2020 Mugello Feature Race

The 2020 Mugello Formula 2 Race 1, otherwise known as the 2020 Mugello Feature Race, was the seventeenth round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Mugello Circuit in Scarperia e San Piero, Tuscany, Italy on 12 September 2020. The race, held in support of the Gran Premio Della Toscana Ferrari 1000 2020, was the first F2 or GP2 Series race to be held at the Mugello Circuit.

Qualifying for the first ever Mugello F2 race would see Christian Lundgaard claim his maiden F2 pole, edging out Dan Ticktum by just 0.005s. Callum Ilott, Championship leader, would claim third ahead of Marcus Armstrong, with the Brit's main title rivals Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher claiming ninth and fifteenth respectively.

The start of the race saw Lundgaard streak into the lead unopposed, while Ticktum claimed second with a comfortable margin of his own. Instead, it was Championship leader Ilott who was the big loser on the run to San Donalo, with a poor getaway dumping the Brit back from third to seventh, with Luca Ghiotto storming up the other way.

Despite the flowing nature of the Mugello Circuit there would be a lot of fighting in the early laps, with Felipe Drugovich firing past Armstrong for fourth, while Ilott elbowed his way past Jack Aitken. However, the early laps would also show that the soft tyres were not the tyre to race on, with the pace of those on the red walled tyres wavering after just five laps.

Lundgaard was among those whose pace was in decline, and duly stopped at the end of lap eight the moment the put window opened. He rejoined at the back of the field in 21st place, with Ticktum assuming the lead as he ran on to complete a couple more laps.

Shortly before his stop Ticktum would be passed by Ghiotto, with the pair then sweeping in together at the end of lap ten, and rejoining behind Lundgaard. The remaining stops for those on softs would follow soon after, leaving Nikita Mazepin at the head of the field, while Lundgaard managed to get Nobuharu Matsushita between himself and Ghiotto.

Ghiotto eventually broke clear of Matsushita and latched onto the back of Lundgaard, who was warned multiple times to conserve his tyres. Out front, meanwhile, Shwartzman made a surprisingly early call to abandon his hard tyres on lap sixteen, only to stop on track shortly after he rejoined.

While Shwartzman's car could be pushed to safety without issue, which prompted the rest of those on hards to make their stops, the exit of Giuliano Alesi would require outside intervention. Indeed, the Frenchman would pull off in a gravel trap after suffering an engine failure, with the marshals requiring protection from the Safety Car to remove the #17 BWT HWA Racelab.

The stops for those on the alternate strategy would elevate Lundgaard back into the lead ahead of Ghiotto, with the Dane duly sprinting clear at the restart. However, it was chaos that would truly reign when the race resumed, as Ticktum and Yuki Tsunoda collided at turn one, sending the #2 DAMS into the gravel, while Jack Aitken, Guanyu Zhou and Mick Schumacher clashed to leave the former duo out with damage. Schumacher would miraculously escape without damage a resume in sixth, while Ilott had hit some debris from the collision and required a new front wing.

That accident triggered another SC intervention, with Lundgaard still leading from Ghiotto, while Mazepin sat in third with a new set of softs. When the race resumed with two laps to go the Russian duly made his superior grip count, scything past both Lundgaard and Ghiotto to claim the lead into turn one.

That settled the race, with Mazepin sprinting away to claim victory, while Ghiotto had secured second in the same moment and would hold that to chequered flag. Behind, Louis Delétraz and Drugovich would scrap for third after vaulting past Lundgaard, the Swiss racer claiming the final podium spot, while Schumacher also scrambled past the Dane to claim fifth and the Championship lead. Jüri Vips was next up ahead of Artem Markelov, who claimed reverse grid pole from the Sprint Race, while Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala rounded out the scorers.

Background
After widespread calendar cancellations and changes due to the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, the FIA, Formula One and the Formula 2 Championship would arrange an initial eight race calendar for the 2020 season, starting with two rounds in Austria and concluding at Monza on 6 September. However, there were plans to expand the calendar, and after a series of negotiations it was announced that F1, F2 and the FIA Formula 3 Championship would race at the Mugello Circuit in Scarperia e San Piero, Tuscany, Italy, the first time any of the Championships had raced at the Italian circuit. The F2 Championship would use the full 5.245 km layout of the Mugello Circuit, with the DRS zone(s) yet to be announced.

