Nobuharu Matsushita wins the 2020 F2 Spanish Grand Prix

Nobuharu Matsushita emerged an unlikely winner of the 2020 F2 Spanish Grand Prix.

Despite starting the race in 18th, the Japanese driver claimed victory at the Barcelona circuit as Robert Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou completed the podium.

Starting Grid

Callum Ilott started first for a second successive race ahead of Robert Shwartzman and teammate Guanyu Zhou. Felipe Drugovich joined Zhou on the second row P4.

Shwartzman’s Prema teammate Mick Schumacher lined up in P5 with Yuki Tsunoda alongside him in P6. Jack Aitken and Dan Ticktum started P7 and P8 respectively with Nikita Mazepin and Louis Deletraz rounding off the top ten.

Artem Markelov was in P11 with Jehan Daruvala in P12, Sean Geleal in P13 and Christian Lundgaard in P14, Roy Nissany was P15 and Marino Sato in P16.

Pedro Piquet began in P17, eventual winner Nobuharu Matsushita in P18, Marcus Armstrong was in P19 and Luca Ghiotto in P20 with Giuliano Alesi and Guilherme Samaia on the back-row of the grid qualifying P21 and P22 respectively.

And It’s Lights Out And Away We Go!

37 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix began with the five red lights signalling the start of the race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Robert Shwartzman and Mick Schumacher enjoyed a very good start with Callum Ilott down to second after being swallowed by Shwartzman. Marcus Armstrong was off the track at turn four and retiring from the race after he got stuck in the gravel trap, the safety car released after the incident.

The Safety Car period ended at the start of lap three, with Shwartzman in the lead ahead of Ilott, Schumacher, Zhou and Drugovich rounding off the top five.

Luca Ghiotto made his way past the Trident car of Roy Nisaany and into P15. Guilherme Samaia then made his way past Marino Sato to move up to P20.

After lap five, Shwartzman was first with Ilott and Schumacher in second and third respectively. Zhou slipped down to fourth with Drugovich also down a position in fifth. Aitken moved up one in sixth, Tsunoda down to seventh, Ticktum in eighth, Mazepin in ninth and Piquet in tenth.

Yuki Tsunoda promoted himself into sixth and back past Aitken after a great moved past the Campos Racing driver into turn one.

Callum Ilott moved past Robert Shwatzman and into the lead of the race on lap eight after the use of DRS into turn one.

Nikita Mazepin was able to overtake the DAMS driver of Dan Ticktum and into sixth place.

Ilott peeled into the pits on lap ten to cover off the undercut strategy from Robert Shwartzman and the Brit got out ahead of the Prema driver.

The bottom half of the drivers made their stops onto the hard tyres with the top seven drivers on the alternate strategy and going long on the hard tyres.

Ilott and Shwartzman made their way past Alesi and Sato with the two set of drivers on two very different strategies.

At the half-way point of the F2 Feature Race, Schumacher led the away from Mazepin and Ticktum in third with these drivers yet to stop. Markelov was fourth, Matsushita in fifth, Ilott in sixth, Shwartzman in seventh, Drugovich in eighth, Sato in ninth and Zhou rounded off the top ten.

Ilott moved past Markelov and into fourth place of the race with the Uni-Virtuosi driver only seven seconds behind race leader Mick Schumacher, who was yet to stop.

Schumacher went into the pits as he struggled with his tyres with Ilott moving past Mazepin and into the lead of the race.

Drugovich got past Shwartzman into turn five on lap 24 of the 37 lap race and into a net second place.

A full Safety Car was deployed after Giuliano Alesi was turned round by Sean Geleal and forced out of the race on lap 25. Ilott also went into the pit-lane and got himself onto fresher tyres and gave up the lead and second place to Drugovich and Tsunoda.

With ten laps to go, Tsunoda was in the lead with Ilott and Matsushita in second and third. Mazepin in fourth, Shwartzman in fifth, Aitken in sixth, Schumacher in seventh, Zhou in eighth, Drugovich in ninth and Daruvala rounded off the top ten.

After the Safety Car pulled into the pits, Schumacher and Zhou were able to get past Jack Aitken and into sixth and seventh.

Ilott got a tank-slapper from Matsushita and was overtaken by Shwartzman with Matsushita into second place.

The third Safety Car was released after Roy Nissany hit the barrier out of turn eight with Matsushita in the lead after overtaking Tsunoda.

It turned from bad to worse for Ilott, as he tried to move himself up to third place, Mazepin and Zhou made their way past the Brit and Tsunoda as the Japanese driver managed to stay ahead of Ilott in the end.