2020 Bahrain Sprint Race

The 2020 Bahrain Sprint Race, formally known as the 2020 Bahrain Formula 2 Race 2, was the twenty-second race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Bahrain, on 29 November 2020. The race would see Robert Shwartzman collect his fourth win of the season, as the fates of the two main title protagonists ebbed and flowed.

The grid for the Sprint Race was settled on the finishing order of the Feature Race, with the reverse-grid role putting Shwartzman on pole. Feature winner Drugovich, meanwhile, would start from eighth, while Championship leader Mick Schumacher was to start the Sprint in fifth with main rival Callum Ilott in seventh.

The start saw Shwartzman hesitate slightly as the lights went out, allowing Yuki Tsunoda to storm between the Russian racer and fellow front-row starter Marcus Armstrong. However, Shwartzman would not make the same mistake at turn one, and duly secured the lead by out-braking the Japanese racer into the hairpin right hander.

The rest of the field made it through the first corner, with title protagonists Schumacher and Ilott holding station in fifth and seventh. They would, however, both gain a position as Armstrong tagged the back of Tsunoda further around the opening tour, with the Japanese racer suffering a puncture as a result.

Tsunoda rejoined in 21st, with the race beginning to settle down before Théo Pourchaire triggered a Safety Car after his fire extinguisher went off. Louis Delétraz duly took that as a chance to gamble on a fresh set of medium tyres, after mixed reviews from the compound after the Feature.

The title fight then became the focus after the restart, with Schumacher misjudging his braking point for turn ten and locked-up, running wide. Jehan Daruvala looked to take advantage, as did Ilott, although their mutual lunges ended with Ilott breaking his front wing on the side of Daruvala. Schumacher hence resumed in fourth, while Daruvala was sent spinning and out, while Ilott limped back to the pits for a fresh front wing.

Ilott was subsequently handed a drive-through for causing an avoidable collision, while Pedro Piquet dived ahead of a now passive Schumacher. A Virtual Safety Car was then thrown to allow Daruvala's car to be retrieved, although that intervention was brief.

After that restart there would be no stopping Shwartzman, with the Russian racer storming into a comfortable lead, while Armstrong tried in vain to hold second. Ultimately, however, Nikita Mazepin would manage to elbow his way past the New Zealander, having also muscled past Schumacher and Piquet, before chasing off after Shwartzman.

Behind, Schumacher was driving defensively and conservatively, with the German racer ultimately conceding fifth and then sixth to Guanyu Zhou and Delétraz on successive laps. Delétraz would go on to pass Zhou and Armstrong, before catching teammate Piquet, moments before the Brazilian was denied a potential maiden podium by an engine failure in the closing stages.

With that the race was run, with Shwartzman able to cruise to the chequered flag to secure his fourth win of the campaign. Mazepin and the charging Delétraz completed the podium ahead of Zhou, while Christian Lundgaard managed to overhaul Schumacher in the closing stages to claim sixth. The German racer was, however, content with two points for seventh as it extended his Championship lead, leaving him fourteen ahead of Ilott ahead of the finale on the following weekend.

Background
There were no changes required to the Bahrain International Circuit ahead of the F2 Sprint Race, with the same trio of DRS zones in use once again. There were likewise no changes to the entry list, meaning Robert Shwartzman would start from pole position as expected, having finished in eighth in the Feature Race.

Ilott Inches
Mick Schumacher had retained his lead in the Championship after his leap from tenth in fourth in Bahrain, although that had not been enough to see his advantage reduced. Indeed, Callum Ilott had used pole and second place to cut the gap to twelve points ahead of the Sprint Race, with those two now the favourites for the title after Schumacher opened out a 46 point gap to Yuki Tsunoda. With 65 points left to fight for the Japanese racer would need to win all three races, and hope that Schumacher and Ilott failed to score, with the same fact applying to Nikita Mazepin, Christian Lundgaard and Robert Shwartzman.

