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Tag: Yuki Tsunoda
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Tsunoda takes 3rd win; Jehan Daruvala ends up 8th
Sakhir, 5 Dec 2020: Yuki Tsunoda took a brilliant third victory of the season from pole, but it wasn’t as simple as lights-to-flag, with the Carlin racer locked in a race-long dogfight with the entirety of the top five. Guanyu Zhou came out of that brawl in second, after a magnificent charge through the field from 11th, while Nikita Mazepin was forced to settle for third, despite leading for large parts of the afternoon.
Zhou’s efforts weren’t enough to prevent PREMA from sealing the Teams’ Title, as Robert Shwartzman finished fifth, behind Felipe Drugovich, confirming the Italian outfit as Champions with one race to go.
Tsunoda’s win may not have been enough to keep him in the Drivers’ Title fight, but the battle between Callum Ilott and Mick Schumacher for the crown will go down to the wire. The pair had started the day in ninth and 18th after a tough Qualifying session but recovered strongly to finish in sixth and seventh.
AS IT HAPPENED
Tsunoda initially got away without a hitch, but could then be seen adjusting his helmet heading into the first turn, allowing Mazepin the chance to steal the inside line. By the time they exited the first corner the Russian was in-front, while Tsunoda had fallen to P3 behind Shwarztman.
The second Carlin of Jehan Daruvala was sucked up by the pack and fell behind Artem Markelov who’d bombed off the line from P7. Title rivals Ilott and Schumacher only managed to make up a couple places, sitting seventh and 16th.
Starting on the prime tyre, Schumacher made up another few places in the opening 15 laps, getting up to P11 behind Marcus Armstrong, while Ilott dropped back to ninth ahead of his pitstop, appearing to struggle on the soft Pirellis.
Mazepin and Shwartzman pitted from the lead, handing first to Tsunoda, who remained out at the front. Ilott done the same as Schumacher launched ahead of Armstrong to put himself directly behind his title rival. The two wouldn’t get the chance to fight as Ilott finally opted to swap the softs for the hards and returned in 15th.
Mazepin and Shwartzman were on the charge, but couldn’t solely focus on getting through the pack as they had Tsunoda to contend with, the Carlin racer had pitted two laps later and possessed slightly fresher tyres.
Schumacher pitted from the lead on Lap 20, but his stop wasn’t the quickest and he returned in 13th behind Dan Ticktum. Mazepin, Shwartzman and Tsunoda were handed back the race lead, with Ilott up to fifth, in-front of Drugovich.
Tsunoda was given a shock as he attempted to pass Shwarztman ahead of the first turn. He’d flung his Carlin down the side of the PREMA, but Christian Lundgaard – a lap behind – appeared from the pits and Tsunoda needed lightning-fast reactions to evade the ART, diving back behind Shwarztman. Tsunoda had another attempt at Turn 4, easing past the Russian, who then lost a place to Drugovich as well.
There was movement in the race for the title as Schumacher bravely forced his way past both Dan Ticktum and Pedro Piquet for P8, while Ilott fell behind Guanyu Zhou.
Mazepin and Tsunoda were locked in battle for the lead. The two went back and forth, and it was the Carlin driver who eventually made the position stick, thanks to a brilliant late braking move. Having lost momentum, Mazepin was then at the mercy of Drugovich, before Zhou stunned the both of them and came out of nowhere to steal second in one fell swoop.
In the end, Tsunoda crossed the line with a 5.6s advantage over Zhou, with Mazepin retaining the final podium position. Drugovich settled for fourth ahead of Shwartzman. Ilott clinched sixth, directly in-front of his title rival, Schumacher, who’d made a late move on Daruvala. Ticktum and Piquet completed the top ten.
Schumacher retains a 14-point advantage heading into the final race of the season, sitting first on 213 points, ahead of Ilott on 199. Tsunoda is up to third on 186, with Mazepin fourth on 177 and Shwartzman fifth with 169.
PREMA are the new Teams’ Champions, finishing first with 382 points, ahead of UNI-Virtuosi on 342.5 and Hitech Grand Prix on 281. Carlin are fourth with 241 and ART Grand Prix fifth on 201.
KEY QUOTE – YUKI TSUNODA (CARLIN RACING)
“I am really, really happy with my result and I want to thank Carlin again. We’ve had really good pace this weekend, especially in the race, and I done my job.
