Home Featured Shwartzman wins F2’s first Silverstone sprint race after stellar start

Shwartzman wins F2’s first Silverstone sprint race after stellar start

by Alejandro Alonso Lopez

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Robert Shwartzman won the first Formula 2 sprint race at Silverstone thanks to a perfect start that allowed him to lead every lap.

The Prema driver had a rapid start from fourth in the grid and took the lead straight away. After that, he controlled the race without much trouble despite having to go through three safety car restarts.

Red Bull junior Juri Vips was unable to extend his win streak from Baku and finished second in a fairly quiet run to the podium. Third place went to Christian Lundgaard, who started on reversed grid pole but lost two places due to a slow start.

The safety car was out on lap one after points leader Guanyu Zhou spun and stalled at turn four, which meant he had to retire.

Roy Nissany, who had reported some issues in his rear tyres before the start, was also forced to retire after touching the rear of Lundgaard at the same corner. Both Alessio Deledda and Ralph Boschung went off track on lap one, but were able to rejoin.

When the race restarted, Deledda spun at the first corner and the safety car was out again.

Prema’s Oscar Piastri went into the inside of Hitech GP’s Liam Lawson at turn three on the next restart, both having already had an intense battle in the only green flag lap between safety car periods.

But then Charouz’s Guilherme Samaia beached himself in the Luffield gravel trap and the safety car was out once more, enabling four cars to pit for medium tyres with eight laps to go.

MP Motorsport’s Richard Vershoor was quickly able to make up the places lost during his pitstop, and placed himself in the top 10. He finished there, meaning he started the second sprint race from reversed grid pole.

On the contrary, Matteo Nannini, Bent Viscaal and Jack Aitken were unable to take advantage of this strategy, finishing in 15th, 16th and 17th respectively.

For the rest, it was a calm race with little changes in top 10 positions.

Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire were fourth and fifth, and Piastri took the points lead in sixth by taking fastest lap on the last lap from Shwartzman.

Race results (21 laps)

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Robert Shwartzman Prema 42m34.300s
2 Juri Vips Hitech GP +0.971s
3 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix +2.534s
4 Felipe Drugovich Virtuosi +5.041s
5 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix +5.594s
6 Oscar Piastri Prema +8.403s
7 Liam Lawson Hitech GP +11.640s
8 Dan Ticktum Carlin +12.365s
9 Marcus Armstrong DAMS +12.795s
10 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport +13.640s
11 Lirim Zendeli MP Motorsport +14.222s
12 Jehan Daruvala Carlin +16.694s
13 David Beckmann Charouz Racing System +17.215s
14 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing +19.347s
15 Matteo Nannini Campos Racing +20.113s
16 Bent Viscaal Trident +21.048s
17 Jack Aitken HWA Racelab +22.670s
NC Marino Sato Trident +4 laps
Ret Guilherme Samaia Charouz Racing System
Ret Alessio Deledda HWA Racelab
Ret Roy Nissany DAMS
Ret Guanyu Zhou Virtuosi
Fastest lap: Piastri, 1m42.498s

Championship standings

1 Piastri 83   2 Shwartzman 81   3 Zhou 78   4 Vips 75   5 Ticktum 61   6 Pourchaire 61   7 Daruvala 53   8 Lawson 52   9 Drugovich 49   10 Boschung 36