In the Teams' Championship Prema Racing had seen their lead slightly reduced atop the field, although not by enough to seriously threaten their hopes of claiming the title. Indeed, UNI-Virtuosi had managed to reduce their arrears to 36.5 points from the Italian squad, while Hitech Grand Prix were now 97 point behind, with 107 left to fight for. Carlin were hence out of the fight in fourth, despite having overhauled ART Grand Prix to move up the table.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:
 * * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Grid
The grid for the Sprint Race was formed from the finishing positions from the Feature Race, with the top eight reversed as per-FIA Formula 2 Championship rules:

Race
It was another warm and sunny morning in Sakhir for the second FIA Formula 2 Championship race of the weekend, with no threat of rain for the 120 km Sprint Race. The grid was similarly stable with no late revisions to alter the order, with the entire field starting the race on the hard Pirelli tyres with no plans for any of the drivers to make a stop for the mediums.

Report
When the lights went out there would be no stopping Robert Shwartzman, the Russian racer hooking up his start beautifully to storm into the lead. Third placed Yuki Tsunoda went with him, surging past Marcus Armstrong before trying in vain to complete an over-under on Shwartzman into turn one, and would just clip Armstrong's front wing with his rear right wheel. Behind, it was a fairly calm start with very little change, although Mick Schumacher had got ahead of Nikita Mazepin but lost out to Jehan Daruvala.

Into turn four for the first time and Tsunoda had got onto the tail of Shwartzman, forcing the Russian racer to defend heavily into the right hander. Behind, Mazepin was all over the track trying to find a way past Schumacher, but unable to find a way past, while Callum Ilott had to fend off the attentions of his teammate Guanyu Zhou. Shwartzman, meanwhile, would just resist another look from Tsunoda through turns five and six, before the Japanese racer suddenly lost pace.

Indeed, Tsunoda's hopes of victory and maintaining a shot at the title were ruined by a right-rear puncture, a legacy of his slight brush with Armstrong at turn one. Shwartzman was therefore instantly gifted a two second lead as Armstrong lost time getting past, with Daruvala, Schumacher and Mazepin also flashing past in an instant. Tsunoda would continue to slip down the field as he ventured back to the pits, and duly rejoined at the back of the field once he had been given a new set of hard tyres.

With Tsunoda out of the way attention focused on the fight between Schumacher and Mazepin, which began with Schumacher making a very aggressive defensive move to resist Mazepin into turn one on lap three. That, however, was not enough with Mazepin using the car's width of tarmac that Schumacher had left to fire past the #20 Prema on the brakes for turn one, only for his compromised exit to allow Schumacher to line-up a move into turn four. The German youth duly managed to dance around the outside of the #24 Hitech to reclaim fourth, although with DRS now available Mazepin arguably had the advantage.

And so it proved, with Schumacher again making a very aggressive lunge across the track to try and block the now DRS aided Mazepin down the start/finish straight to start lap four, although Mazepin again exploited the little room he had to fire past. Schumacher then ran deep and cost himself a good exit, which no only allowed Mazepin, still with DRS, to dart away down the straight to turn four, but also allowed Jack Aitken to get a run on the #20 Prema into the right-hander. Schumacher would just hang on by forcing Aitken to take the outside line into turn four, although that fight, as well as his earlier duel with Mazepin, had allowed Ilott to close right onto Aitken's tail.

A lap later and Mazepin was again on the offensive, firing down the inside of Daruvala into turn four with the aid of DRS to claim third. Behind, Pedro Piquet tried and failed to force his way past Zhou, while between those fights Ilott drew right onto the tail of Aitken to challenge for sixth. Indeed, Ilott could see his main title rival just ahead of the #9 Campos, and a brave lunge around the outside of Aitken into turn four would carry him onto Schumacher's rear wing.

As that fight resolved itself Théo Pourchaire suffered some miserable luck, his onboard extinguisher setting itself off to force the Frenchman off track. He duly pulled off a turn ten, triggering a Safety Car as the #16 HWA was in a dangerous position and needed outside intervention to be retrieved. That put Armstrong and co. back on Shwartzman's tail, while Aitken, Louis Delétraz, Luca Ghiotto and the delayed Tsunoda all opted to gamble and make stops for fresh hard compound tyres.

After a single lap the race resumed, with Shwartzman darting away again, while Mazepin lunged at Armstrong around the outside of turn one. That moved was ineffective and Armstrong managed to muscle back past, although Mazepin did have enough in hand over Daruvala to remain ahead of the Indian racer. Behind, it was status quo, with Ilott biding his time behind Schumacher with speculation he was waiting for DRS to come online.