“The start was really bad, but I trusted my driving and my tyre management. Both went well and I got P1 back, so I am really happy and looking forward to tomorrow.”
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Jehan Daruvala loses pole by a whisker to teammate Tsunoda in dying stages
Sochi, 25 Sept 2020: Yuki Tsunoda left it late to claim his third pole position of the season, after Carlin teammate Jehan Daruvala had led nearly the entirety of Formula 2 Qualifying in Sochi. Tsunoda snatched pole in the dying stages, while the Indian driver missed out by just 0.006s, as Carlin secured the first front-row lockout in F2 Qualifying since UNI-Virtuosi in July 2019.
Championship leader Mick Schumacher was first out of the blocks around Sochi, but it was his teammate Robert Shwartzman who set the quicker lap of the two, briefly taking first place with a benchmark time of 1:49.634.
Beating them both, Daruvala flung his Carlin around for first at the end of his maiden run. Nikita Mazepin managed to find time in the first and second sectors to briefly go top, but the Carlin driver found a further four tenths of a second to retake provisional pole.
The Carlins were clearly revelling around the Sochi Autodrom, as Tsunoda nipped ahead of Mazepin and into second place. Meanwhile, Jake Hughes was sat in ninth on his F2 Qualifying debut as the cars headed back to the pits for fresh rubber.
Daruvala picked up from where he left off when they returned for a second stint, finding a further tenth to try and solidify first place ahead of Tsunoda. Guanyu Zhou and Callum Ilott managed to fight up to third and fourth, but neither of them could match the Carlins for pace.
The Pirelli rubber had held up well around Sochi and Tsunoda put it to good use. The Red Bull junior set a stunning final lap to steal first from his teammate.
Daruvala attempted a reaction, but fell agonizingly short, by just six thousandths of a second.
Shwartzman briefly claimed third, but ended up down in seventh after the final set of push laps. Schumacher found further pace from his PREMA to take P3 behind the Carlin duo.
Ilott, Schumacher’s title rival, managed to improve to fourth on the final run, but his teammate Zhou dropped to P9.
The morning’s fastest man, Luca Ghiotto, found the speed for fifth, ahead of Christian Lundgaard. Jack Aitken finished in eighth, with Mazepin taking 10th.
Tsunoda will be in the hunt for his third win of the season in the Feature Race tomorrow, when action gets underway at 10.15am (local time).
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Tsunoda promoted to Feature race victory: F2
Spa, 29 August 2020: Nikita Mazepin crossed the line first, but it was Yuki Tsunoda who clinched a second FIA Formula 2 victory in the Feature Race at Spa-Francorchamps. A late time penalty for the Hitech Grand Prix driver dropped him down to second in dramatic circumstances.
The duo had diced back and forth for the entire race after a slow pitstop lost Tsunoda track position and gave Mazepin the provisional race lead. Tsunoda tried several moves to pass the Russian late on, but Mazepin clung on for the chequered flag before the Stewards felt his defending had been a little too strong. Mazepin was given a 5s time penalty for forcing the Red Bull junior off the road, costing him the win and dropping him to second.
Mick Schumacher took a cool and controlled fifth podium of 2020, steering clear of any drama to boost his own title chances and put him within 28 points of the Championship lead.
Robert Shwartzman clinched fifth and took a chunk out of Callum Ilott’s lead at the top of the standings, with the UNI-Virtuosi man finishing back in 10th.
AS IT HAPPENED
Ahead of the Feature Race, the motorsport community united in loving memory of Anthoine Hubert, who tragically passed away in Spa-Francorchamps one year ago. Anthoine’s mother Nathalie joined Juan Manuel Correa and members of the F2 paddock, along with several Formula 1 drivers and team members, in a minute’s silence on the grid to pay their respects to the late Frenchman.
Tsunoda got a clean getaway from pole, but so did Mazepin from second and the Russian pulled up alongside him heading into the first turn. Going wheel-to-wheel, the Carlin racer had the inside line and held his nerve, braking latest and retaining the position.
Having missed the opportunity to steal first, Mazepin was suddenly drawn into the crowd behind him and Nobuharu Matsushita fizzed ahead for P2.
It was a mixed start for the top 10, Shwartzman was sluggish off the line and fell to seventh, as his teammate Schumacher lunged ahead into fourth place. Louis Delétraz was another to get away well and found himself in fifth at the exit of Turn 1. Meanwhile, Championship leader Ilott had already made up two places to P10.
