One weekend, countless random decisions by Race Control
Just because the drivers had a whole week off before Russia, doesn’t mean they were taking it easy. Ticktum was busy playing Call of Duty and doing podcasts, Zhou did an F1 test with Renault and Delétraz did a little thing called Le Mans, which was going well until the last hour when the car started to give up and he hit a wall. Classic Le Mans heartbreak.
The teams were also busy switching drivers around, with F3 driver Jake Hughes replacing Alesi at HWA, Alesi replacing Matsushita at MP, and Matsushita deciding to do something else instead.
Practice: Endless laps of spins
With no F3 to do the job of making the track nice to drive on, the F2 drivers had to do it themselves and it looked ice-rink-esque out there. It would basically be easier to list all the drivers that didn’t go off wide than those who did. Carlin, however, seemed to have some magic that the other teams didn’t, with Tsunoda and Daruvala not only managing to stay on track, but also be very fast. Ghiotto was also very fast, that was until the end of the session when he went wide at the last corner, spun, ended up in the middle of the track facing the wrong way, managed to get going and spin back to face the right way, but then stalled and was left stranded. The red flag was promptly waved and Ghiotto was left with nothing to do but wait for rescue while all the other cars drove around him on their way back to the F2 paddock.
It wasn’t all embarrassment for Ghiotto though, as he still ended the practice session with the fastest time of all, with Tsunoda and Daruvala in second and third.
Qualifying: One very fast lap (and lots of blocking)
Carlin maintained their strong form in qualifying, while everyone else was just blocking each other. “What are these guys doing!?” asked Ilott, as he failed to be able to set any kind of proper lap time. Lundgaard echoed this sentiment in a long complaint about the “idiots on the track”. Vips didn’t need anyone else to help him ruin his lap though, as he spun, but luckily fared better than Ghiotto and managed to get going again.
With just five minutes left to go, Daruvala was on provisional pole, Tsunoda was second and Mazepin was third. Meanwhile Vips, Armstrong and Ghiotto were getting dangerously close to not even qualifying, having failed to set good enough lap times.
In their final runs, the Carlins continued to fly, with Daruvala going even faster than his already very fast lap, while Tsunoda somehow beat him, by the tiniest margin. Mazepin, however, made a mistake, meaning his pole challenge was over, while traffic continued to be an issue, particularly for Ticktum who got stuck in 20th place as a result.
By the end of qualifying, it was Schumacher who had made it to third place behind the two Carlins. Championship contenders Ilott, Lundgaard and Shwartzman were in fourth, sixth and seventh respectively.
At the press conference, Tsunoda explained that he had beaten Daruvala by seeing that he needed to go faster at Turn 8 and so just did that. Daruvala was more happy just to be there than disappointed by his fractional defeat. Schumacher was his usual cool, calm and understated self, until asked his opinion on Stefano Domenicali’s appointment as new Formula One CEO when he went full Schumacher flex by reminding us all that “Stefano is a good friend of my family”. Of course, giving journalists any excuse to ask Mick about his family is a terrible idea and we set off down a road of questions about Lewis Hamilton potentially beating Michael’s records. “Records are there to be broken,” Mick stated, before perfectly deflecting by saying he hoped to be challenging those records himself in future. Nicely done Mick/Mick’s probably huge PR strategy team.
Feature Race: 28 slightly less action-packed than usual laps
The front three on the grid turned out to be a perfect combination, with sensible “I just need championship points” Schumacher, “I just want to win” Tsunoda and “I have nothing to lose Daruvala”. Such a determined attitude apparently didn’t follow through into his start though, as Daruvala was quickly overtaken by Schumacher. Schumacher also tried to make it past Tsunoda, but couldn’t and then any further attempts were quickly halted by the Safety Car, which is a pretty standard event after 20 F2 cars all try to make it through Turn 2 at Sochi. In this case, Vips had managed to run into both Piquet and Delétraz, which resulted in Piquet running into Lundgaard, who had been minding his own business taking a wide outside line. Vips was left parked in the middle of the track, Lundgaard parked by the barrier and both Charouz drivers off to the the pits to get new front wings. Drugovich and Nissany also seemed to be somehow involved as they both came to the pits to retire.
Once the Safety Car was in, Tsunoda tried to start building a gap, but Schumacher wasn’t going to allow that and kept the pressure on, while fourth-placed Ilott did the same to Daruvala.
Daruvala was one of the first to pit, seemingly because Tsunoda didn’t want to come in yet, so Daruvala had to take the early slot instead. That’s what happens when you lose against your teammate. Also pulling teammate rank was Schumacher, who decided very last minute that he was coming into the pits, despite the fact that his team were expecting Shwartzman. Cue much illegal shouting and handwaving from the Prema team boss, for which he was later fined thousands of Euros, because you’re not allowed extra help on pit stops from shouty team bosses. Anyway, Schumacher’s shenanigans meant that teammate Shwartzman’s stop was a bit slow, as the team were faffing about having had to pit both cars at basically the same time, as was Ilott’s pit stop, because he got held up waiting a little longer to let pit neighbour Shwartzman out. Excellent championship tactics Mick, compromising both rivals’ pit stops in one move. However, despite his slightly slower stop, Ilott still managed to come out of the pits ahead of Daruvala, who he had been stuck behind before, although they had a bit of a hairy battle for a while, with Ilott on cold tyres defending hard.
