2020 Barcelona Feature Race

The 2020 Barcelona Feature Race, formally known as the 2020 Catalunya Race 1, was the eleventh round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 15 August 2020. The race, held in support of the Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio de España 2020, would see Nobuharu Matsushita secure his first victory of the campaign, after clever strategy allowed the Japanese racer to climb from the back of the field.

Indeed, qualifying had been dominated by Callum Ilott as the Championship leader stormed to his second successive pole position ahead of title rival Robert Shwartzman. Guanyu Zhou would then share the second row with Matsushita's teammate Felipe Drugovich, while Matsushita himself would qualify in a lowly eighteenth.

The start of the race saw Shwartzman storm ahead of Ilott into the first corer to claim the lead, with the second Prema of Mick Schumacher also shooting through to challenge the Brit for second. Ilott would, however, manage to keep his fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member at bay into turn one, with the field making it through the first corners without issue.

Indeed, it was a fairly tame start, until Marcus Armstrong slid into the gravel and triggered an early Safety Car. When the race got back underway Shwartzman led Ilott in an early break away from the field, with Schumacher left to fend off the second UNI-Virtuosi of Zhou while using the hard compound Pirelli tyres.

Ilott eventually caught and passed Shwartzman for the lead with a well timed lunge into turn one, shortly before those on softs began making their stops. Shwartzman was the first to stop of the lead duo on lap eight, although he was unable to undercut the Brit when Ilott served his stop a lap later.

That left Schumacher at the head of the field ahead of a handful of drivers on the alternate strategy, including Matsushita. However, as the race wore on the German's pace collapsed as his tyres degraded excessively, meaning he was just four seconds ahead of Ilott when he served his stop with ten laps to go.

Schumacher rejoined in thirteenth almost half a minute off the lead, while Matsushita stayed out for an additional few laps before stopping as Ilott reclaimed the lead. However, just as the #14 MP Motorsport entered the pitlane the Safety Car would be scrambled for a second time, as Sean Gelael and Giuliano Alesi collided, which ended with Alesi spinning and stalling at the side of the circuit.

With that several drivers dived in for fresh softs, including Ilott, Drugovich, Shwartzman and Zhou, leaving Yuki Tsunoda as the leader as the Japanese racer gambled on not stopping. Ilott duly rejoined in second ahead of Matsushita and Shwartzman, while Schumacher moved back into the top ten.

The restart saw Matsushita storm to the head of the field with Shwartzman on his tail, with the duo passing both Ilott and Tsunoda in quick succession. They quickly set about building a small lead of their own, before a third SC intervention was required as Roy Nissany threw his car into the barriers at turn three.

That setup a one-lap sprint to the finish, although Matsushita held on well to secure his first win of the campaign ahead of title pretender Shwartzman. Behind, Zhou elbowed his way past Tsunoda late on to complete the podium, while Ilott managed to claim fifth after a disappointing final stint. Schumacher was next up ahead of Drugovich, with Luca Ghiotto, Dan Ticktum and Louis Delétraz claiming the remaining points.

After the race it was revealed that Gelael had been taken to hospital after contact with Jack Aitken on the final lap caused the #1 DAMS to get airborne before slamming down onto a kerb. The Indonesian racer was safely extracted from his cockpit by marshals and taken by ambulance to the Hospital General De Granollers, where it was found that he had sustained a fractured vertebra.

Background
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would host the sixth round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, with the familiar 4.655 km circuit unchanged for the series' annual visit. Furthermore the F2 field would remain within the Formula One "bubble", running in support of the Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio de España 2020. Likewise, there were no changes to the entry list, while Pirelli would equip the field with the hard and soft Pirelli tyres.