Having momentarily slipped back, Mazepin reclaimed second from a helpless Matsushita on Lap 3. The MP Motorsport driver’s soft Pirellis were already looking battered and bruised and he lost further places to Schumacher and Delétraz.
Matsushita’s day then got even worse. The Japanese driver had been reeled in by teammate Drugovich and the Brazilian attempted to dart to the right of him, but he ran out of room and the two came to blows. Drugovich attempted to back out of the move but clipped the right rear of Matsushita, destroying the tyre and sending him spinning into the barriers. Matsushita clambered safely out of the car, with a Virtual Safety Car deployed, but his day was over while Drugovich required a fix-up in the pits.
Mazepin and Schumacher were the first to drop the soft tyres for mediums. Tsunoda followed from first a lap later, but his stop was a poor one and he lost track position to Mazepin, who was now leading the drivers on the prime strategy. On the alternate strategy, Guanyu Zhou inherited the race lead with a 5s gap over second-placed Pedro Piquet. The UNI-Virtuosi driver was amongst the last on the medium tyres to pit, returning in P6, but he instantly lost three places to Luca Ghiotto, Dan Ticktum and Piquet due to cold rubber. His teammate Ilott followed through not long after.
Zhou’s pitstop handed Mazepin the lead for the first time, but Tsunoda was only just over a second behind and fast gaining on him. It took him two laps, but the Carlin racer caught the Russian and attempted a daring move down the inside, but Mazepin refused to surrender the place, giving Tsunoda no choice but to back out and bounce across the kerbs.
Zhou’s tyres were finally warm, as he got a move on and regained the positions he’d lost after his pitstop. The Renault junior picked off Ilott first, before lunging ahead of Ghiotto as well.
Roy Nissany was also on the charge. The Trident man’s decision to opt for the alternate strategy was paying dividends, as he fired past Ilott and eyed up Ghiotto as well before making a DRS-enthused move on the Hitech driver down the inside for P8.
Mazepin thought he had begun to edge away at the front, but Tsunoda was clearly just biding his time and he caught up again with two laps ago. Attempting a near identical move to the first on the Hitech driver, Tsunoda inched ahead but was forced wide again which returned him to second.
Mazepin crossed the line in first but was swiftly informed of a crushing 5s time penalty for forcing the Carlin driver off the road during the aforementioned move, promoting Tsunoda up to first and dropping Mazepin to second.
Nothing changed behind them, as Schumacher closed out his fifth podium of the season. Delétraz settled for fourth, ahead of Shwartzman, Ticktum and Zhou.
Nissany sealed his highest ever F2 finish in P8, followed by Ghiotto and Ilott. In the Drivers’ Championship, Ilott remains in first with 122 points, seven ahead of Shwartzman. Tsunoda is up to third on 111 points, while Schumacher is fourth and Mazepin fifth. In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA Racing are back on top with 209 points, five ahead of UNI-Virtuosi. Hitech Grand Prix are third, ahead of Carlin and ART Grand Prix.
KEY QUOTE – YUKI TSUNODA (CARLIN)
“I am really happy to take P1 in the Feature Race. This is 100% for Anthoine Hubert. A big thanks to Carlin, Red Bull and Honda. It was not an easy situation, and I was a little bit unlucky during the pitstop, but after that I just pushed until the end as much as I could.
“Like Hubert last year, he pushed every lap, every race, and I just drove like him. I maybe couldn’t win in the race, but the final result is P1 and I am really happy with that.”
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Tsunoda wins as Shwartzman and Schumacher collide: F2
Silverstone, 9 August 2020: Yuki Tsunoda benefitted from a sensational late collision between race leaders, and PREMA teammates, Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher, to take his first-ever FIA Formula 2 victory in the Sprint Race at Silverstone.
The Carlin driver patiently sat behind the PREMA duo for the first 19 laps of the race, steering clear of any drama and putting him in the perfect position to benefit from their coming together. He swept into first with two laps to go, and calmly closed out the victory to become the 25th different F2 winner since the Championship began.
Schumacher was able to retain second place at the chequered flag, and avoided a penalty as Race Control deemed the collision to be a racing incident.
Shwartzman suffered damage from their clash and dropped out of the top ten entirely. This promoted Jack Aitken up to third for his second podium of both the weekend, and the season.
Callum Ilott, who took the Championship lead in the Feature Race on Saturday, managed sixth place to stretch his lead at the top of the table by a further four points.
