Silverstone Talking points: A tough week for the Championship leaders

With the dust settled after another enthralling FIA Formula 2 race weekend at Silverstone in Great Britain, we take a look at the talking points from Round 4.

TWO NEW WINNERS

For the fifth and sixth time this season, F2 had a brand-new face on the top step of the podium. On Saturday, Nikita Mazepin continued his recent form to take a maiden win in the Feature Race. After a slow start to the season, the Hitech Grand Prix driver has hauled himself into Championship contention.

Given the raft of the different race winners this season, the consistency of Dan Ticktum seems to have slipped under the radar, but the Briton has only failed to score a point on one occasion this season.

His trophy cabinet included silverware for second and third place already, but now that he’s completed his collection with first, people should begin to take note. And, it still feels like there is a lot more to come.

STRATEGY IS PROVING VITAL THIS SEASON

For the second round in a row, strategy played a deciding role in the outcome of both races. Following on from the success of the alternate strategy in Budapest, a number of the grid tried the same thing again – most notably, the polesitter, Felipe Drugovich. Except, this time around it wasn’t nearly as successful.

The Brazilian’s hard tyres were cold and slow off the line and he was swiftly swallowed up by the grid at the race start. Guanyu Zhou had a little more luck, finishing second, but it was nothing like the success Shwarztman enjoyed in Round 3.

SHWARTZMAN STRUGGLED AT SILVERSTONE

Well, who saw that one coming? Robert Shwartzman has enjoyed a sterling start to life in the top tier of junior motorsport, but in the first of two rounds at Silverstone, nothing came off for him.

For the second round in a row, he qualified out of the top ten, but there would not be a scintillating charge to first - like he enjoyed in Round 3 - this time around. The PREMA ace made up just four places to 14th.

For a brief moment on Sunday, things looked to be turning around. Having risen to P11, PREMA opted to roll the dice during a late Safety Car period and put both him and Mick Schumacher on the faster medium Pirellis. But, the double stack didn’t come off – the Russian’s stop was slow and this dropped him down to 17th.

He can scarcely afford another pointless weekend if he is to win the title.

ILOTT MISSED HIS CHANCE

It was a pretty frustrating weekend all round for the Championship top two. Callum Ilott did at least get qualifying right, nicking a spot on the front row, but things went downhill from there, despite his best efforts.

The Briton stalled on the grid and was forced to start from the pitlane. His recovery drive to fifth was magical, to say the least, but doesn’t hide the fact it could have been a whole lot more successful. Especially given Shwartzman’s struggles.

Sunday wasn’t any better. The Briton was given a 5s time penalty for a coming together with Yuki Tsunoda, and then spun out after clipping the curb in his attempts to build up a gap. 10 points from a bad weekend still doesn’t make for bad reading, but it remains a case of what if.