Mick Schumacher wins and continues to title

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Mick Schumacher has secured victory in the Formula 2 main race in Sochi, thereby further extending the lead in the overall standings. The Prema driver won in Russia ahead of Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin) and his main rival Callum Ilott (Virtuosi), who lost ten points to the German.

“We can be very happy with first place,” said the German after his victory. “We also had the speed for a good performance in qualifying. I’m very happy that we were able to turn that into a race win. But I would have been happy with second place as long as I was ahead of Callum.”

Schumacher had already secured second place for Carlins Jehan Daruvala early on and then drove behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull Junior appeared to have the race under control, but struggled with the harder tires in the second half of the race.

The maneuvers against Tsunoda are worth watching

On lap 19 of 28, Schumacher was suddenly behind Tsunoda and overtook the Japanese with a remarkable maneuver at Turn 2. A little later, Ilott followed suit, following Schumacher like a shadow for the rest of career. “Mick was perfect today,” Tsunoda said after the race.

But Ilott should also have tire problems and Tsunoda passed him again on the last lap. Luca Ghiotto (Hitech) nearly outscored the Briton, but Ilott was able to save himself at the finish line by a few hundredths of a second as third.

“I pushed like crazy to keep up with Mick,” explained the Briton after the race. “I pushed the rear tires too hard. I thought it would hold, but I didn’t.”

No points for Lundgaard and Schwarzman

The other positions in the top 10 were Jehan Daruvala (5th / Carlin), Jack Aitken (6th / Campos), Nikita Masepin (7th / Hitech), Guanyu Zhou (8th / Virtuosi), Marcus Armstrong (9th). / ART) and Daniel Ticktum (10./DAMS). Zhou is in pole position in tomorrow’s sprint race.

For Mick Schumacher, the result was a big step towards the title, because apart from Tsunoda and Ilott, all the other contenders for the title gave up. Schumacher’s teammate Robert Schwarzman had a poor race at home. After a poor pit stop, he fell back to eleventh position in the second half of the race and thus ran out of points.

Christian Lundgaard (ART) made it even worse. The Dane, third overall before the race, suffered a starting accident with Jüri Vips (DAMS), Pedro Piquet and Louis Deletraz (both Charouz) and retired. So he has a bad starting position for Sunday’s sprint.

Mick: “How to win championships”

Mick Schumacher, unmistakably celebrated by Russian fans after the race, now has 186 points on his account. With five races still to go, that’s an 18-point lead over Ilott (168 points). They are followed by Lundgaard and Tsunoda with 145 points each and Schwarzman with 140 points.

The German has always finished in the top 5 in the last eight races and has been on the podium six times. “Hard work with the team pays off,” he says beaming. “We can be consistently fast on all tracks. That’s very good and that’s how you win championships in the end.”