Nissany Nirvana
Ahead of the race it was announced that Roy Nissany would take part in free practice 1 for the Spanish Grand Prix, having signed as a test driver for the Williams F1 team. The Israeli racer would use the #63 car of former F2 Champion George Russell for the session, becoming the second active F2 racer to run in an F1 FP1 session in 2020 for Williams after Jack Aitken. It would also be Nissany's second F1 experience, after he took part in the Young Driver Test at the end of the 2019 season with the British squad.

Anniversary Advances
Callum Ilott would leave his second home race weekend with the Championship lead, having secured a nineteen point advantage over his closest challenger. Christian Lundgaard was the Brit's main rival as the fifth race weekend came to a conclusion, with the Dane himself two ahead of a disappointed Robert Shwartzman. Nikita Mazepin was next up ahead of Louis Delétraz, while Jack Aitken had inched closer to the top ten after two podiums in a row.

In the Teams' Championship UNI-Virtuosi were left in command of the title hunt, although their lead had been reduced to 21 points following the fourth battle of Silverstone. Prema Racing had therefore inched closer to the British squad in second, while ART Grand Prix had lost ground to both after a rare non-score. Hitech Grand Prix and Carlin then made it three British teams in the top five, while DAMS had slipped further down the order to seventh.

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
It would be a very hot 47°C track temperature on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as Nikita Mazepin led the field out of the pitlane at the start of the session, with the majority of the field leaving in the #24 Hitech's wake. Mazepin duly set the first flying lap of the session, falling just shy of the 1:30.000 barrier, before being steadily shuffled down the field. Robert Shwartzman instead emerged from the first barrage of times with a 1:28.862, with Callum Ilott and Mick Schumacher within a tenth.

As the rest of the field filtered into the pits for fresh tyres Guanyu Zhou ventured onto the circuit, getting an empty circuit to himself having opted to sit out the first wave of times. The ploy worked as the Chinese racer leapt into second, just 0.010s shy of Shwartzman's earlier effort, before he cruised back to the pits to try and get another run late on. As he entered the pits teammate Ilott would head back onto the circuit very early, with the UNI-Virtuosi team having got the #4 car back out in record time.

Ilott hence had a clear track in which to set his second flying lap, and strong sectors in all three saw him record a 1:28.381 to go fastest by half a second. He would carefully return to the pits as the rest of the field began their flying laps, managing to successfully pull into parc fermé without incurring a penalty. On track, meanwhile, it was Shwartzman who headed the charge against Ilott's new benchmark, with the Russian racer matching the Brit in the first sector.

Yet, it was not to be for Shwartzman, with his pace trailing off over the rest of the lap to leave him 0.183s shy in second. Felipe Drugovich, meanwhile, would prove to be the next closest challenger but fell three tenths shy, with the session seemingly over with a few seconds to go. That was, until Zhou swept across the line to leap back up the order to third after again venturing out of the pits behind everyone else, meaning the two Virtuosis would occupy first and third on the grid.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Aitken and Gelael were still classified despite retiring as they had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * Sixth victory for Nobuharu Matsushita.
 * Also Matsushita's tenth podium finish.
 * MP Motorsport claimed their third FIA Formula 2 Championship victory as an entrant.

Standings
Callum Ilott retained the lead of the Championship as the sixth Feature Race of the campaign came to its conclusion, heading into the Barcelona Sprint with a seventeen point margin. Behind, Robert Shwartzman had moved back ahead of Christian Lundgaard to claim second after his podium finish, while the Dane slipped 33 points behind in third after a non-score. Guanyu Zhou, meanwhile, had streaked up the order to fourth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, while race winner Nobuharu Matsushita had moved up to eleventh.

In the Teams' Championship UNI-Virtuosi had inched further ahead of closest rivals Prema Racing, establishing a 24 points lead over the Italian effort. Prema themselves had likewise opened up their margin to the team behind, with ART Grand Prix having slipped 51 points back as a result of the Barcelona Feature. Elsewhere, Hitech Grand Prix and Carlin had retained their top five status, while MP Motorsport were the day's big winners as they climbed up to sixth from eighth.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.