AS IT HAPPENED
Shwartzman was completely unfazed at the race start, getting away cleanly off the line ahead of teammate Schumacher. The German was equally cool when the lights went out and lined up in tow of the Russian.
Schumacher appeared impatient in his desire to take the race lead, attempting an audacious move at Hangar Straight, but it failed to come off and he lost momentum, allowing his teammate to open up a bit of a gap.
Behind them, Tsunoda had also started well, but it was Aitken who made the strongest start of all, flinging his Campos down the right to make up two places to fourth.
Louis Delétraz was all over the back of Christian Lundgaard and eventually forced the ART Grand Prix man into a mistake, as he went wide at Copse and allowed the Charouz Racing System driver to snatch fifth. The Dane lost another position to Guanyu Zhou on the following lap, as the UNI-Virtuosi driver made a delightful dive around the outside.
There was no form of reaction from Lundgaard, whose tyres were sporting visible blisters, and he fell into the clutches of the Championship leader, Ilott. Eventually the pressure proved too much. The Dane locked up several times and then ran wide, allowing the Briton past. It didn’t get any better for the Renault junior, as his left-front tyre then gave way and he was forced to retire.
Tsunoda had been ticking along nicely in third, building up a 13s gap on fourth placed Aitken. In front of him, Shwartzman and Schumacher had been close throughout the race and eventually came to blows at Turn 6 with just two laps to go – handing Tsunoda the lead.
Schumacher attempted a move around the outside of the Russian, but the two made contact. Shwartzman, having led the race up until that point, suffered damage to his front wing and plummeted out of the top ten. Schumacher escaped any damage and held on to second behind the Carlin at the chequered flag.
Aitken benefitted from the chaos to take his second podium in as many races, while Delétraz clinched fourth, ahead of Zhou. Ilott, Dan Ticktum and Nikita Mazepin claimed the final points positions.
Ilott retains first in the Drivers’ Championship on 106 points, with neither of his main challengers finishing in the points. Lundgaard is second on 87, with Shwartzman third on 85. Mazepin and Delétraz sit fourth and fifth. In the Teams’ Championship, UNI-Virtuosi lead with 167 points, 21 ahead of PREMA Racing. ART Grand Prix are third, ahead of Hitech Grand Prix and Carlin.
KEY QUOTE – YUKI TSUNODA (CARLIN)
“I am really happy to take P1 today. Congrats and thanks to Carlin, who did a really great job with the car. It was quite a tough race, and both of the PREMA guys were really fast in the beginning. I could see that they were struggling towards the end, so I saved the tyres as much as possible to prepare.
“I was a bit lucky for the overtake at Brooklands, but after that, I had a good pace and I am happy to take the first win.”
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Shwartzman wins as Tsunoda takes P2; Daruvala P12
Spielberg, 11 July 2020: Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman proved unstoppable on the wet in Spielberg, clawing his way from sixth on the grid to take his first-ever victory in FIA Formula 2.
The PREMA racer’s win denied fellow rookie, and Red Bull Academy driver, Yuki Tsunoda a first win of his own in F2. The polesitter led for the majority of the race, but an issue with team radio saw him pit too late and drop down to fifth. Meanwhile, Indian racer Jehan Daruvala lost a chance to finish P8 and a pole on the reverse grid for the Sprint race on Sunday. “Only my self to blame… Threw away points and reverse grid pole for tomorrow. I am really angry with myself, but now I can’t change it. So will keep my head up and try to fight back tomorrow,” said Daruvala.
Despite a late charge on the fresher tyres, he wasn’t able to recover first and instead had to settle for second, and a maiden podium.
Guanyu Zhou led the race when Tsunoda pitted late on, but had the opposite issue to the Carlin racer, having changed his tyres too early. Zhou’s rubber wasn’t strong enough to hold off Shwartzman and he ended up in third ahead Mick Schumacher, who had done brilliantly to rise from ninth after a tough Qualifying session.
Marcus Armstrong was another to perform brilliantly around the Red Bull Ring after a tough day on Friday. The ART Grand Prix driver qualified 12th and managed to climb to seventh, just behind his teammate Christian Lundgaard, and Callum Ilott.
AS IT HAPPENED
Wet weather put the Feature Race into doubt as rain poured down onto the Red Bull Ring. The initial formation laps tested the conditions before race control deemed it unsafe and ordered them back into the pits. This delayed the start by over an hour as they waited for the conditions to ease.
