Nikita Mazepin on penalties
There were many touching and emotional moments as F2 returned to Spa for the first time following the tragic death of Anthoine Hubert last year, with AH19 logos adorning every car, helmet and person. There were also a couple of different faces in the F2 paddock this week, with Juan-Manuel Correa the special guest of honour, paying his respects to Hubert, sharing how Anthoine had given him strength and motivation through his recovery, and how he aims to be back in F2 next year. I honestly couldn’t think of anything I’d like to see more.
Another new face was Jüri Vips, who was replacing Sean Gelael and his fractured vertebrae from last round’s mystery accident. Vips was surely hoping for something good to actually happen for his career in 2020, having been a casualty of coronavirus logistics messing up his original racing plans and basically destroying his hopes of getting a super license and F1 career. No big deal. I’m sure they’re giving him plenty of sympathy, patience and support in the Red Bull young driver programme…
Practice: Mazepin doesn’t get a penalty
Vips probably got all the help he needed from DAMS in getting up to speed, as he was the team’s sole focus thanks to Dan Ticktum’s COVID-19 test result coming back inconclusive and forcing him to sit the session out while he awaited results of his re-test. Luckily for everyone, Ticktum’s re-test result was negative and DAMS didn’t need to stress out looking for yet another replacement driver.
The off-track drama also continued on track, almost immediately into the first session of the weekend, as Giuliano Alesi hit the wall on his out-lap and brought out the red flag. However, thankfully the remaining 37 minutes were entirely drama free, and the top three were Shwartzman, Tsunoda and Mazepin.
Qualifying: Mazepin and that Barcelona penalty
Alesi didn’t have a good start to qualifying either, as he struggled with the car. I mean, I’m no expert, but maybe don’t crash it into a wall and it will drive better? However, his struggles were nothing compared to Vips who had broken down, disappointing for himself, his team and his weirdly massive fan base. Samaia managed to top them both though, as his car set on fire, “I have a lot of smoke coming out of my car.” He wasn’t wrong. Red flag.
As the session was restarted, Alesi headed down the pitlane to try and make the most of the time in his horrible car, but then suddenly the red flag was out again, apparently because a recovery vehicle had been parked in the wrong place. This also left Alesi parked in the wrong place, at the end of the pitlane and needing to be rescued by his team.
When everyone was back where they were supposed to be and the session was underway again, the drivers all rushed out for the final 20 minutes and to try and actually get a qualifying lap done, except Markelov who somehow managed to stall in the pitlane, sending the HWA mechanics on yet another rescue mission. They were working hard for their drivers this weekend.
With half of qualifying gone, it was the usual suspect Ilott on provisional pole, before Tsunoda managed to go even faster. In the final few minutes we got a proper traditional quali shoot-out, with the lap times tumbling as everyone crossed the line. The winners were Tsunoda (first), Mazepin (second – his best F2 qualifying position ever) and Matsushita (third), while the losers were Ilott (12th after goading the racing gods by retweeting a post that highlighted his impressive run of qualifying stats, aka massive jinx), Aitken (17th after going out late for some reason and then ruining his lap) and Lundgaard (18th after having his time deleted for abusing track limits).
Mazepin used the press conference to complain about the penalty he was given post-race in Barcelona, “You probably missed this…” he began. Ouch. I mean, I know a lot happened on that last lap but surely his expectation of F2 journalism is slightly higher than that, even I managed to pick up on it (ok fine, I still don’t even know what it was for). He also stated that George Russell is one of the few drivers he rates as being a nice guy. Ouch again. Not a good day to be a steward, journalist or driver.
Feature Race: Mazepin gets all the penalties
The start of the race was F2-Spa levels of exciting, with Tsunoda and Mazepin side by side in the first corner, before suddenly Matsushita was there and Mazepin was down to third, while Tsunoda pulled ahead. Behind them it was four-wide for everyone except Samaia who never made it off the start line and was being wheeled into the pitlane. Daruvala was also struggling, having broken his front wing. He was lucky Carlin had any new ones left to spare after Tsunoda’s front-wing breaking antics earlier in the season. Well done Carlin’s front-wing building department.
