F2 Britain: Zhou Takes Feature Race Victory

Grid Talk Reporter 12:48 18/07/2021

Guanyu Zhou reclaimed some vital ground in the Championship battle with his third win of the season, triumphing over Carlin’s Dan Ticktum and PREMA Racing’s Oscar Piastri in the Silverstone Feature Race. 

Starting from second, Zhou got the jump on polesitter Piastri when the lights went out and went on to control the race, surviving a failed attempt at the undercut from Piastri, which cost the Championship leader second place at the flag. Théo Pourchaire suffered a difficult opening stint, losing places to Shwartzman and Felipe Drugovich off the line. Shwartzman wasn’t enjoying the medium tyre, though, asking his team for a pitstop at the first opportunity. Ticktum joined the Russian in ditching the options straight away, with the softer tyres suffering in the blistering heat.

Piastri tried the undercut on Zhou, pitting a lap later from P2, but ended up getting jumped by Ticktum on warmer tyres. Zhou dove in on the following tour and returned directly in front of the Carlin, but with a handy 2.9s buffer. Verschoor was the final driver to change his mediums, handing Jüri Vips the lead on an alternate strategy, as Zhou put Marino Sato between himself and Ticktum.

With 10 laps to go, Vips decided it was time for fresh rubber and returned in 11th on the medium. Zhou reclaimed the lead on Lap 24 when Jehan Daruvala finally headed into the pitlane from P1. Following the Virtuosi was Ticktum, while Oscar Piastri was struggling down in fourth, stuck behind Matteo Nannini on the hard tyre. The Campos driver finally pitted, but Piastri had already lost significant time and was 14s behind the front two. He also had Verschoor hounding the back of him from fourth. Although the MP Motorsport man was struggling to find a way through, and the duo came within an inch of kissing tyres. After narrowly avoiding contact, the battle waned, and they crossed the line in P3 and P4.

Back at the front, Ticktum ran out of road in his chase of Zhou and settled for second at the line, 4s behind the Virtuosi racer. Shwartzman, Drugovich and Vips took fifth, sixth and seventh, with Pourchaire claiming P8. Lirim Zendeli and Daruvala took the final two points’ places.