The Formula 2 championship will go down to the wire in tomorrow’s Sprint Race, but it’s already a certainty that a Ferrari Driver Academy driver will be crowned. Today’s Feature Race on the Outer Track at the Bahrain International Circuit saw Callum Ilott (UNI-Virtuosi) and Mick Schumacher (Prema) finish the 48 laps in sixth and seventh places respectively, with the German also setting the race fastest lap. This means they both scored 8 points so that series leader Mick is still 14 points ahead of Callum.
Difficult start. A collision in yesterday’s qualifying meant Mick was not on track for the final four minutes and had to start from the ninth row of the grid. However, he immediately made up places at the start, running the Hard tyre which meant he ran all the way to lap 29 before pitting. Callum started on Softs from ninth place, running the opposite strategy and changing tyres on lap 16.
Head to head. After the pit stops, Ilott rejoined fifth and Schumacher 12th, but with the advantage of fresh faster tyres. Mick made the most of it to work his way up to seventh. Ilott had a tough time in the closing stages, having to manage his tyre degradation to the chequered flag. Battle resumes tomorrow therefore when the final race gets underway at 15.20 local (13.20 CET).
Robert. Robert Shwartzman (Prema) was also a front runner. Having finished fourth in last Sunday’s Sprint Race, the Russian was clearly in fine form, qualifying fourth. A great start saw him jump up to second and to stay near the front until his pit stop on lap 14. He was running in the top three in the closing stages but tyre degradation saw him drop to fifth at the flag.
Marcus and Giuliano. A difficult qualifying impacted the race for both Marcus Armstrong (ART Grand Prix) and Giuliano Alesi (MP Motorsport), both starting from row 8 of the grid. The New Zealander finished just outside the points in eleventh place, with Alesi 14th.