» Formula 2: Schumacher charges to Monza victory

Mick Schumacher has declared his Formula 2 Championship title ambitions with a superb drive to victory in the Monza Feature Race.

The PREMA Racing driver chalked up his fourth podium finish in a row and his seventh of the season to put himself within three points of the top of the standings, jointly held by his fellow Ferrari Academy drivers Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott.

It was a remarkable turnaround for Schumacher, whose participation in the Feature Race looked in doubt on Friday afternoon after he crashed out of qualifying.

Starting his repaired car from seventh on the grid, he simply rocketed off the line and threaded his way through the pack to be second behind pole-sitter Ilott by the first chicane.

His path to victory was then cleared by a disastrous pit stop for Ilott, who stalled as he was released from his pit bay. By the time his car was restarted he was well down the order in 21st place, but put in a determined recovery drive to carve his way back to sixth by the end of the race.

By finishing ahead of incoming championship leader Robert Shwartzman – who finished ninth after starting from 16th – the pair are tied at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings on 134 points apiece.

Schumacher held off a brief challenge by ART’s Christian Lundgaard after the pit stops, steadily building enough of a lead to keep any threat of a DRS-assisted pass at bay. Lundgaard was left to manage the chasing Luca Ghiotto, who eventually reeled in the Dane and passed him at the first chicane with three laps to go.

Lundgaard had to settle for third place – his first podium finish since the second Feature Race at Silverstone – ahead of Red Bull and Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda, who fluffed his front-row start and lost early ground on the opening lap.

Ilott’s teammate Guanyu Zhou was another driver to recover from a terrible qualifying session, running an alternative strategy to finish in fifth place from 17th on the grid.

Just behind Ilott, DAMS Dan Ticktum finished in seventh place with Charouz’s Louis Delétraz claiming eighth and the reversed-grid pole position for Sunday’s Sprint Race.

2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship – Monza Feature Race Final Classification (30 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	30	48:24.641	25
2.	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	30	+ 3.185	20
3.	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	30	+ 7.321	15
4.	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin Motorsport	30	+ 9.279	12
5.	Guan Yu Zhou	UNI Virtuosi Racing	30	+ 12.553	10
6.	Callum Ilott	UNI Virtuosi Racing	30	+ 15.145	12
7.	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	30	+ 15.291	6
8.	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	30	+ 17.561	4
9.	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	30	+ 18.238	2
10.	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin Motorsport	30	+ 21.154	1
11.	Jüri Vips	DAMS	30	+ 23.947
12.	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	30	+ 25.004
13.	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	30	+ 27.859
14.	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	30	+ 28.379
15.	Nobuhara Matsushita	MP Motorsport	30	+ 28.666
16.	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	30	+ 29.257
17.	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA Racelab	30	+ 29.927
18.	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA Racelab	30	+ 30.343
19.	Roy Nissany	Trident Racing	30	+ 33.081
20.	Marino Sato	Trident Racing	30	+ 51.408
21.	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	30	+ 52.406
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Reason
DNF.	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	24	Mechanical

Championship Points:

Championship points are awarded on the results of the Feature Race’s top-ten finishers on a 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 sliding scale.
Four additional championship points are awarded to the driver (Callum Ilott) and their corresponding team (UNI-Virtuosi Racing) for claiming pole position for the Feature Race.
Two additional championship points are awarded to the driver finishing in the top-ten (Luca Ghiotto) and their corresponding team (Hitech Grand Prix) for posting the fastest lap of the race by a top-ten finisher.

Post-Race Penalties: