Talking Points from Spielberg

With the dust settled at the end of another enthralling FIA Formula 2 race weekend, at The Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, we take a look at four talking points from the track.

ILOTT OFF THE MARK

Having twice snatched the lead from Guanyu Zhou in the Feature Race, before falling back to P2 on both occasions, Callum Ilott probably didn’t think his first win in F2 would come via a mechanical issue for his UNI-Virtuosi teammate, but a win is a win, and you can’t say that the Briton hasn’t earned it.

After an impressive debut campaign in the Championship, Ilott appears to have gone up a gear in 2020. He spent most of the Feature Race in a dogfight with Zhou and Mick Schumacher for the three podiums spots, but ended as the last man standing when both dropped out of contention.

Sometimes, you make your own luck.

LEFT REELING

Zhou and Schumacher will be hurting. The duo had shown tremendous pace in the early stages of the weekend, but suffered a torrid time of things in the Feature Race.

Zhou had looked set to win, but for the aforementioned mechanical issues to strike, while Schumacher fell from third after a mistake sent him wide at Turn 7.

The German managed to recover to seventh in the Sprint Race, but Zhou endured further woes. The Chinese racer was sent wide in an attempt to avoid Luca Ghiotto’s car, after his former teammate was tagged by Jehan Daruvala. This once again sent him to the back of the pack.

They’ll need to score some good points in Round 2 if they’re to avoid falling behind in the title race, so expect to see them out for revenge.

AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT

Eyebrows were raised when Felipe Drugovich opted to step up from Formula 3, having never achieved a finish higher than P6 in the Championship, but the Brazilian was assertive in his view that F2 would better suit his style and characteristic. We can’t imagine he knew quite how right he’d be.

Drugovich and his new MP Motorsport machine were the perfect match. Qualifying P2 was impressive enough, but to take his first win in the Sprint Race, battling off the more experienced Louis Deletraz, was sublime. He quite rightly described his first victory as “perfect.”

RAPID ROOKIES

Drugovich wasn’t the only rookie to impress on his debut weekend in F2. Marcus Armstrong was a beneficiary of Zhou and Schumacher’s issues in the Feature Race, with the Kiwi able to claim his first F2 podium, finishing P2. Things wouldn’t go quite so well in the Sprint Race, when he suffered issues himself and dropped out, but overall, it was a solid first weekend for the ART Grand Prix racer.

Sitting behind Ilott in the Drivers’ standings is Robert Shwartzman, who took third and fourth in his first two races, and we know there’s plenty more to come from him.