Yuki Tsunoda Gifted Silverstone Sprint Victory as Prema Collides

Carlin’s Yuki Tsunoda was gifted victory in F2’s Silverstone Sprint Race after the Prema duo of Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher collided in the closing stages. 

Shwartzman had led Schumacher for much of race until his tyres began to fade as the German and Tsunoda rapidly closed in, with Schumacher trying an outside move into Brooklands on lap 19 only for Shwartzman to clip his left rear tyre. 

Shwartzman and Schumacher consequently drifted wide which allowed Tsunoda through to take victory ahead of the latter, who escaped the clash with no apparent damage to finish second. 

Speaking on his maiden F2 victory post race, Tsunoda said; “It was quite a tough race, and both of the Prema guys were really fast in the beginning. I could see that they were struggling towards the end so I saved the tyres as much as possible to prepare.”

Tsunoda however admitted that he “was a bit lucky for the overtake at Brooklands,” and was “happy to take a first [F2] win.”

Shwartzman’s front wing meanwhile was badly damaged and he slid down the field to concede third to Jack Aitken, who recorded his second third placed finish of the weekend ahead of Louis Deletraz and Guanyu Zhou. 

Callum Ilott, Dan Ticktum and Nikita Mazepin rounded out the points as Ilott extended his championship lead over Christian Lundgaard to 19 points, after the Dane suffered a front left tyre failure which consequently saw him finish a lap down in 21st position.

Shwartzman got a clean start from Schumacher and Tsunoda as Aitken leapt up to fourth past a slow moving Deletraz, who then lost sixth to Lundgaard with an outside move at Luffield.

The top six soon settled in a consistent procession until lap eight when Lundgaard ran wide at Copse to allow Deletraz through into fifth. 

Further down the order, Charouz’s Pedro Piquet spun at Aintree on lap three after getting squeezed onto the kerbs by Roy Nissany. 

Ilott suffered a slow start to slip to ninth position but regained eighth when he passed Mazepin into Brooklands, despite touching mid corner when Mazepin moved under braking which allowed Ticktum to pass the Russian through Luffield. 

Further ahead on that same lap, Zhou produced a stunning pass on Lundgaard through Maggots and Becketts for sixth, as drivers begin to complain about rear tyre degradation on lap 11. 

Lundgaard ran wide in the opening sequence of corners on lap 16 to allow Ilott through to seventh, only for his front left tyre to fail when racing through Maggots and Becketts section and drop him out of the points. 

Schumacher meanwhile had reeled in Shwartzman who was struggling with his tyre wear, opting for an outside pass into Brooklands on lap 19 but the Russian cut across and both Prema teammates collided as Shwartzman damaged his front wing. 

Tsunoda swept through on the inside line to take the lead and eventual victory ahead of Schumacher, whilst Shwartzman slid down to a 13th placed finish as Aitken, Deletraz, Zhou, Ilott, Ticktum and Mazepin got past to complete the top eight finishers. 

 

Race Result

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	21	36m 15.140
2	Mick Schumacher	Prema	21	+ 3.120
3	Jack Aitken	Campos	21	+ 17.993
4	Louis Deletraz	Charouz	21	+ 20.258
5	Guanyu Zhou	Uni-Virtuosi	21	+ 21.059
6	Callum Ilott	Uni-Virtuosi	21	+ 22.154
7	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	21	+22.913
8	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech GP	21	+ 25.201
9	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	21	+ 28.672
10	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech GP	21	+29.066
11	Artem Markelov	HWA Racelab	21	+ 33.686
12	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	21	+ 34.776
13	Robert Shwartzman	Prema	21	+ 36.362
14	Marcus Armstrong	ART GP	21	+ 37.995
15	Roy Nissany	Trident	21	+ 40.151
16	Pedro Piquet	Charouz	21	+ 43.748
17	Marino Sato	Trident	21	+ 47.202
18	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	21	+ 1m 00.275
19	Guilherme Samaia	Campos	21	+ 1m 01.710
20	Giuliano Alesi	HWA Racelab	21	+ 1m 31.548
21	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	20	+ 1 Lap
22	Sean Gelael	DAMS