Probing the Programme
Ahead of the Mugello meeting it was revealed that the F2 Championship, as well as sister series the FIA F3 Championship, were evaluating changes to the timetable for the 2021 season. The changes would see the F2 and F3 Championships support the Formula One World Championship on different weekends, as well as reduce their calendars to eight and seven rounds respectively. Instead, each series would run three races at each event, with F2 staging two Feature races with separate qualifying sessions, before a Sprint on the same day as the Grand Prix.

The reason for the switch was cited in the costs of racing and the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic, which was set to extend and heavily affect the 2021 season. With nine of the eleven F2 teams also field three cars apiece in F3, the move to splitting the two series apart was deemed a means of reducing costs, with teams able to pool resources to one programme at each meeting. The move would also reduce the amount of travel required for each series, although F2 would provisionally travel to four races in Europe, as well as four flyaways.

Monza Machinations
The post-race drama after the 2020 Monza Sprint Race had had some minor effects on the Championship, with Callum Ilott having returned to the head of the field with a six point margin. His closest challenger was Mick Schumacher, the German racer having moved onto 143 points, while former leader Robert Shwartzman slipped to third, nine off the lead. Yuki Tsunoda was next up in fourth ahead of Christian Lundgaard, while Dan Ticktum remained in ninth after his victory was taken away.

In the Teams' Championship it had been another strong morning's work for Prema Racing, as the Italian effort once again extended their Championship lead. Indeed, Prema left their home race with a 32 point margin over second placed UNI-Virtuosi, with those two now the main pretenders for the Championship with four rounds and eight races to go. Indeed, third placed Hitech Grand Prix had slipped 110 points off in third in their debut season, while ART Grand Prix had moved up to fourth ahead of Carlin.

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 only one session of practice to get used to the circuit, there was little surprise when the entire field left the pitlane right at the start of practice, with Mick Schumacher leading the way. However, the German would also be the first driver to go over the limits of the Mugello Circuit, with a run wide at turn six seeing the #20 Prema go for a bounce across the gravel. He was not the only one, however, with Luca Ghiotto likewise having to drag his car out of a gravel trap after a similar mistake.

Instead, it was the ART duo of Marcus Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard who dictated the pace after the first runs were completed, the New Zealander heading the Dane with a 1:30.857. After a cool down lap on the soft compound Pirellis the two once again topped the timesheets during the second round of flying laps, although with Lundgaard emerging ahead. Indeed, while Armstrong managed to find a few hundredths, a mega effort from Lundgaard saw the Dane find six tenths on his earlier run and nestle into a healthy provisional pole.

With that the field swept back into the pits for a fresh set of tyres, with a quick turn-around for all twenty-two drivers required with time running out to complete another set of runs. Once again, it was Lundgaard who dictated the pace after the first set of runs, with new outright fastest first and second sectors taking him to a 1:30.133. Armstrong would also improve but was unable to match his teammate's pace, and was instead supplanted by Dan Ticktum and Callum Ilott.

Ilott was the first man to split the ARTs, emerging from outside of the top ten to post the fastest middle sector after matching Lundgaard in the first, only to bleed away a tenth in the final sector to slip 0.071s off. Behind him, Ticktum was likewise lighting up the timesheets, and would again better Lundgaard's efforts in the first two sectors, only to fade in the third and drop 0.005s to the Dane. They were the only challengers after the first runs, although most drivers were reporting that they would be unable to complete a competitive second effort.

Indeed, as soon as the first sector times were set during the second runs it was clear that there would be no improvements, with Ticktum coming closest to beating his mark. As a result it was Lundgaard who ended the session on pole ahead of Ticktum, while Ilott was the best placed of the title contenders in third. There was also one incident of note when Jüri Vips drifted across the path of Louis Delétraz and baulked the #11 Charouz when the Swiss racer was on a flying lap, with the incident analysed by the stewards after the session.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Vips was awarded a three place grid penalty for impeding Delétraz during qualifying.

Race
It was a clear, warm, afternoon at the Mugello Circuit ahead of the Feature Race, with no threat of rain for the one hour race. There would be stability on the grid too once Jüri Vips had his three place penalty applied, with Christian Lundgaard starting from pole position as expected. However, the Dane would have some controversy before the start, after he was released from the garage into the path of Robert Shwartzman en-route to the grid, resulting in the #21 Prema slamming on the brakes and getting rear-ended by Jack Aitken, although the damage to both cars was found to be cosmetic.