As soon as DRS was available on lap three, Mazepin went for it, DRSing Matsushita for second place, with Schumacher, Delétraz and Shwartzman soon following suit, before Zhou (who was recovering from a terrible start) also came along, flying past both Drugovich and Matsushita. As if Matsushita’s race could get any worse, he then hit teammate Drugovich, and spun, hitting the wall in a huge crash. Luckily Matsushita was ok, but it was his race and entire weekend over, as the car was too destroyed to be fixed in time for Sunday’s race. Drugovich had a broken front wing and headed to the pits, while the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.
After the VSC ended, there was drama in the pit stops for the leaders, as Carlin had trouble with one of Tsunoda’s tyres and Mazepin almost ran over some of the Trident crew, who were hanging out in the pitlane ahead of his pitbox (something which he was subsequently put under investigation for). It turns out that wheel issues take more time than nearly running over team personnel issues, and Mazepin came out of the pit stops ahead of Tsunoda.
The middle of the race, which is usually just for boring tyre managing, was instead a series of thrilling attempts at overtaking. The ones that worked were fearless, aggressive and über impressive, the ones that failed just looked terrifying. So is the way in Spa. And on lap 19, we had a tribute to Hubert in the form of a round of applause from everyone who wasn’t driving; a reminder that we race for Anthoine.
With five laps to go, Tsunoda decided to try to go around the outside of Mazepin to take the lead. Mazepin decided he wasn’t up for that and squeezed Tsunoda out, keeping his place. Meanwhile, further back, Markelov was given a drive through-penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage and Nissany was was on a charge for reverse grid pole (8th place). Yes, I said Nissany. Overtaking both Ilott and Ghiotto in the closing laps.
Also on a final charge was Tsunoda, who was not taking no for an answer and made another attempt at passing Mazepin, resulting in a similar reaction as previously from the race leader and another trip over the kerbs for Tsunoda, followed by frantic ranting on the radio as Mazepin crossed the line to win. “That’s not racing!” Tsunoda screamed. Maybe the stewards agreed, or maybe they are also scared of shouting Tsunoda, but either way, Mazepin was promptly handed a five-second time penalty and demoted to second place, still ahead of Schumacher in third.
In a display of what definitely wasn’t frustration, but just cold brakes after the cool down lap, Mazepin arrived in parc fermé at (very slightly faster than usual) speed, crashing into his P2 marker board and sending it flying. He was subsequently also put under investigation for that, because what does one more post-race investigation for Mazepin even matter at this point?
Mazepin was pure silent rage on the podium. “If you’d like to raise your trophy…” Mazepin didn’t so much as blink. He then exercised pure media-trained rage at the press conference. “To be extremely honest…” Oh yes please, I want to hear this… “I was surprised by the penalty.” Oh, that was disappointingly professional. When asked about being under investigation for the unsafe release and the parc fermé shenanigans he replied, “You’ve surprised me again there.” After much very measured (but still slightly unsettling) explanation of his actions and disappointment at races being decided off track (presumably meaning in the stewards office rather than some weird F2 fight club thing we don’t know about) from Mazepin, Tsunoda said he thought the penalty was fair. Awkward silence.
In total contrast, while Mazepin reiterated his respect for the stewards, Markelov went full tilt the other way and was straight on Instagram after the race to bitch about his penalty in detail. Screw professionalism. The penalties didn’t end there though, as later on we got the full raft of post-race decisions from the stewards. Hitech got a reprimand for Mazepin’s unsafe release and Mazepin got a suspended five-place grid drop (presumably meaning that if he behaves for a bit he won’t have to serve it… I look forward to that grenade exploding in a few weeks time…) for “potentially dangerous and unsportsmanlike conduct”. Things didn’t go well for MP Motorsport either as Matsushita got a grid penalty for crashing into Drugovich (not that he was even starting the next race) and Drugovich got disqualified for taking his mandatory pitstop on the last lap, which is against the rules. Classic F2 penalty. Finally, Armstrong got a five-second time penalty for overtaking Aitken on the last corner of the last lap while off the track. We’ll have to take your word for it stewards because no one even saw Armstrong for the whole race season.
