Tag: Callum Ilott

Championship leader Callum Ilott sealed his second successive pole position in FIA Formula 2, ahead of title rival Robert Shwartzman. The UNI-Virtuosi racer finished just one tenth faster than the PREMA man, and clinched what could prove to be four crucial points in the race to the crown. Ilott’s teammate Guanyu Zhou finished just 0.2s off pole himself in third.

Temperature was always going to be a factor in Qualifying, with the track hitting 47 degrees as Nikita Mazepin led the cars out onto the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Russian was the first man to set a flying lap, and the first to put a quick time on the board, running just above the 1m 30s mark.

Shwartzman set the benchmark time thanks to a strong first sector, punching round in 1:28.862. His title rival Ilott couldn’t quite match him for pace, diving into P2 ahead of the second PREMA of Mick Schumacher – the three of them separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Ilott’s teammate Zhou had opted to remain in the pits at the start of the session, and headed out onto the track as the rest of the grid returned to the pits for a tyre change. The UNI-Virtuosi racer’s decision proved to be a good one as he posted a tour quick enough for P2, just a hundredth of a second off provisional pole.

Ilott was the first back out onto the circuit, on fresh soft Pirellis, and found an extra half a second. He smashed the second and third sectors to take provisional pole with nine minutes to go. The Ferrari junior returned back to the pits with 1:28.381 on the board, and clambered out of his car to watch on as the rest of the field attempted to better his time.

Shwartzman and Felipe Drugovich both found more pace around the track but couldn’t match the Briton’s time, diving into second and third, 0.1s and 0.3s short of pole.
The tyres didn’t have enough life in them for another push lap and the field all headed back into the pits, bar Zhou, who had returned late after running in the gap earlier. With the track completely to himself he found more pace, but like those before him couldn’t match Ilott, running 0.2s slower and sealing third.

Drugovich finished in fourth, ahead of Schumacher, Yuki Tsunoda and Jack Aitken. Free Practice pacesetter Dan Ticktum took eighth, ahead of Mazepin and Louis Delétraz.

Ilott has the opportunity to further stretch his lead at the top of the standings in the Feature Race tomorrow, at 4.45pm local time.

Silverstone, 8 August 2020: UNI-Virtuosi’s Callum Ilott put the frustrations of Round 4 behind him to control the Formula 2 Feature Race from start to finish, and emphatically snatch the Championship lead from his fellow Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman on home soil at Silverstone.

The Briton’s day got off to a flyer as he thundered off the line when the lights went out, but arguably, the key to his victory was tyre management. Ilott finished nearly 9s ahead of Christian Lundgaard, whose visibly degraded Pirellis prevented him from mounting any form of serious assault on P1.

The top three remained unchanged from Qualifying, as Jack Aitken secured his first podium of the season at his home race in third.

Shwartzman managed to make up three places from 11th, but it wasn’t enough to retain his grip on the Drivers’ Championship. The PREMA racer will have an opportunity to make up some ground in the title race from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race tomorrow.

AS IT HAPPENED

Last weekend, Ilott had stalled from second ahead of the formation lap, but there was no sign of something similar from pole in Round 5. The UNI-Virtuosi racer enjoyed a dream getaway from first, peeling away from the pack cleanly into the first corner.

The Briton’s cause was helped by compatriot Dan Ticktum, who stole the attention of front row starter Lundgaard, darting down the right from fourth and ahead of the Dane for P2.

All of Ticktum’s hard work was undone four laps later, as he skidded off the road at Chapel to allow Lundgaard back past, and then went wide at Stowe to allow Aitken ahead too.

Mick Schumacher had vaulted off the line himself and watched gleefully as Ticktum fell into his clutches. The German went side-by-side with the DAMS driver into Turns 3 and 4, and eventually edged past in a protracted, but hard-fought move. Nikita Mazepin immediately followed the PREMA through, to drop Ticktum to sixth.

The majority of those who started on the softs changed on Lap 7, including Lundgaard from P2, but Ilott opted to wait and switch to the hard Pirellis a lap later.

His decision proved well-founded, as he maintained his position ahead of Lundgaard on his return from the pitlane, top of the drivers on the option-prime strategy. This handed Schumacher the lead ahead of Mazepin, both on the alternate strategy.

Ilott was wary of putting too much pressure on the hard tyres on their maiden laps, but did manage to fight past Artem Markelov for P9 and put some breathing space between himself and Lundgaard.

The Briton got the tyres up to temperature and felt comfortable enough to fling himself ahead of Giuliano Alesi and Roy Nissany too. Lundgaard was already sporting visible blisters on his front left and complained to his team on the radio that the hard tyres were struggling as he got stuck behind Alesi, in a train with Aitken and Delétraz.

Schumacher pitted from first on Lap 21 and returned in P12 behind Ticktum. The German took a couple of laps to warm up his tyres, but once he had, wasted no time in reclaiming the position from the DAMS driver.

Mazepin went in for his change on Lap 22 and returned the race lead to Ilott, who had made the most of the traffic between him and Lundgaard to build up a mega 8s advantage.

When the Russian returned, he slotted into P8 behind Schumacher, but was revelling in his decision to pit later than the German and used the fresher rubber to fire ahead of both Schumacher, and Yuki Tsunoda, for fifth. He’d follow this up with a last gasp dash past Delétraz on the final lap.

Little else changed on the final lap, as Ilott calmly claimed his second win of the season ahead of Lundgaard. The Dane managed to cling onto second ahead of Aitken, who scored his first podium of 2020. Mazepin ran home fourth, ahead of Delétraz, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Shwartzman. Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich completed the top ten.

Ilott moves into first place in the Drivers’ Championship for the first time since Round 2, on 102 points. Lundgaard also makes up a place to second, 15 points behind the UNI-Virtuosi racer. Shwartzman drops to third on 85, ahead of Mazepin and Ticktum.

In the Teams’ Championship, UNI-Virtuosi strengthen their lead at the top on 157 points, ahead of PREMA on 132 and ART Grand Prix on 121. Hitech Grand Prix are fourth, ahead of Carlin.

KEY QUOTE – CALLUM ILOTT (UNI-VIRTUOSI)

“It is great to come away with the win. It was quite a long race, I have to say, but I did everything right and I got the start right.

“I had to extend the first stint because of where we are in the pitlane, otherwise I probably would have missed out on a couple seconds, because I’d have had to let some cars by. It worked out well in the end and I extended the gap a little bit to Christian.

“From there, I just kept it going and kept it on track. It wasn’t easy, the wind was in a different direction to how it has been this week and how it had been last week, which made it very twitchy through the high-speed sections.

“I feel really good to get the win. I should have done it last week, but it couldn’t have gone any better this week. I’m really happy, and a great job from the team.”