Report
Regardless, Lundgaard converted pole into the lead at the start, with a flawless getaway putting him clear of Dan Ticktum in the run to turn one. In contrast, Callum Ilott would make a miserable start from third, resulting in him being instantly passed by Marcus Armstrong and Felipe Drugovich, while Jehan Daruvala and Luca Ghiotto also got past the Brit on the run to the first corner. Aitken would then fire down the inside of the #4 UNI-Virtuosi through the right hander, before Yuki Tsunoda challenged him down the inside of turn two.

Further around the opening lap Ghiotto would elbow his way past Armstrong, while Ilott managed to out-muscle Tsunoda through turn four. Ilott would then follow Aitken back past Daruvala to claim seventh on track into Casanova, with Tsunoda unable to similarly follow the Brit past his teammate. Elsewhere, Mick Schumacher would try an audacious move around the outside of Guanyu Zhou through the final corner, although the Chinese racer would fend the #20 Prema off to hold thirteenth.

Schumacher would instead have to wait until the start of lap two to get ahead of the #3 Virtuosi, firing his car down the inside of Zhou to claim the position. Just ahead of them Vips tried to defend tenth from Nikita Mazepin with the inside line, although the Russian racer simply drove around the outside of the Estonian racer to move ahead. Out front, meanwhile, Lundgaard would storm clear of second placed Ticktum, while Ghiotto solidified his hold of third ahead of Armstrong.

Indeed, Lundgaard established a one second lead over Ticktum in the opening stages of the race, while the #2 DAMS built a similar margin over third placed Ghiotto. Armstrong, meanwhile, would slip out of the lead group, and instead come under attack from Drugovich, who scythed down the inside of the #5 ART into turn one on lap four. Behind them Ilott used a similar manoeuvre to move past Aitken to continue his march back up the field, while Tsunoda moved past teammate Daruvala.

Ilott's charge forward continued as the pit stops for those on the soft-hard strategy loomed, with the #4 Virtuosi darting past Armstrong down the start/finish straight on lap seven. Lundgaard, meanwhile, would dive into the pits as the window opened at the end of the same lap, with Ticktum assuming the lead. A swift stop for the Dane saw him scramble back out at the bottom of the field, although after just half a lap the #6 ART was setting faster sectors than the leaders.

Remarkably the only driver to follow Lundgaard into the pits on the following tour would be his teammate, with Ticktum and Ghiotto instead completing another lap. That, ultimately, proved to be a poor decision for the #2 DAMS, as Ticktum found himself unable to prevent Ghiotto squeezing the #25 Hitech down the inside of the first corner to claim the de jure lead. They duly came in together at the end of the lap, handing Drugovich the lead just as the Brazilian was passed by the flying Ilott.

As Ticktum got out ahead of Ghiotto but well behind Lundgaard, Ilott completed his in-lap and stopped at the end of lap ten, leading Drugovich, Tsunoda, Aitken and Daruvala into the pits. That left Mazepin in the lead of the race as the lead driver on the alternate strategy, with Vips moving up into second ahead of Shwartzman, Zhou and Schumacher. Lundgaard, meanwhile, was up to twelfth with Giuliano Alesi in between himself and Ilott, with the Brit scrambling out of the pits ahead of Ticktum, although the #2 DAMS would harass the #4 Virtuosi immediately with Ilott on cold tyres.

Those cold hard tyres would play a crucial role in the rest of Ilott's lap, with Ticktum able to squeeze past on the run to Casanova, before Ghiotto lunged past into Scarperia. Ghiotto then stormed around the outside of Ticktum through the first corner at the start of the following tour to claim thirteenth behind Lundgaard, with Alesi having stopped. With that the race began to settle down, with those on fresh hards steadily reeling in the half of the field that had started the race on hards.

As the race passed half distance there would be a surprise in store, as Shwartzman made a surprisingly early pit call on his hards, meaning he would have to complete almost half the race on softs. Regardless, and in-spite of widespread belief that he had a technical fault, the #21 Prema had a flawless stop and rejoined, only to stop on the run-off at turn two. Fortunately the Russian racer's smoking Prema could be pushed clear without issue, although the rest of those on hard tyres would begin making their stops on the following laps.

The start of lap 22 and Lundgaard reclaimed the lead as Mazepin came into the pits, the Dane having escaped two seconds clear of Ghiotto in second. Ticktum was next up ahead of Ilott, although the Brit was powerless to prevent Tsunoda sweeping past down the start/finish straight, slipping to fourth. As that was going on Alesi's race came to a smokey end as he suffered an engine failure, with the Frenchman pulling off the circuit via a gravel trap.

