

Seat Shuffles
Ahead of the Sochi weekend MP Motorsport announced the departure of Nobuharu Matsushita from the team, with the Japanese racer and the Dutch team agreeing to a mutual separation with immediate effect. His seat would be taken by Ferrari Driver Academy member Giuliano Alesi, who left HWA Racelab in order to join MP, after a difficult season with the new team had seen him only claim one points finish. Alesi's vacant HWA seat, meanwhile, would be taken by Jake Hughes, who was promoted from the German squad's FIA Formula 3 Championship squad for the rest of the 2020 campaign.

Mugello Masters
Mick Schumacher had ended the Tuscan weekend with the Championship lead in Formula 2 with three weekends to go, with an eight point margin over his closest challenger. Former leader Callum Ilott had made way for the German youth, slipping to second, while Christian Lundgaard broke up the Ferrari Driver Academy hold on the top of the table by climbing to third. Indeed, the Dane had moved five points ahead of Robert Shwartzman as the Russian racer slipped to fourth, while behind Nikita Mazepin was four ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in fifth.

In the Teams' Championship Prema Racing had ended their second home race weekend with a comfortable margin over second placed UNI-Virtuosi, with the Italian squad leaving Tuscany with a 40 point margin. Indeed, the British squad had chipped into Prema's lead in the Mugello Sprint, but only by enough to ensure that they remained within a Feature Race's worth of points of Prema. Hitech Grand Prix, meanwhile, had slipped 85 points off the lead in third after a self-inflicted non-score, while ART Grand Prix and Carlin rounded out the top five.

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
With temperatures hovering at 28°C on the Black Sea coast the session got underway on Friday afternoon, with Mick Schumacher leading the field out of the pits. The German youth would go on to set the first lap of the session, although it was teammate and title rival Robert Shwartzman who put in the first competitive time, a 1:49.634. Jehan Daruvala then appeared at the top of the times, before being supplanted by Nikita Mazepin as the first set of runs came to a conclusion.

After a cool down lap all 22 drivers went for a second run on their first set of supersoft tyres, with the times at the top coming down again. This time Daruvala found four tenths to return to top spot, with his Carlin teammate Yuki Tsunoda slotting into second ahead of Mazepin. Otherwise it would be marginal gains on the whole for the rest of the field, although debutante Jake Hughes would notably jump to ninth as drivers began heading back to the pits.

Armed with fresh supersofts the field re-emerged with ten minutes to go, with Daruvala again finding a tenth to increase his margin. Tsunoda also improved but could not match the Indian racer's mark, while the two UNI-Virutosis leapt up to third and fourth, Guanyu Zhou ahead of Callum Ilott. With that the field again settled into cool down laps, before once again opting to complete a second run on the same set of supersofts.

This time it was Tsunoda who found the biggest gains, overcoming his one tenth deficit to Daruvala to go fastest with a 1:48.688. Daruvala followed him across the line, although he would harrowingly missout on pole by 0.006s to Tsunoda as the chequered flag fell. Shwartzman then claimed third although he would be shuffled back instantly by Schumacher and Ilott, before Luca Ghiotto and Christian Lundgaard made late runs to also jump the #21 Prema pilot. Regardless, Shwartzman would end the session as the best placed Russian racer in the field, with Nikita Mazepin in tenth and Artem Markelov in twentieth.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Race
Conditions on the Black Sea coast remained calm and warm ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday morning, with no threat of rain for the 28 lap race around the Sochi Olympic Park. Likewise, the grid was stable after qualifying with no late revisions, meaning Yuki Tsunoda would lead the field away from pole as expected, with the majority starting on the supersoft Pirelli tyres.

Report
Tsunoda duly exchanged pole position for the lead when the lights went out, sprinting away with Mick Schumacher right on his tail. Indeed, an equally strong start from the German youth would see the #20 Prema jet past Jehan Daruvala, with the Indian racer hampered by the dust on the off-side of the grid. Callum Ilott would likewise lose out to Luca Ghiotto and drop to fifth, with Jack Aitken and Robert Shwartzman also moving up to challenge the UNI-Virtuosi through the first corner.

Into the first braking point of the afternoon and Schumacher had a run on Tsunoda into turn two, although the Japanese racer placed his #7 Carlin on the defensive inside line and held the lead. Behind, Ilott recovered from his poor launch to fire his car right around the outside of Ghiotto to reclaim fourth, before a multi-car collision thinned the field behind. Indeed, as Shwartzman disappeared down the escape road after locking up, Jüri Vips tried a lunge and sent several cars scattering across the exit of turn two.

The Estonian racer was on the inside of a three car fight into turn two, with Vips and Pedro Piquet running either side of Louis Delétraz. Vips then moved across and into the path of Delétraz as they braked for turn two, resulting in the #1 DAMS getting spun across the nose of the #11 Charouz and into the sister car of Piquet. Piquet was then pushed into the side of Christian Lundgaard, while Dan Ticktum, Felipe Drugovich, Guilherme Samaia and several others took avoiding action.

Vips was left stranded at turn two, while Lundgaard retired his car on the outside of turn three due to damage. Their abandoned cars would trigger a Safety Car, with Roy Nissany and Felipe Drugovich having also retired in the pits due to damage sustained in the collision, having also got tangled in the incident. Piquet and Delétraz would likewise have to pit to have their front wings replaced, and would be a long way off the back of the field when the race resumed at the start of lap three.

At the restart Tsunoda would bolt, although Schumacher was able to pace him out of the final corner, but ultimately proved too far back to challenge into turn two. Indeed, there would be very little movement in the field at the restart despite the promised influence of the slipstream into turn two. Instead, the only change in the top ten came through turn three and into turn four, with Nikita Mazepin throwing the #24 Hitech down the inside of Zhou into turn four to claim seventh.

With that the order quickly settled, with Tsunoda and Schumacher easing away from Daruvala, while the Indian racer opened a small margin over Ilott, Aitken and Luca Ghiotto. Daruvala subsequently became the first driver to stop at the end of lap six after the pit window formally opened, while Tsunoda and Schumacher carried on until lap eight. Indeed, Schumacher's stop came a something of a surprise to the Prema pitcrew, with boss Rene Rosin visibly shouting at the crew to prepare for the #20 Prema's arrival.

The reason for Rosin's frantic attempts at communication were revealed a few moments later as Shwartzman followed Schumacher into the pits, with Ilott and Ghiotto likewise venturing into the pitlane. Regardless, Schumacher would not be delayed and hence rejoined between Tsunoda and Ilott as before, while Shwartzman suffered a small delay due to the late change. On track, meanwhile, Aitken would move into the lead as the lead driver on the alternate medium-supersoft strategy, while Tsunoda and co. came back on in tenth through sixteenth with Daruvala.

As the race wore on Mazepin made a bid for the lead, only to lock-up when challenging Aitken on the brakes for turn two, the Anglo-Korean racer having taken the inside line to defend from the Russian. Mazepin duly went skating into the run-off and had to take the prescribed path to rejoin, with that delay allowing Zhou to sweep back past to claim second on the road. Elsewhere, Tsunoda and Schumacher were beginning to make their way up the field through those on the alternate strategy, amid news that Prema were under investigation for their stops.

Four laps after Mazepin made his bid for the lead Zhou would have a go at Mazepin, forcing the #3 UNI-Virtuosi down the inside of Aitken on the run to turn two. Aitken finally relented and dived across to take the grippier racing line for the 90° right-hand, leaving Zhou fully committed on the dustier inside line. Zhou would make the corner but run wide on the compromised line, allowing Aitken to sweep back past on the exit and retain the lead.

Zhou tried again a lap later at turn four on lap sixteen, although his look down the inside of the #9 Campos would end in failure, with the Chinese racer duly dropping back behind Mazepin due to lost momentum on the exit. Two laps later and Aitken was in for his stop, a surprise given that there were still eleven laps to go. A lap later and Mazepin and Zhou made their stops along with the rest of those who started on the mediums, promoting Tsunoda back into the lead.

That, however, was not to last, for as Tsunoda moved to the head of the field, Schumacher was plotting a move on the #7 Carlin, getting the slipstream and DRS down into turn two. Tsunoda duly took the defensive inside line into the 90 right, while Schumacher took the racing line to try a move around the outside. However, Tsunoda would wash out wide on the exit of the corner, allowing Schumacher to chop back inside and power past on the run to turn three and secure the lead.

With that Schumacher was away, while Tsunoda quickly slipped into the sights of Ilott, who had shadowed them back up through the field. The Brit would subsequently ease past the Japanese racer down the weaving back straight with the aid of DRS, before sprinting away to chase title rival Schumacher. Tsunoda was hence left in a lonely third, as behind Aitken, Zhou and Mazepin were moving steadily up the field with their fresh supersofts.

Into the closing stages and Ilott had failed to muster a serious challenge for victory, for Schumacher had been able to maintain a one-second buffer to the #4 Virtuosi and hence deny Ilott the aid of DRS. Indeed, Schumacher's title ambitions would be further enhanced by the slow decline of teammate Shwartzman, who slipped from eighth to eleventh in the final laps after moves from Mazepin, Marcus Armstrong and Dan Ticktum. Indeed, since his stop Shwartzman's race had largely fallen apart, with the Russian racer's bid to keep Ticktum at bay through turn three ending with the #21 Prema getting elbowed out onto the dust and marbles.

Back with Ilott and his pace would collapse with three laps to go, allowing Tsunoda to move back onto his tail as they started the final tour. Ilott duly defended Tsunoda's lunge around the outside of turn two, and would get a strong enough exit to deny the #7 Carlin the cut-back on the exit. However, Tsunoda was not so easily resisted, with the Japanese racer completing a breath-taking manoeuvre around the outside of the #4 Virtuosi through turn three to claim second, with Ilott lacking the grip to respond.

That move settled the race order, with Schumacher having escaped by six seconds in the final laps to secure victory, a win the ballooned out his Championship lead to eighteen points. Tsunoda and Ilott then completed the podium ahead of Ghiotto, while Daruvala claimed fifth ahead of a charging Aitken. Mazepin was next up ahead of Zhou, who registered reverse-grid pole for the feature race, while Armstrong and Ticktum rounded out the scorers.

Post-Race
After the race there would be several investigations facing Prema Racing, after an irregularity was found on Schumacher's car in post-race scrutineering on top of an investigation into Rosin's actions during their pitstops. Schumacher's car was found to be using a superseded crank in its DRS system, which had been replaced on safety grounds after the 2019 Bahrain Sprint Race, with the modified part introduced and mandated from the 2019 Baku Feature Race. Prema defended their position by stating that the part on Schumacher's car had been installed after his qualifying crash at Monza, and hence passed scrutineering for two full events, and the fact that the part was very similar to the one that had replaced it.

After a two hour investigation the FIA ruled in favour of Prema, declaring that there had been 'no sporting advantage' from the part. Their investigation highlighted the visual similarity of the two cranks, so much so that it was decided that all teams would be given technical drawings of the new part to ensure that they were all installed on the 22 cars for the Sprint Race. Furthermore, Dallara were instructed to design a new part for the 2021 season to avoid further confusion.

There would be more external pressure surrounding the FIA's investigation into Rene Rosin, which was investigated under Article 21.5 of the sporting regulations. That Article was designed to restrict the number of operational personnel allowed to work on an F2 car to twelve during a race meeting, and Rosin's attempts to communicate with the pitcrew were investigated under that ruling. Fortunately for Prema it was ruled that Rosin had had no impact on the pitstop itself due to the ambient noise in the pitlane, although he was fined €10,000 for his actions as they could be 'misconstrued'.

Upon the publication of this ruling four teams, noted as ART Grand Prix, Carlin, DAMS and UNI-Virtuosi, would declare their intent to appeal, with a four day window to do so, although none would officially lodge a protest before the Sochi Sprint.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Delétraz recorded the fastest lap of the race, but was ineligible to claim the bonus point as he finished outside of the top ten.

Milestones

 * Debut race for Jake Hughes.
 * Third win for Mick Schumacher.
 * Also Schumacher's tenth career podium finish.
 * Prema Racing claimed their seventeenth win as an entrant in FIA Formula 2.
 * Also their 26th win at GP2/F2 level.
 * Yuki Tsunoda claimed his fifth podium finish.

Standings
Mick Schumacher appeared to have taken an important step towards the Championship after the Sochi Feature, with victory allowing the German youth to open up an eighteen point lead. That meant that Callum Ilott could not overhaul Schumacher even with a perfect score in the Sochi Sprint, although he still remained a principle pretender to the Championship. Behind, they had both opened a gap to Christian Lundgaard in third, who ended the day level with Yuki Tsunoda on 145 points, while Robert Shwartzman had slipped 46 off the lead in fifth.

Prema Racing ended the Feature Race having further enhanced their lead in the Teams' Championship, as they moved onto 326 points for the campaign. That left the Italian squad 46 clear of UNI-Virtuosi in second, while Hitech Grand Prix were a further 46 behind in third. A 51 point gap then separated Hitech from ART Grand Prix in fourth, while Carlin completed the top five on 181.