2020 Sochi Formula 2 round

The 2020 Sochi Formula 2 round was a pair of motor races involving Formula 2 cars that took place on 26 and 27 September 2020 at the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. The event is the ten round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship and ran in support of the 2020 Russian Grand Prix.

With temperatures hovering at 28 °C on the Black Sea coast the session got underway on Friday afternoon, with Mick Schumacher leading the field out of the pits. The German youth would go on to set the first lap of the session, although it was teammate and title rival Robert Shwartzman who put in the first competitive time, a 1:49.634. Jehan Daruvala then appeared at the top of the times, before being supplanted by Nikita Mazepin as the first set of runs came to a conclusion.

After a cool down lap all 22 drivers went for a second run on their first set of supersoft tyres, with the times at the top coming down again. This time Daruvala found four tenths to return to top spot, with his Carlin teammate Yuki Tsunoda slotting into second ahead of Mazepin. Otherwise it would be marginal gains on the whole for the rest of the field, although debutante Jake Hughes would notably jump to ninth as drivers began heading back to the pits.

Armed with fresh supersofts the field re-emerged with ten minutes to go, with Daruvala again finding a tenth to increase his margin. Tsunoda also improved but could not match the Indian racer's mark, while the two UNI-Virutosis leapt up to third and fourth, Guanyu Zhou ahead of Callum Ilott. With that the field again settled into cool down laps, before once again opting to complete a second run on the same set of supersofts.

This time it was Tsunoda who found the biggest gains, overcoming his one tenth deficit to Daruvala to go fastest with a 1:48.688. Daruvala followed him across the line, although he would harrowingly missout on pole by 0.006s to Tsunoda as the chequered flag fell. Shwartzman then claimed third although he would be shuffled back instantly by Schumacher and Ilott, before Luca Ghiotto and Christian Lundgaard made late runs to also jump the #21 Prema pilot. Regardless, Shwartzman would end the session as the best placed Russian racer in the field, with Nikita Mazepin in tenth and Artem Markelov in twentieth.

Tsunoda duly exchanged pole position for the lead when the lights went out, sprinting away with Mick Schumacher right on his tail. Indeed, an equally strong start from the German youth would see the #20 Prema jet past Jehan Daruvala, with the Indian racer hampered by the dust on the off-side of the grid. Callum Ilott would likewise lose out to Luca Ghiotto and drop to fifth, with Jack Aitken and Robert Shwartzman also moving up to challenge the UNI-Virtuosi through the first corner.

Into the first braking point of the afternoon and Schumacher had a run on Tsunoda into turn two, although the Japanese racer placed his #7 Carlin on the defensive inside line and held the lead. Behind, Ilott recovered from his poor launch to fire his car right around the outside of Ghiotto to reclaim fourth, before a multi-car collision thinned the field behind. Indeed, as Shwartzman disappeared down the escape road after locking up, Jüri Vips tried a lunge and sent several cars scattering across the exit of turn two. The Estonian racer was on the inside of a three car fight into turn two, with Vips and Pedro Piquet running either side of Louis Delétraz. Vips then moved across and into the path of Delétraz as they braked for turn two, resulting in the #1 DAMS getting spun across the nose of the #11 Charouz and into the sister car of Piquet. Piquet was then pushed into the side of Christian Lundgaard, while Dan Ticktum, Felipe Drugovich, Guilherme Samaia and several others took avoiding action.

Vips was left stranded at turn two, while Lundgaard retired his car on the outside of turn three due to damage. Their abandoned cars would trigger a Safety Car, with Roy Nissany and Felipe Drugovich having also retired in the pits due to damage sustained in the collision, having also got tangled in the incident. Piquet and Delétraz would likewise have to pit to have their front wings replaced, and would be a long way off the back of the field when the race resumed at the start of lap three.