Mugello F2: Lundgaard dominates sprint race, Vips on podium

Lundgaard was leading Saturday’s feature race from pole position before two late safety car periods produced chaotic scenes that resulted in the ART Grand Prix driver been shuffled down to sixth place.  

He immediately bounced back at the start of the reverse-grid race on Sunday by charging past Red Bull junior Juri Vips and reverse-grid polesitter Artem Markelov to vault from third on the grid into the race lead.  

As Markelov held up the chasing pack, Lundgaard sprinted clear out front and established an early race advantage that he’d maintain all the way to the chequered flag.  

It caps off a successful day for Renault juniors after Lundgaard’s Renault stablemate Oscar Piastri clinched the FIA Formula 3 title in the last race of the season earlier on Sunday.  

Haas Formula 1 reserve driver Louis Deletraz made his way from sixth on the grid to third place on the opening lap and passed Markelov around the outside of the first corner on the sixth lap to move into second place.  

Charouz’s Deletraz was unable to make an impression on Lundgaard’s lead but did secure his second podium of the weekend – the first time he’s scored a double-podium in his four years in the series.  

DAMS’ Vips completed the podium positions to earn his maiden F2 podium in only his third weekend deputising for the injured Sean Gelael.  

Mick Schumacher had a muted run to fourth place to extend his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship, while Hitech GP pair Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto came to blows behind him.  

Mazepin, the winner of yesterday’s feature race, locked up at Turn 1 whilst defending from Ghiotto and slid into his teammate. 

A virtual safety car was required to recover Ghiotto’s stricken car while Mazepin pitted from fifth place just as the race restarted for repairs and his misery was compounded when he was slapped with a 10-second penalty.  

Renault junior Guanyu Zhou charged from 20th on the grid to finish in fifth place, just behind his ex-Formula 3 teammate Schumacher.  

Zhou’s UNI-Virtuosi teammate Callum Ilott, who lost the points lead to Schumacher on Saturday, finished in sixth place from 12th on the grid.  

Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala pipped reigning Euroformula Open champion Marino Sato to seventh place by just 0.037 seconds, but eighth place still marks Sato’s first points finish in F2.  

Red Bull and Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda lost a likely points finish after breaking his front wing following contact with MP Motorsport’s Felipe Drugovich at the Luco left-hander.  

DAMS’ Dan Ticktum, who made contact with Tsunoda in the feature race, was forced to pit for repairs on the opening lap after tangling with Prema’s Robert Shwartzman.  

Shwartzman’s charge from the back of the grid was curtailed by a trip through the gravel whilst fighting for a place just outside the points with fellow Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong (ART).   

Mugello F2 - Sprint race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time
1	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix
2	11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	14.300
3	1	Jüri Vips	DAMS	14.800
4	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	18.000
5	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	18.300
6	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	24.400
7	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	26.200
8	23	Marino Sato	Trident	26.300
9	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	31.400
10	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	32.900
11	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	34.900
12	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	35.000
13	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	35.200
14	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	36.900
15	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	39.000
16	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	48.400
17	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	48.400
18	24	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	50.700
19	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	1'09.600
20	16	Artem Markelov	HWA AG	1'21.800
	25	Luca Ghiotto	HitechGP	9 laps
	17	Giuliano Alesi	HWA AG	9 laps
View full results