Unfortunately Alesi would find a gap in the fence too small to get his car in without intervention from the marshals, meaning the Safety Car was scrambled to allow him to be retrieved. That caused several drivers to roll the dice on new softs, with Armstrong, Drugovich and Daruvala all diving in for the softs. Armstrong emerged in twelfth after abandoning sixth, although with the field bunching back up courtesy of the SC he would be right on the tail of Vips when the race resumed.

Lundgaard controlled the restart well to re-establish his lead on lap 27, with the Italian instead coming under instant attack from Ticktum and Tsunoda. Such was the run from the latter duo that they would go three abreast into the first corner, only for Tsunoda and Ticktum to come together on the outside of Ghiotto. Ticktum ran out wide with damage from the clash having appeared to have turn in on Tsunoda and hit the Japanese racer's left-front wheel, although the #7 Carlin was ruled to have caused the incident.

There would be another accident in the immediate aftermath of that incident, for Tsunoda would be slow out of the first corner and hence cause a concertina in the pack. In the middle of that concertina Schumacher, Aitken and Zhou clashed, with Schumacher and Aitken both drifting across the nose of the #3 Virtuosi on either side. However, while Schumacher escaped without damage, Aitken and Zhou were left with matching damage to the rear right and front left suspension, resulting in both stopping on the outside of turn three.

That triggered another SC intervention, with Lundgaard again having to control the field to restart the race, albeit this time with three laps to go. This time, however, he would be unable to escape form the two Hitechs, with Ghiotto darting around the outside of the #6 ART, while Mazepin committed to the inside. The two silver Hitechs duly swept past the Dane to secure first and second, with Mazepin using his superior grip to muscle into the lead around the outside of turn two.

With that Mazepin was away on his fresh tyres, sprinting into a two second lead over Ghiotto, while Lundgaard slid back into the pack. Indeed, the Dane was powerless to prevent slipping back through the field, with Drugovich and Louis Delétraz passing him on the same lap, as behind Schumacher elbowed past Tsunoda to claim sixth. The German racer then made a move of his own on Lundgaard on the following tour as, up ahead, Delétraz almost managed to take Drugovich and Ghiotto around the outside of the first corner on the final tour, although Ghiotto elbowed him wide at the exit.

With that the race was run, with Mazepin powering away to claim victory for the second time in 2020, four seconds clear of Ghiotto. Delétraz just fell shy of the Italian racer in a sprint to the line, with Drugovich and Schumacher finishing right on their tail. Lundgaard held onto sixth ahead of Vips, Tsunoda finished the race in eighth but served a five second time penalty for causing his collision with Ticktum, meaning Artem Markelov, Armstrong and Daruvala would be moved up the order to claim the remaining points.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Tsunoda served a five second time penalty after the race for causing a collision with Ticktum.
 * † Zhou recorded the fastest lap of the race (1:33.732) but was ineligible to score the bonus points for fastest lap as he finished outside of the top ten.

Milestones

 * First FIA Formula 2 Championship to be staged at the Mugello Circuit.
 * Maiden pole position for Christian Lundgaard.
 * Second victory for Nikita Mazepin.
 * Third win for Hitech Grand Prix as an entrant.
 * Hitech also earned their fourth win at GP2/F2 level.
 * Maiden points finish for Jüri Vips.

Standings
The late race chaos in the Mugello Feature had catapulted Mick Schumacher to the top of the Championship hunt, the German racer ending the afternoon with 153 points to his name. That meant that he had a four point advantage over Callum Ilott in second, while a non-score for Robert Shwartzman had dropped the Russian racer thirteen behind his teammate in third. Christian Lundgaard was next up ahead of race winner Nikita Mazepin, while points for Jüri Vips meant that only Marino Sato and Guilherme Samaia had yet to score in 2020.

There had been little change to the Teams' Championship barring changes in points tallies, meaning Prema Racing had retained the initiative in the title hunt, and enhanced their lead to 42 points. That meant that they would retain the lead regardless of what UNI-Virtuosi did in the Mugello Sprint, with Hitech Grand Prix likewise too far back in third to overhaul their second placed compatriots. ART Grand Prix and Carlin then completed the top five, while BWT HWA Racelab had inched away from Trident in the fight to avoid the wooden spoon.