2020 Spielberg Sprint Race

The 2020 Spielberg Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2020 Formula 2 Styrian Race 2, was the fourth race of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 12 July 2020. It was the fourth race of the campaign to be staged in Austria and the Red Bull Ring, and would see a third rookie driver claim their maiden F2 victory in 2020.

Dan Ticktum would start the race from pole position after finishing eighth in the Feature Race, and would duly ace his getaway to secure an early lead. Behind, Christian Lundgaard hooked up his start beautifully to claim second, instantly darting past teammate Marcus Armstrong.

Behind there would be some chaos at the first corner, as Robert Shwartzman, the winner in the Feature Race, spun around in the middle of the pack exiting turn one. Miraculously the rest of the field managed to avoid the spinning Prema, although Shwartzman was unable to rejoin the fray.

Come the end of the opening tour Lundgaard was all over the back of Ticktum, while Armstrong watched on in third. The top two duly began to pull clear of the New Zealander in the early stages, as Yuki Tsunoda retired with a clutch issue on the second tour having slumped to the back of the field.

Lundgaard duly made his bid for the lead on lap five, making a late dive down the inside Ticktum into turn one with the aid of DRS. The Dane duly scrambled out of the corner with the lead, with Ticktum almost able to gain revenge into turn three a few moments later, although Lundgaard held the lead.

With that Lundgaard was away, quickly establishing a two second lead with a pair of fastest laps that he would maintain without too much effort. Behind, Mick Schumacher would have to wait until the halfway mark to dance his Prema past Armstrong to claim third, only to retire a lap later as his fire extinguisher went off, covering the cockpit in powder.

The closing stages would see Guanyu Zhou under intense pressure from teammate Callum Ilott, although the Brit was unable to force a move. Indeed, the second half of the race was very tame in dry conditions, with Nikita Mazepin, Jack Aitken and Sean Gelael the main draw as they fought their way up into the points.

Out front, meanwhile, Lundgaard completed an impressive display to secure his maiden F2 victory, still with a comfortable margin over Ticktum. Armstrong was a distant third to complete the podium, with Zhou and Ilott finishing nose-to-tail just behind the #5 ART. The scorers were then completed by Aitken, Gelael and Mazepin, with Lundgaard also collecting his first F2 fastest lap.

Background
There had been concerns that the second F2 race of the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix meeting would be cancelled, after heavy rain throughout Saturday had threatened to delay the 2020 Spielberg Feature Race, as well as qualifying for the F1 field. Fortunately the Feature Race was able to be held on Saturday, with Robert Shwartzman having claimed victory in treacherous, but drying conditions. He would hence start the Sprint Race from eighth on an unchanged Red Bull Ring circuit, while Dan Ticktum would start from pole.

Shwartzman Stunner
Indeed victory in the Feature Race had propelled Shwartzman to the top of the Championship for the first time in his fledgling F2 career, meaning he headed into the Sprint Race with 48 points to his credit. Behind, Callum Ilott had swapped places with the Russian racer, slipping eleven behind, while Christian Lundgaard was a further eleven points off in third. Marcus Armstrong and Yuki Tsunoda then completed the top five, with fifteen of the twenty-two drivers having scored in the first three races.

In the Teams' Championship it had been a very good afternoon for Prema Racing in the Feature, as they jumped into the lead of the title hunt on 62 points. UNI-Virtuosi had held station in second, six off the new leaders, while former leaders ART Grand Prix fell to third, another six points behind. MP Motorsport were next up in fourth ahead of DAMS, Carlin had streaked into sixth, while Hitech Grand Prix had been left as the only pointless team.

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
Conditions were a vast improvement on Sunday morning for the Sprint Race, with no threat of rain and warm summer sunlight baking the Red Bull Ring as the Formula 2 field lined up on the grid for the start. There were no changes to the order ahead of the Sprint, with Dan Ticktum taking pole position for the first time after finishing eighth in the Feature Race.

Report
The start of the race saw Ticktum ease into the lead with a good start, with the Brit drifting to the middle of the track to check any potential lunge from Marcus Armstrong in second. However, the New Zealander racer was otherwise occupied off the line, for teammate Christian Lundgaard would make a better start than him and charge past on the run to turn one. Behind, Jack Aitken tried to thread the needle between Yuki Tsunoda and Robert Shwartzman but ultimately backed off as they pinched him, with the start otherwise fairly tame until one of the Premas suddenly went spinning in the middle of the pack.

That car proved to be Shwartzman's, with the Russian racer suddenly spinning across the circuit on the exit of the first corner all on his own. Miraculously, the rest of the field managed to avoid the errant Prema, with Shwartzman ending up on the grass by pit-out before stalling. Replays would later show that the Russian racer had lost the car all on his own, having jumped on the throttle too soon having clipped the high inside kerb.

On track, meanwhile, Lundgaard challenged for the lead into turn three, running his #6 ART around the outside of Ticktum's DAMS, although the Brit fended off the challenge. That also allowed Armstrong to get a run on his teammate into turn four, while Mick Schumacher in the untroubled Prema would also get a run on the Dane. Ultimately, however, Armstrong backed down on the inside line for turn four to ensure he held third from Schumacher, leaving Lundgaard in second as the Virtual Safety Car was thrown to allow Shwartzman to be retrieved.

