Robert Schwartzman’s failures began even before the start of the race: when he was leaving the boxes, going to the starting field, an unpleasant incident occurred. Christian Lundgard was driving in front of him from the ART team’s pits to the pit lane, and the Russian Prema driver had to slow down. Jack Aitken, who was driving behind him, did not have time to stop and crashed into Schwarzman’s car – it is clear that although the speeds were low, she did not get better from this.
Lundgard had a good start from pole, retaining the lead, Dan Tiktum was the second, but Callum Ilott could not maintain the third position, Luca Guiotto and several other riders ahead of him, so the Briton rolled out of the top five.
Shvartsman immediately lost four positions and after the first turns rode 12th behind Nikita Mazepin. Moreover, Nikita started 14th, but already at the beginning of the second round he was ahead of Yuri Vips and ended up in the top ten. Guang Yu Zhou overtook Mick Schumacher to move up to 13th place.
On the third lap, Felipe Drugovich overtook Marcus Armstrong, after which he climbed to 4th position, and Ilott overtook Aitken and went sixth.
Shvartsman on the 5th lap went on the attack on Juri Vips and even caught up with him, but the Estonian skillfully defended himself and not only retained his position, but soon overtook Ceyhan Daruvala. Following the Indian driver, Schwarzman also attacked, rising to 11th place.
On lap 7, Yuki Tsunoda overtook Aitken for 7th, which soon became 6th as race leader Christian Lundagrd was the first to go to the mandatory pit stop before returning to the track in 20th.
The race was headed by Tiktum, but he was immediately caught up and Luca Guiotto was ahead of him with a beautiful braking maneuver in the 1st turn. However, through the circle, both went to the pits, and Drugovich was in the first position. The DAMS mechanics coped with the work faster than the rivals from the Hitech GP, so Tiktum returned to the track before Giotto.
On the 10th lap several riders turned into the pit lane at once, and Mazepin was in the first position, Vips was the second, Shvartsman was the third.
And closer to the end of the peloton at this time there was a principled duel between two British riders – between Tiktum and Ilott, and Dan, after a fierce fight that lasted several turns, was ahead of the leader of the individual competition. Through the circle Callum was overtaken by Luca Guiotto. The experienced Italian did not calm down on this and carried out a successful attack against Tiktum, eventually completing the 12th circle in 13th position.
Mazepin and Shvartsman, who were in the top three, used alternative tactics and did not rush to the pit stop, literally “were in no hurry”, passing circles a couple of seconds slower than their rivals who had already been in the pits. Soon, Guan Yu Zhou was able to get ahead of Schwartzman and reach the third position. In 4th place, Robert also did not manage to stay: on one 16th lap he was overtaken by Mick Schumacher and Louis Deletraz.
On lap 17, Schwarzman, who started on hard tires, finally went to the pits for Soft tires, after which he returned to the track in 20th position. It is likely that his pace was affected by the damage received by the car during the incident on the pit lane. It all ended with the fact that due to technical problems, Schwartzman had to retire: on the 19th lap, he stopped the car on the side of the track near the entrance to the pit lane.
Guang Yu Zhou and Mick Schumacher went to the pits only on the 21st lap, while Mazepin continued to lead, although it was clear that this would not last long, because he had not yet been in the pit stop. And for the first position, after everyone has visited the pits, Lundgard, who was pursued by Guiotto, claimed.
Mazepin turned into the pit lane only on the 22nd lap, and the Dane took the lead in the race. On the same lap Tsunoda overtook Ilott, pushing him out of the 4th position.
On the next lap, Julian Alesi’s car started to smoke, he pulled over to the side of the road, and the race management introduced a virtual safety car mode, which obliged the riders to slow down by 30% and maintain their positions.
The marshals drove around, trying to evacuate Alesi’s car, they could not manage to remove it from the departure zone, and for the first time this weekend a real safety car drove onto the track, and a red one – in honor of the 1000th Ferrari race in Formula 1.
Some of this situation even decided on a second pit stop, because the loss of time was much less, and the chances of improving the position in the final laps were worth it. In particular, Marcus Armstrong and Felipe Drugovich did this when they returned to the track 12th and 13th.
On lap 26, the handsome safety car turned into the pit lane and the race resumed. But at the restart there were several collisions at once, ending with the gatherings of Guan Yu Zhou and Jack Aitken. Ilott also returned to the pits to replace the front wing. However, several riders managed to get their bearings in the turmoil of the restart and improve their positions, primarily Nikita Mazepin, who moved to 3rd position, and Yuki Tsunode, who was following the Russian rider.
The safety car was released again, while Lundgard retained the lead, but everything had to be decided by the next restart and the three laps remaining to the finish line. Giotto was following the Dane, and Mazepin, his partner in the Hitech GP, was preparing an attack on him, especially since the Russian driver had fresher tires than his rivals.
At the restart, Mazepin managed to overtake both of them and, in an amazing way, become the leaders – on the one hand, he was, of course, lucky, on the other, the alternative tactics still worked, albeit in somewhat unusual circumstances.
Lundgard could not hold back the onslaught of attacking Deletraz and Drugovich, plunging into fifth position. He was already pursued by Schumacher, and in front of Louis Deletraz managed to get ahead of Luca Guiotto, but not for long, the Italian desperately resisted and fought back – the stakes were too high, after all, the struggle was for second place, and it continued until the last turns.
And the victory went to Nikita Mazepin – this is the second such achievement of the Russian driver this season, although in fact the third: in Spa he also crossed the finish line first, but then was fined.
“I’m so happy! I realized that I have fresher tires than the rest, and we can succeed, – said the Russian driver after the finish. – I managed to take the lead on such a track, and after the restart we have no opportunity to use DRS. It was very important to do it right away, because the resource of these tires is far from eternal, and on such a route the loads on them are very high.
I thought that I could do it, but we entered the 1st turn three of us, and my partner was on the other side of the track – the difficulty was that he probably did not know that I was already there. I am glad that I managed to avoid contact, because it was necessary not only to become a leader, but also to save the car. Since the tires were in good condition, I tried to make full use of it, and in the end we won! “
Since Mick Schumacher finished fifth, and Callum Ilott did not score points, the German driver took the lead in the individual competition, ahead of the Briton by 4 points. After this race, Robert Shvartsman, although he did not reach the finish line, retained the third position, and Nikita Mazepin, thanks to today’s victory, rose to fifth.
It should also be noted that Artyom Markelov, who finished 9th, after a fine imposed on Yuki Tsunoda for colliding with Tiktum at the restart, climbed to 8th, so he starts from pole in the Sunday sprint.
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