Race Director Silvia Bellot deemed it dry enough for a safety car start shortly after 18:30 local time, and the grid headed out onto the track. The rain eased somewhat, and the safety car returned to the pits after four laps, at which point racing finally got underway. Tsunoda was put under instant pressure from Zhou, but managed to hold the position around the first turn.
The only change to the order on the opening lap saw Jack Aitken edge ahead of Luca Ghiotto for fourth. Tsunoda was attempting to build a gap between himself and Zhou, but despite the drying conditions, was struggling to find the grip, with the Lauda section remaining particularly wet.
Lundgaard was revelling in the rain, finding excellent traction to push ahead of Shwarztman, and then fire past Ghiotto and into fifth. Aitken looked to be within his reach, but a slight wobble gave the Campos driver space to breathe.
Having been passed by Lundgaard, Ghiotto was then under threat from Shwartzman as well, who was remaining patient in his attempts to overtake. He eyed up several moves on the Italian but opted against the risk until lap 15, when he finally lunged ahead at Turn 6. The PREMA racer made the move just in time to follow Lundgaard ahead of Aitken for fourth and fifth.
Zhou and Ilott were amongst the first of the front runners to box on laps 22 and 23, with many of the field looking to stay out longer. The pair returned in sixth and seventh, believing that they could fire through the field and build a gap at the front, when the remainder changed their rubber.
The majority chose to change their boots a few laps later and Carlin told their race leader to follow suit, but Tsunoda remained out, seemingly ignoring team orders. When the same thing happened on the following lap, the team quickly realised that there was a fault with the team radio and dashed to the pitwall, to give him the instructions in person.
This put the Red Bull junior’s race win in doubt. He had lost chunks of time to Zhou and Ilott and returned back in fifth. The select few drivers who had opted to remain out pitted and handed Zhou the lead.
The Chinese driver and his teammate Ilott were under pressure from Shwartzman who had the fresher rubber. The Russian proved too strong and both were passed within the space of a lap.
Returning in fifth with just five laps to go, the win looked to have been lost for Tsunoda, but the Carlin racer was hounding down those ahead of him in a desperate attempt to claw back P1. First, he dispatched of Ilott, and then he eased ahead of Zhou. Shwarztman was 3s ahead of him, and time was swiftly running out, but this wouldn’t stop Tsunoda from trying.
It wasn’t the only late dash going on either. The second PREMA of Schumacher was also on fresher tyres and sprinted into third, with a tidy move on Ilott, before locking in on Zhou.
Back out at the front, Tsunoda managed to get within a second of P1 on the final lap, but he couldn’t quite get within range to make a lunge on Shwarztman, allowing the Russian driver to run over the line for his first win.
Zhou completed the podium behind them in third, just about staving off the threat of Schumacher. Ilott took fifth and Lundgaard sixth, ahead of his teammate Armstrong. Dan Ticktum finished eighth, with Aitken in ninth and Sean Gelael tenth.
Shwartzman’s win hands him first in the Drivers’ Championship, with 48 points, ahead of Ilott on 37. Lundgaard moves up to third on 26, ahead of Armstrong, Tsunoda and Ticktum, who are all on 24. In the Teams’ Championship, PREMA lead with 62 points, ahead of UNI-Virtuosi on 56 and ART Grand Prix on 50. MP Motorsport are fourth, followed by DAMS.
KEY QUOTE – ROBERT SHWARTZMAN (PREMA RACING)
“I am super happy to finish first, and I couldn’t have expected that result from the start. The beginning was really tough, and I had some issues with the car after the restart.
“There was a lot of rain coming down on the visor and I couldn’t see much, but slowly the rain started to go away and I started to pick up the pace and get ahead of a few cars. From P4, we done a really great strategy, so a massive thanks to the team, who were really quick on the pit
“We exited behind Zhou and he was really fast, but he started to lose grip and we had an interesting fight. I got passed him and took the provisional leading position, but my engineer told me that Yuki was really quick, so I couldn’t rest or relax.
“I saw him coming and the last give laps were really intense, because I started to lose the rear grip. Thankfully, Yuki was struggling a bit by then too, which saved me.
“I am really happy and really thankful to everyone who was watching and all of my fans. Also, to my team, SMP Racing and the FDA, but the biggest thanks goes to my dad, who was watching me from up there, so I hope that he is happy.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Ticktum will be eying his first F2 win from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race tomorrow at 11.10am (local time) that is 2.40pm IST.