Sprint Race: Mazepin avoids a penalty
Nissany, yes Nissany, was on pole for the Sprint Race. He said he was excited and his team seemed that way too, as his engineer cheered him on during the formation lap, “We’re all with you!” Vips, Aitken and Drugovich had less of a cheery formation lap, as Vips spent it being wheeled into the pitlane having stalled on the grid, which then confused Aitken who started in the wrong grid slot and got a 10-second stop-go penalty, and Drugovich nearly crashed. Second-placed Zhou said he thought he could keep everyone behind him. He could not. Third-placed Ticktum said he thought he could make a strong start. He could.
The first few corners were total chaos, drama and excitement. Ticktum and Nissany were having a full battle for the lead, switching places with each other through every turn, with Nissany eventually winning. Zhou dropped down to fifth, Tsunoda got stuck in a three-wide pack of cars and hit Ilott from behind, causing him to spin and resulting in a five-second time penalty for Tsunoda, a retirement for Ilott and a Safety Car for everyone else. After we’d all had time to recover from the excitement (and the marshals had time to clear away Ilott), the Safety Car was back in and Ticktum was back to chasing down Nissany for the lead. That is until they crashed into each other, leaving Nissany in the barrier, Ticktum with a slightly modified front wing, Shwartzman at the front, and the Safety Car back on track. “Oh I knew that was going to happen, the guy’s an idiot, mate,” summed up Ticktum’s view, although that didn’t stop him elaborating for the entirety of the Safety Car period. I’m sure it won’t be awkward at all at the next Williams Driver Academy dinner.
The rest of what was going on after the race restart was too hard to keep up with, as everyone just overtook each other at wildly inappropriate corners, including Mazepin, who went around the outside of Zhou, but went wide and totally off track in the process. Not to give the stewards any more fuel for the penalty fire, Mazepin quickly gave the place back. Ghiotto, meanwhile, nearly lost it in a genuinely very scary looking moment. Shwartzman, however, kept well out of everything and was pulling out a massive gap from Ticktum in second and perennially third-placed Schumacher.
Ticktum, however, couldn’t keep it up for long, declaring “I have no fronts!” before immediately locking up and going wide, allowing Schumacher and Zhou to get close enough to pass him, with Mazepin not far behind. Ticktum was offered some respite though by Daruvala running into the back of Sato, causing him to spin and for the Virtual Safety Car to be briefly deployed. Both the Carlins at it today. Team work. Once the VSC ended, Ticktum’s pain resumed, with Mazepin, Delétraz, Tsunoda and Lundgaard all making their moves, leaving Ticktum in ninth place. On the last lap, Vips, who had made a bit of a comeback from his pitlane start, also managed to overtake Ticktum, but Ticktum somehow managed to get back across the line ahead of Vips and keep the position. A hard-fought and pointless 10th place.
Shwartzman was a very happy winner, Schumacher was his usual self in second, and Zhou probably monologued his entire race, but that’s where F1 TV gave up on me for the weekend. Thanks F1 TV.
Championship Standings if Mazepin hadn’t got a load of penalties
At the start of the weekend, Mazepin was pained to remind us that he lost 15 points in Barcelona, but let’s see how many points he’s now also lost in Belgium… Basically he would probably be second in the championship instead of fifth. That’s motorsport for you.
Actual Championship Standings
After Shwartzman’s good luck and Ilott’s terrible luck, Shwartzman is now leading the championship with 132 points to Ilott’s 122. Lundgaard’s even more terrible luck drops him from third to a painful seventh (89 points), while Tsunoda is up to third (111), Schumacher fourth (106), Mazepin fifth (101) and Zhou in sixth (92).