It was a lights-to-flag performance from Arden’s Maximilian Gunther as he took his maiden FIA Formula 2 Championship victory in the Sprint Race at Silverstone.
Starting on pole in a reverse-grid formation, Gunther led the way from start to finish to take his best-ever result in F2 – none so than a race win amid a difficult run for the German. He did have a slight scare though towards the end.
Meanwhile, Prema’s Nyck de Vries and Russian Time’s Artem Markelov held second and third for majority of the race, but came under tremendous pressure from ART Grand Prix’s George Russell and Carlin’s Lando Norris in the end stages.
The Mercedes junior was having fun on his home track at Silverstone as he fought his way into the front from seventh on the grid. He cleared Campos’ Luca Ghiotto first and followed it up with moves on Charouz Racing’s Antonio Fuoco and Louis Deletraz.
In no time, he was up to second when he cleared the struggling Markelov and de Vries. His tyres and pace was so much better that he brought down the gap to Gunther to just the 0.5s in the end from over four seconds.
A second place finish only helps him to further extend his points lead, but Norris in third limited the extension. The McLaren reserve also had a fighting race from 10th on the grid to complete the podium.
He went wheel-to-wheel with DAMS’ Alexander Albon at the start and then managed to clear Ghiotto as well in his chase for Fuoco. The two came wheel-to-wheel at the left-hander with Norris on the outside.
The British driver went off track and rejoined quickly when they had a collision resulting in Fuoco’s retirement and a VSC period. The stewards blamed Fuoco for the incident and he was handed out a 10-second penalty even though he was retired.
Upon re-start, Norris made a quick work of Deletraz and then passed both Markelov and de Vries around the outside to slot himself in third. The Russian also managed to clear the Dutchman for fourth.
De Vries’ tyres were totally gone as he lost two more places to Deletraz and Ghiotto on the final lap with Albon coming ever so close to taking seventh, but de Vries managing to hold on only by just.
Albon took the final point as the MP Motorsport drivers Ralph Boschung and Roberto Merhi rounded out the Top 10 – the former also came close to take the point from Albon, but it wasn’t to be in the end.
Outside the Top 10, there was no short of dramas as the two Trident teammates came to blows again after their feature race collision. Santino Ferrucci was penalised for his move in the feature race on Saturday.
On Sunday, Arjun Maini once again found himself behind fellow Haas junior at the start and had it hard to find a way past the American. He finally found the way at Turn 4 but Ferrucci had to go off which caught the attention of the stewards.
The investigation was postponed to until after the race, but on the slowing down lap, it was shown that Ferrucci hit the back of Maini – with his front left touching the right rear of the Indian driver’s car, resulting another radio message from him.
At the start, Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara and DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi had a collision where the Brazilian lost his front wing – which pretty much ended both their races in terms of a credible points finish.
Positions 11-18: Tadasuke Makino, Jack Aitken, Maini, Ferrucci, Roy Nissany, Sean Gelael, Latifi and Camara. DNF: Fuoco and Nirei Fukuzumi.