Tsunoda battles to impressive win in F2 Feature Race

Yuki Tsunoda battled back from a disappointing start to take an impressive victory today in the Formula 2 Feature Race, held as part of this weekend’s F1 Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, the drivers’ title fight has been extended to the final event of the 2020 season as current leader Mick Schumacher maintained his lead on the standings at 14 points from chief rival Callum Ilott.

Prema Racing, on the other hand, which features Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman, clinched this season’s teams’ championship.

Tsunoda started the 48-lap Feature in pole position but immediately lost two places at the start. He headed into the first turn of lap one behind Nikita Mazepin of Hitech Grand Prix and Shwartzman.

But the Carlin ace was able to make a late charge for the victory and regained first place on lap 44 amidst a hotly contested battle amongst the leaders. He held on until the end to take the chequered flag in 52mins 59.396secs.

Guanyu Zhou (+5.613s) of Uni-Virtuosi claimed second place despite a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, while Mazepin (+6.280s) had to settle for third. He finished ahead of Felipe Drugovich, Shwartzman and Ilott.

Schumacher had a brilliant race to finish seventh after starting all the way from the back of the grid in 18th. He also set the fastest lap of 1:04.087, earning him an extra two points on the championship standings.

The drivers’ title battle now goes down to the wire and will be decided tomorrow in the weekend’s Sprint Race. Prema won their temas’ title after improving to 382 points, followed by Uni-Virtuosi with 342.5.

With today’s results, Jehan Daruvala of Carlin will start from pole position, following the reverse grid rule of F2. The season-ending event will be held over 34 laps and it is scheduled for a 3.20pm start.