After a single lap the VSC was withdrawn and the race resumed, just as Marino Sato hit mechanical trouble and began limping back to the pits to retire from the back of the field, ultimately stopping in the pit-entry. Out front, meanwhile, Ticktum would do his best to break away, although Lundgaard stalked him as they pulled clear of Armstrong and Schumacher's squabble for third. Those two would likewise find themselves in some clear air, for Guanyu Zhou would come underfire from teammate Callum Ilott at the restart, although the Chinese racer was able to keep the Brit at bay.

Lundgaard's second bid for the lead came on lap four, with the Dane selling Ticktum a dummy into turn three to dive inside the #2 DAMS to snatch the lead. Indeed, so late was his lunge on the brakes that the Dane was still behind Ticktum when they crossed the DRS detection point, meaning he was able to use the system to help hold the lead. Ticktum did his best to retaliate, weaving around in the slipstream of the #6 ART, before ultimately surrendering the position after his lunge around the outside of turn four ended with Lundgaard getting better traction out of the corner.

With that the Danish racer was away, setting fastest laps either side of his move to quickly establish a commanding lead over Ticktum at the head of the field. Elsewhere, Giuliano Alesi would engage Roy Nissany in a duel for fifteenth in the early stages, with the Frenchman trying to squeeze Nissany on the apex of turn four, only for the Israeli racer to run him wide on the exit. Alesi duly dropped back after brushing the edge of the gravel trap, and would make his thoughts about Nissany's defending clear on the radio.

As that fight resolved itself there was drama further up the order, as Yuki Tsunoda began limping at the start of turn ten, having suffered a clutch issue. Aitken, ever the opportunist, would use the Japanese racer's sudden deceleration to attack Sean Gelael, with the Anglo-Thai racer duly darting past the Indonesian racer as Gelael tried to get around the ailing Carlin. Nikita Mazepin would also get involved in their fight but remained in ninth, with Tsunoda's teammate Jehan Daruvala watching on behind.

Back with the lead group and Lundgaard had eased off, and was now matching Ticktum's pace retroactively to keep his lead at three seconds while also preserving his medium compound tyres. Behind, Armstrong was trailing Ticktum by a similar margin, although he was under attack from Schumacher as the race approached half-distance. Indeed, Schumacher seemed to have the job done on lap twelve, with the #20 Prema drafting past the #5 ART on the run to turn four, before moving slightly across the nose of the New Zealander to claim the position.

However, just two laps later a promising run for Schumacher was curtailed by his fire extinguisher, which went off in the German's car as he was entering the penultimate corner. With foam covering the cockpit and the regulations stipulating a car must carry a full extinguisher at all times, the German racer was out with nothing mechanically wrong with his car, coasting into the pits to retire. Armstrong hence re-inherited third, and was now on his own behind Ticktum as Zhou and Ilott continued to squabble behind him.

Into the closing stages and Ticktum was being spurred on by his team to catch Lundgaard, although the Brit simply lacked the pace of the Dane out-front and could not close the gap. However, Lundgaard himself was having pace concerns of his own, asking his team who the car in-front of him was for it was lapping far quicker than he could despite running at the head of the field. That car was revealed to be the #23 Trident of Nissany, with the Israeli pilot setting fastest laps after switching to a fresh set of medium compound tyres mid-race.

Into the closing stages and Ilott was winding up the pressure on teammate Zhou, with the Brit moving back into striking distance with two laps to go with the aid of DRS. However, Zhou would close up onto the back of Armstrong as the New Zealander's pace collapsed late on, meaning the Chinese racer would also have DRS heading into the final lap. That fact would ultimately decide their battle without any real side-by-side action, with Ilott unable to even throw a wild lunge at the sister #3 UNI-Virtuosi on the final tour.

With that the race was run, with Lundgaard cruising to the line to secure an impressive maiden victory, two seconds clear of Ticktum after his late push to try and catch the Dane. Armstrong just kept Zhou and Ilott at bay to complete the podium, while Aitken escaped from Gelael to secure sixth, with Gelael himself claiming seventh just ahead of Mazepin. Daruvala was next up ahead of Luca Ghiotto, with eighteen drivers taking the chequered flag.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Nissany recorded the fastest lap of the race, but was unable to be awarded points as he finished outside of the top ten.

Milestones

 * 50th start for Jack Aitken.
 * Maiden victory for Christian Lundgaard.
 * Also Lundgaard's maiden podium finish.
 * ART Grand Prix secured their fifteenth victory as an entrant in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
 * Also their 63rd win at GP2/F2 level.
 * Nikita Mazepin scored the first point for Hitech Grand Prix as an entrant.
 * Maiden fastest lap recorded by Lundgaard.

Standings
Robert Shwartzman retained the lead in the Championship despite failing to score for the first time in 2020, leaving Austria with a total of 48 points. Behind, Christian Lundgaard would leave the Red Bull Ring in second place, five off the lead after his maiden triumph, bumping Callum Ilott down to third. Dan Ticktum was next up ahead of Marcus Armstrong, the New Zealander fourteen off the lead, with sixteen drivers on the scoresheet.

In the Teams' Championship, meanwhile, ART Grand Prix had returned to the top of the table after their double podium in the Spielberg Sprint, which had left them on 77 points for the season. UNI-Virtuosi had retained second, but slipped seven off the lead, while Prema Racing had slipped to third, fifteen behind the leaders. Behind, DAMS had moved ahead of MP Motorsport to complete the top five, while Hitech Grand Prix were on the board for the first time, and had moved ahead of Trident.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.