Nikita Mazepin time penalty gifts Yuki Tsunoda F2 Belgian Grand Prix victory

Nikita Mazepin’s five-second penalty handed Yuki Tsunoda the win at the 2020 F2 Feature Race.

It meant Mazepin finished second, while Mick Schumacher ended up third.

Starting Grid

Tsunoda started first with Mazepin inside the top three for the first time this season – the Russian driver started in second. Nobuharu Matsushita, race winner in Spain two weeks ago, rounded out the top three.

Championship contender Robert Shwartzman qualified fourth with Felipe Drugovich in fifth. Guanyu Zhou was the only Uni-Virtuosi inside the top ten, in sixth, with Mick Schumacher in seventh. Louis Deletraz in eighth, Jahun Daruvala in ninth and Luca Ghiotto rounded off the top ten.

Pedro Piquet was P11 with Callum Ilott’s worst qualifying of the season only securing the Championship leader P12. Marcus Armstrong qualified P13 with Dan Ticktum able to get his DAMS car into P14 after missing the practice session.

The Trident pair of Roy Nissany and Marino Sato qualified P15 and P16. Jack Aitken started in his worst grid position in P17 and Christian Lundgaard qualified P18.

The BWT HWA Racelab pairing of Artem Markelov and Giuliano Alesi qualified P19 and P20. Juri Vips and Guilherme Samaia started from the back of the grid.

A minute’s silence proceeded ahead of the Feature Race in name of Anthoine Hubert that the motorsport community lost one year on from his tragic crash at Spa-Francorchamps.

And It’s Lights Out And Away We Go!

Tsunoda had a very good getaway as Matsushita claimed second after he overtook Mazpin early on going up Eau Rouge.

No mistakes from the Carlin driver as Schwartzman, Drugovich and Zhou all fell down the standings by two places early on.

Drugovich returned to seventh place, Zhou got pushed back even further down the order. A damaged front wing meant Daruvala was forced to pit on lap two, forcing him down to 21st from ninth.

Tsunoda extended his lead on the pack to two seconds. Mazepin overtook Matsushita, returning to second place.

Schumacher, Deletraz and Shwartzman all got past Matsushita all in the space of one sector with the MP Motorsport’s driver’s tyres looking to have fallen away.

Matsushita’s day gets worse as the two MP Motorsport’s tangled together with Matsushita out of the race and Drugovich with a damaged front wing.

The collision meant the virtual safety car was released, but both drivers escaped without any personal damage.

Zhou rose to fifth after passing Shwartzman. Ilott tried to replicate his teammate’s rise up the standings, but he was unable to get past Piquet.

Zhou then eased past Deletraz with the Renault Academy driver nine seconds behind the race leader which was Tsunoda.

Ticktum swooped past Ilott down the hill and into eighth place after a DRS pass from the DAMS driver.

Mazepin and Schumacher peeled into the pits to get the soft tyres off as both drivers were sent back out on the track with the medium tyre on.

The Championship leader moved further down the order with Nissany able to get past Ilott which dropped the Brit down to eighth.

A slow stop by Tsunoda’s pit-crew saw the net lead taken away from him as Mazepin got passed the Carlin driver after a good out-lap.

At the half-way point of the race, Zhou was in the lead with Piquet in second and Ticktum in third. Nissany carried his Trident car in fourth with Ilott in fifth. Vips on his debut drove in sixth, Armstrong in seventh, Aitken in eighth, Lundgaard in ninth and Alesi in tenth.

Most of the medium tyre runners changed onto the soft tyres as they exited the pit-lane and back onto the track.

The race leader, Zhou pitted in for the soft tyres as he replaced his used medium tyres.

Mazepin took over the lead with Tsunoda, Schumacher, Deletraz and Shwartzman getting past the Uni-Virtuosi driver.

With five laps left in the race, Mazepin led away from Tsunoda with Schumacher in third. Deletraz in fourth, Shwartzman in fifth, Ticktum in sixth. Ghiotto in seventh, Zhou in eighth, Ilott in ninth and Piquet rounded off the top ten.

A superb move from Zhou unpicked Ghiotto around the outside into the Bus-Stop chicane with the Uni-Virtuosi driver up into seventh place.

Mazepin handled relentless pressure from Tsunoda – the Russian parked his Hitech car as wide as possible as a potential penalty loomed over Mazepin.

Tsunoda looked to move past Mazepin after the DRS Zone but the Hitech driver didn’t give his opponent any room.

A five-second time penalty saw Mazepin denied the victory, with maximum points instead falling to Tsunoda with Mazepin in second and Schumacher in third.