Schumacher now stands on 203 points, with Ilott’s second place closing the gap to put him on 191. Robert Shwartzman finished eighth, putting him on reverse-grid pole for tomorrow’s sprint race.
Felipe Drugovich passed championship contender Callum Ilott twice to take his first Formula 2 feature race win in Bahrain, as points leader Mick Schumacher recovered to fourth.
MP Motorsport’s Drugovich and Virtuosi Racing driver Ilott were the only two at the head of the field to start on the conventional medium-hard strategy, and the Brazilian got a better launch immediately to vault into the lead.
Pos
Driver
Team
Time
1
Felipe Drugovich
MP Motorsport
58m24.004s
2
Callum Ilott
Virtuosi Racing
+14.833s
3
Jehan Daruvala
Carlin
+19.376s
4
Mick Schumacher
Prema
+20.270s
5
Nikita Mazepin
Hitech GP
+28.293s
6
Yuki Tsunoda
Carlin
+28.590s
7
Marcus Armstrong
ART Grand Prix
+31.361s
8
Robert Shwartzman
Prema
+43.868s
9
Dan Ticktum
DAMS
+46.959s
10
Jack Aitken
Campos Racing
+47.327s
11
Pedro Piquet
Charouz Racing System
+49.174s
12
Luca Ghiotto
Hitech GP
+49.294s
13
Sean Gelael
DAMS
+50.590s
14
Guanyu Zhou
Virtuosi Racing
+53.775s
15
Roy Nissany
Trident
+53.816s
16
Louis Deletraz
Charouz Racing System
+55.957s
17
Giuliano Alesi
MP Motorsport
+1m01.488s
18
Theo Pourchaire
HWA Racelab
+1m01.839s
19
Christian Lundgaard
ART Grand Prix
+1m03.086s
20
Marino Sato
Trident
+1m05.576s
21
Guilherme Samaia
Campos Racing
+1m06.756s
22
Artem Markelov
HWA Racelab
+1m16.019s
From there, the pair were joined by ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong and Prema driver Schumacher – who both performed the alternative strategy – with the latter making a brilliant start from 10th.
That was despite Schumacher making contact with Ilott’s team-mate Guanyu Zhou at Turn 5 on the opening lap – breaking the front wing of the latter. Schumacher escaped without damage. The incident effectively took Zhou out of title contention, although his chances were narrow anyway.
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Ilott seemed happy enough to sit behind Drugovich in this phase of the 32-lap race, while Schumacher overhauled Armstrong after the latter locked up at least three times within a few corners as his harder tyres lost performance.
Making his pitstop before Drugovich, Ilott was then able to get past for the net lead.
When Schumacher pitted, he came out well behind the pair. At that point, Drugovich made his move back on Ilott for the lead by passing into Turn 1.
From there, he extended the gap and took victory by 14.8 seconds to take his third win of the season – the joint-most of anyone in 2020.
Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala took his first F2 podium finish with third, holding off Schumacher. Daruvala, who started eighth, also started on the conventional strategy, which proved to be the better option on the day. He was under pressure from the championship leader until the flag.
Daruvala’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was able to make the alternative strategy work well from last on the grid after his qualifying spin. He went as long as Schumacher on the hard tyre, and carved his way through the pack on the medium stint to recover to sixth. He will start the sprint race third and keeps his title hopes alive narrowly.
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Just ahead of Tsunoda was Hitech GP’s Nikita Mazepin – another driver who just about remains in contention.
Armstrong ended up seventh after his mid-race struggles, just ahead of Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, who started down the order after qualifying struggles.
DAMS’ Dan Ticktum started third but had a miserable start, dropped down the order and discarded his hard tyres very early. He eventually finished ninth, just ahead of Campos’s Jack Aitken.
Despite a miserable afternoon in which he finished 19th behind debutant Theo Pourchaire, ART’s Christian Lundgaard remains in title contention. Hitech’s Luca Ghiotto (12th), Charouz’s Louis Deletraz (16th) and Zhou (14th) all slip out.
F2 : DRUGOVICH WIN IN BAHRAIN GP F2 : DRUGOVICH WIN IN BAHRAIN GP
