Mick Schumacher strengthened his grip on the Drivers’ Championship with arguably his most accomplished performance in Formula 2 machinery, clinching his second victory of the season in Sochi. The PREMA racer beat out pole-sitter Yuki Tsunoda from third, with the Carlin racer finishing second in-front of fellow title rival Callum Ilott.
Tsunoda had looked comfortable for much of the race, but Schumacher had been shrewdly managing his tyres and made light work of dashing past with 10 laps to go. Ilott briefly challenged the German for the win, but ended up clinging onto third with little life left in his tyres. It was a disappointing morning for the in-form Christian Lundgaard, as the ART Grand Prix driver was taken out of the race on the very first lap, after a tangle with Jüri Vips and Pedro Piquet. It was a similarly frustrating race for another of the title contenders, Robert Shwartzman, as the Russian struggled to 11th on home soil, finishing out of the points for the third race in a row.
MICK SCHUMACHER (PREMA RACING): “I am very happy with today’s race. I think that we maximised what we had. The supersoft stint was a bit of a mess, especially the pit phase as I wanted to do another lap, but in the last sector I felt my rears going. I saw everybody else going in as well, so I opted to pit. It was a bit messy, but in general I think we managed it pretty well. On the medium tyre, we managed it pretty well, we were always in contention and we stayed with Yuki, having a gap of around two, two-and-a-half seconds. With the traffic out there, we kind of all bunched together, but I managed to get the move done and I just had to manage the race from there. 25 points is always good and that’s another win for this year, so I am pretty happy.”
Louis Deletraz has been handed two time penalties following today’s FIA Formula 2 Feature Race in Sochi. Firstly, the Charouz Racing System driver has been served with a 10s time penalty for being 4s under the minimum delta time when the Safety Car was called in. The Swiss driver has then been given a further 5s time penalty, for exceeding the minimum delta time in two consecutive marshalling sectors during the Safety Car period. Delétraz had finished last in the Feature Race. Therefore, these penalties do not change his classification.
Redazione MotoriNoLimits