Ultimately, however, Ilott would make a gamble before DRS was reactivated, with the Brit deciding to make a lunge at Schumacher into turn ten. Unfortunately for him it was a miscalculated move for while he breezed past Schumacher, a rear slide would carry the #4 UNI-Virtuosi into the left-rear corner of Daruvala, spinning the Indian racer out. Ilott was left with front wing damage and ran off-track, forcing him into the pits, while Schumacher was compromised enough that even another aggressive defensive move into turn eleven was not enough to prevent Piquet squeezing past for fourth.

Daruvala was out on the spot, triggering another Safety Car intervention as the #8 Carlin was left stuck on the side of the circuit, while Ilott dropped to the back with a change on wing and fresh tyres. To compound his misery the Brit was slapped with a rather expected penalty for causing an avoidable collision, which he would have to serve after the race resumed. It would again be a brief intervention, however, with Shwartzman again controlling the restart well to claim another early lead.

With Shwartzman establishing a small advantage, Mazepin would again size-up a move on Armstrong, with the Russian racer attacking into turn one once again. This time, however, he would force Armstrong into a mistake, with the New Zealander locking a rear wheel and running wide having claimed the inside line, hence allowing Mazepin to scamper past as the #5 ART slid wide. With that Mazepin was up to second to chase Shwartzman, while Armstrong slid into the sights of a fired up Piquet.

Piquet would wait for DRS to make his attacks, with the Brazilian racer forcing Armstrong to defend into turn one, setting up a move into turn four on lap twelve. Again Armstrong had to defend, although Piquet would manage to complete an impressive over-under through turns five and six to claim third. Piquet duly went scampering away from the New Zealander, although that appeared to be as bad as it would get for Armstrong as Schumacher was under attack from Zhou.

Zhou's move on Schumacher came on lap fifteen, the Chinese racer squeezing past with the aid of DRS into turn four to claim fifth, although Schumacher was now thinking of the Championship with Ilott down in eighteenth. With that attention focused further down the field, with Delétraz making impressive progress on his mediums, firing into the points with a move on Felipe Drugovich. On lap nineteen the Swiss racer eased down the inside of Christian Lundgaard to secure seventh, before claiming sixth from Schumacher with a late lunge on Schumacher into turn one a lap later.

Zhou was the next man to fall to Delétraz on lap twenty-one, before the Swiss racer effortlessly passed Armstrong for fourth into turn one. Piquet was the next man on his list, although with a four second gap over his teammate the Brazilian racer seemed to have enough in hand. However, there was to be heartbreak for the #12 Charouz a few moments later, as an engine issue saw Piquet grid to a halt exiting turn eight.

With that the race was run, with Shwartzman sweeping across the line having been untroubled by Mazepin to claim his fourth win of the campaign. Mazepin duly claimed second, just ahead of the charging Delétraz, with Armstrong and Zhou completing the top five. Behind them came Lundgaard after a fabulous late move on Schumacher into turn eleven, with the German youth himself almost clattering the back of the Dane with a front-left lock-up in a bid to hold the position, with Schumacher ultimately settling for seventh ahead of Drugovich.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Piquet was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * Fourth career victory for Robert Shwartzman.
 * Prema Racing claimed their eighteenth victory as an entrant in F2.
 * Prema secured their 27th with at GP2/F2 level.

Standings
Mick Schumacher had eked out his Championship lead as a result of the Bahrain Sprint Race, and would head into the finale with a fourteen point lead. Indeed, a non-score for Callum Ilott meant that the Brit would have to prevent Schumacher outscoring him by four points in the 2020 Sakhir Feature Race to keep his title hopes alive heading into the final day, and would likely have to beat the German racer to entertain any hope of the title. Behind Nikita Mazepin, Robert Shwartzman and Yuki Tsunoda all remained in mathematical contention for the title, although they were realistically too far back to challenge.

In the Teams' Championship the title fight would also roll onto the finale, although it was more a matter of when, not if, Prema Racing would seal the title. Indeed, the Italian squad would start the final Feature Race of the campaign with a 47.5 point lead over UNI-Virtuosi, meaning they would take the title in the Feature Race if Virtuosi failed to outscore them by nineteen points. Behind, Hitech Grand Prix had all but secured third ahead of Carlin, with the latter in a fight with ART Grand Prix for fourth at the final two races.