Great Britain’s Callum Ilott dominated the Silverstone Feature Race to take victory and the F2 championship lead.
Ilott led from lights out on soft tyres until he pitted for hard tyres at end of lap seven, from which he unleashed a rapid charge to make the main strategy work as he regained the lead and eventual home victory on lap 23.
Speaking on his victory, Ilott described the win as “great” having done “everything right…”, although he admitted that he should of won last weekend, saying; “I should have done it last week, but it couldn’t have gone any better this week. I’m really happy, and a great job from the team.”
Christian Lundgaard recovered from a poor start to finish 8.574s behind in second place ahead of Campos’ Jack Aitken who made it a British one-three podium finish.
Nikita Mazepin executed a strong alternative strategy to charge through and finish fourth ahead of Louis Deletraz and Yuki Tsunoda, whilst Mick Schumacher held off Prema teammate – Robert Shwartzman for seventh.
Shwartzman however clinched reverse grid pole as a consequence with Schumacher alongside him in an all Prema front row, as Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich completed the top ten.
Ilott consequently took the championship lead as Lundgaard leapfrogged Shwartzman into second place, albeit 15 points behind Ilott as Shwartzman sits 17 points behind the Brit.
Ilott made the perfect start to race clear into the lead as Lundgaard struggled to get off the line, with DAMS’ Dan Ticktum sweeping around the outside and cutting across Aitken to take second as Pedro Piquet stalled his car further back.
Lundgaard however recovered a position with an inside move on Aitken into The Loop, before Guilherme Samaia ran wide at Luffield and narrowly avoided the barriers.
Ticktum however slipped back to fourth at the end of lap three after running wide at Chapel, before then sliding to seventh after Schumacher, Mazepin and Deletraz all got past on lap five.
Lundgaard, Aitken and Ticktum however were soon into pits at end of lap six before Ilott made his stop at end of the following lap, from which he quickly reeled off Samaia, Artem Markelov, Giuliano Alesi and Roy Nissany in the following seven laps.
Further down the field, Ticktum found himself furious with Alesi’s driving on lap 15 as he dived up the inside of Stowe whilst Deletraz swept around the outside of the Frenchman.
Ilott meanwhile continued to reduce his gap to the alternative strategy frontrunners and regained the lead on lap 23 when Mazepin pitted, with the Russian coming out behind Schumacher.
Mazepin however soon got past Schumacher a lap later on the inside of Stowe despite being squeezed with his right tyres both dipping onto the grass.
Tsunoda and Deletraz would soon find themselves passed by Mazepin who recorded a strong fourth-placed finish, whilst Lundgaard clung onto second from Aitken despite struggling with his front left hard tyre.
Schumacher fended off late challenges from Shwartzman and Zhou to finish seventh with Drugovich wrapping up the points in tenth.
Ticktum meanwhile ended the race down in 15th position on a frustrating day for the DAMS youngster.
Race Result
Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
1 | Callum Ilott | Uni-Virtuosi | 29 | 51m 12.407 |
2 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | 29 | + 8.574 |
3 | Jack Aitken | Campos | 29 | + 12.303 |
4 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | 29 | + 15.020 |
5 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | 29 | + 16.644 |
6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | 29 | + 17.010 |
7 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | 29 | + 19.232 |
8 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | 29 | + 20.033 |
9 | Guanyu Zhou | Uni-Virtuosi | 29 | + 20.428 |
10 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 29 | + 24.127 |
11 | Nobuharu Matsushita | MP Motorsport | 29 | + 26.418 |
12 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 29 | + 28.109 |
13 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | 29 | + 36.114 |
14 | Marcus Armstrong | ART GP | 29 | + 41.725 |
15 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | 29 | + 43.109 |
16 | Giuliano Alesi | HWA Racelab | 29 | + 43.252 |
17 | Marino Sato | Trident | 29 | + 50.048 |
18 | Roy Nissany | Trident | 29 | + 51.428 |
19 | Artem Markelov | HWA Racelab | 29 | + 1m 14.193 |
20 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | 29 | + 1m 15.090 |
21 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | 28 | + 1 Lap |
DNF | Sean Gelael | DAMS | 21 | + 8 Laps |
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