Up front, those on the alternative tyre strategy, who were yet to pit and so in the lead of the race, were also fighting hard, with Mazepin trying to take the lead from Aitken, but locking up and going wide, allowing Zhou to get past and launch his own attack on Aitken. Zhou almost managed to take the lead a few times before being knocked back by Aitken who was on the defensive drive of his life, fully channelling Monza 2019. This furious battle meant that Mazepin was able to catch back up to them and pass Zhou, who was encouragingly told by his engineer, “Come on mate,” which shortly became a less motivational, “You’re losing the race here,” as he failed to retake the place from Mazepin.
While the alternative strategy guys eventually all came in to take their pit stops and reclaim their places mid-field, Schumacher made a great move on Tsunoda to take the lead of the race, shortly followed by Ilott, who then got to work trying to catch up with Schumacher for a short while, before dropping back into Tsunoda’s clutches.
With two laps to go, Tsunoda was told to “give it everything you’ve got,” which he apparently did, as, on the last lap, he made a very impressive move on Ilott to regain second place. Ghiotto tried to do the same, and was almost successful, but Ilott fought him back, resulting in a real photo finish, with Ilott crossing the line just two hundredths of a second ahead of Ghiotto.
Things went less well for Shwartzman, who ended the race out of the points in 11th, and Delétraz who was apparently just generally under investigation, which seemed stupid and uninformative at the time, but later turned out to be because he was basically driving at the wrong speed under the Safety Car, in multiple ways, (the actual wording made my head hurt), and so was given two different time penalties, none of which made any difference because he finished the race in last place.
There were actual cheers for the drivers on the podium, particularly as Schumacher walked out, which was surprising because there were actual fans there for the first time this year, but also because, let’s face it, there has never been cheering for F2 drivers before. Ever.
At the press conference, Schumacher suggested that Tsunoda may have pushed his tyres too hard at the beginning of the race, which is why he was able to overtake. Tsunoda disagreed, he said he was in control of his tyres, before back tracking a little and saying he might have pushed a tiny bit much, and finally concluding that he did a good job with his tyre management. Meanwhile Ilott casually rolled out hs impressive qualifying statistics (remember what happened last time you did that Callum..?) and reminded everyone that he has’t been outside of the top two in the championship for the whole year. Such nonchalant bragging.
Sprint Race: 8, 5, 6 laps… oh never mind I give up
Zhou was on pole for the Sprint Race, with Mazepin second and Aitken third. Aitken made a great start, passing Mazepin and almost passing Zhou as well. The rest were all just three-wide heading into inevitable Turn 2 chaos, where Samaia went over a massive kerb and ran into Hughes, Vips was lucky to avoid the whole thing, and Lundgaard had done some magic going from 21st to 14th in just a few corners. While all the chaos was happening, Mazepin managed to get back past Aitken for second place and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed to clear away the stricken cars.
Once the VSC ended, Schumacher overtook Aitken for third place, followed by an attempt by Daruvala to do the same, but Aitken fought back, forcing Daruvala wide, allowing Ghiotto to catch up and get involved. The Daruvala/Ghiotto battle then carried on into lap six, with Ghiotto passing Daruvala and Daruvala going wide and missing the Turn 2 chicane thing that they’re supposed to go through (it was so much easier to write about when it was just a bollard they had to go around), resulting in a five-second time penalty for him. Ghiotto then headed off to catch up with the next driver down the road, Aitken. However, on lap eight, as the two got side by side, they had contact, Aitken got a puncture and veered off into the wall, taking Ghiotto with him in a terrifyingly high-speed crash that saw them both flying into the barriers. The cars were completely destroyed and Ghiotto’s car burst into flames, thankfully only after he had jumped free of it. In fact, both drivers were miraculously unharmed, but the race was red flagged, not to be restarted, due to the extensive barrier repairs that were needed.
The shock of the crash and feeling of relief at seeing the drivers safely walking away soon turned to confusion as Race Control decided that the final race results would be taken from lap five, meaning Aitken and Ghiotto were classified in fourth and fifth, despite having caused the red flag in the first place, and even more confusingly, Daruvala’s penalty that he incurred on lap six (technically after the race had finished), still stood… ok…?
The only thing that was for sure was that Zhou had finally won an F2 race, and despite having only done eight laps (or technically five, or maybe six if you’re Daruvala) he was amazingly happy and proud. It was lovely. Mazepin was second and Schumacher was third, meaning another double-podium weekend for him. Standard Schumacher.
The press conference combo of Zhou and Mazepin meant we got a full step-by-step race review, although it didn’t take that long given the race was only eight or five or six laps depending on who you are. Schumacher used the time to reiterate that Tsunoda definitely pushed his tyres too hard at the start of the race the day before, while Yuki wasn’t there to defend himself.
They of course all claimed that they could have won the race if it had gone full distance, but were happy with their (half) points nonetheless.
191 Championship Points
Only being awarded half points for the Sprint Race didn’t stop Schumacher extending his championship lead. He now leads Ilott (169 points) by 22 points. Another pointless weekend for Lundgaard drops him down to fourth (145 points) behind Tsunoda (147 points). Fifth place Shwartzman’s bad weekend also leaves him under threat from sixth place Mazepin, as they both have 150 points each. It’s all very tense as we head towards the final two rounds at Bahrain. Oh no, we’re actually heading into a TWO MONTH break instead…
But wait..!
Apparently we don’t need to worry about not getting our F2 fix, because we’re getting a bumper version of “F2 drivers do F1” courtesy of the Ferrari Driver Academy (no, not you Alesi and Armstrong) who are sending Schumacher, Ilott and Shwartzman out in Formula 1 Free Practice sessions over the coming races, aka F1 seat 2021 showdown. *Diligently notes down the schedule for F1 free practice in calendar.*