Side-by-side, fighting within a millimetre of each other’s soft compound tyres going into the first corner at Silverstone, UNI-Virtousi teammates Luca Ghiotto and Guanyu Zhou left their bosses with their hearts wrenched up into their mouths on the pit-wall during Saturday’s Feature Race.

Lining up as one-two on the grid, having ran as the quickest two cars over the weekend, the duo were always likely to go wheel-to-wheel at the start and the Italian has since revealed that he had discussed the situation with his rookie partner ahead of time.

Still, this could not have prepared their team for what ensued, when they proved inseparable over the first two turns at the start of the Feature Race.

“For sure, there was some tension in the air, especially on the pits,” he admitted. “They told me after the race that during those few corners when we were fighting they were nervous, but in the end we did alright, so that was a good thing.

“We had a nice fight, me and Zhou at the beginning of the race. Of course, we knew that we had to get both cars to the end of the race and not do any damage, it was something that we had discussed at the start of the race. It was a hard fight, but a clean fight - we never risked too much.

“We both knew very well what we had to do, if I was behind him then I was going to be safe. We did things as we should have done.”

The Italian came out on top, earning a well-warranted first ever Feature Race win in F2, after he eventually forced his way around his pole-sitting teammate at the end of the second corner. The victory continued his upward turn of form, which began to gather pace in Spielberg, just over two weeks ago.

“A feature race win feels great because I have been waiting for this for a long time,” he elated. “It was one of my goals for the season for sure and it has finally come. For it to come at Silverstone is even more special because it is such an amazing place and an amazing track.

“Austria was a really good weekend. When you finish second twice you are happy but at the same time you are frustrated, because you know you’re close to the win. I think that there was no better time for me to get that Feature Race win.”

The UNI-Virtuosi man was the quickest driver in Free Practice, and alongside Zhou, had the quickest car on the track with his team perfecting their machine ahead of their home event at Silverstone, in Round 7. “I didn’t want the race to finish,” joked Ghiotto. “Our cars looked really good in Silverstone and it was a pleasure to drive during the race, it was so good to drive and I had so much fun.

“I would have liked to do 30 more laps, it was really, really good and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoy driving on fast tracks like Silverstone, so to have such a nice, balanced car to drive on such an amazing circuit makes it even more fun. You can really feel how good the car is on a track like Silverstone.”

Despite the team’s advantage over much of the grid in Great Britain, Ghiotto would still have to fend off a further attack at the midway point, when his pit-stop strategy returned him just inches in front of Nicholas Latifi.

Ghiotto’s Championship rival had been back on track for over a lap and his tyres were clearly warmer than the Italians, who struggled to get them into optimum temperature quickly enough to escape Latifi.

“For sure, that is the longest fight that I’ve had so far in F2,” he recalled. “I think it lasted at least four laps from when I returned from the pit-stop. The first two laps were very difficult to defend from him because I had cold tyres and we were just out of the pits.

“My tyres took a long time to warm up to a good point with proper grip. I did what I could, but he overtook me. After that, it was just trying to get back to my pace by warming up the tyres properly, while staying close to him so that I would get a chance, which I got in the end. It was a really good fight, a harsh but clean fight and I really enjoyed it.”

The Italian has now returned to 3rd in the Driver’s Championship, behind Nyck de Vires and Latifi, but asserted that he is purely focusing on the next race, in Budapest at the start of August.

“I am not thinking too much about the gap between me and Nyck in the Championship, I think it is still too big to think about it. I am just thinking about every race as a single race to get the best possible result in that single moment.”