Weltnachrichten – AU – Sakhir F2: Tsunoda on pole, disaster for Schumacher

To win the championship, Tsunoda, like the partner in the front row, Nikita Mazepin, has to win both races on the Bahrain outside track with Schumacher failed on goal and Callum Ilott ended up in the lower top 10 Positions.

With such a short layout, the usual F2 qualification protocol for push lap, cooldown time and push lap for each of the two Pirelli tire sets has been extended to three push laps with decay times in between.

Mazepin had his Hitech Grand Prix machine at the top of the times after the second hot laps of Pirellis’ first set, but Tsunoda beat that to move 0 on his third flyer. 122 seconds ahead.

The Prema Racing couple Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman left the race late with their first sets of tires and hit the track when the rest of the 20-car field returned to the pits.

But this trick was slowed down slightly when HWA Racelab sent his pair out early in the second sets, which meant that Schumacher was brought to his knees.

When the second runs began, Ilott was in eighth place and Schumacher in 17th. Place, but like most of the field they would be hindered by two red flags, one of which was triggered by a Schumacher collision.

Shwartzman had just moved up to fourth place in the first push laps of the second set of tires when Luca Ghiotto spun in Turn 2, came to rest in the gravel on the inside of Turn 3 and caused the first stop.

With four minutes on the clock, most drivers theoretically had time to complete two push laps, separated by a decay lap.

Schumacher was caught behind Marino Sato at the end of his first push lap and bizarrely attempted to start a second flight in a row, despite the majority of the field spinning around the congested circuit, preparing for their final efforts.

He slowed Sato out in Turn 1, endangering his line, but pushed himself further and even made a risky jump on Marcus Armstrong in Turn 6.

Nevertheless, the desperate Schumacher pushed on and overtook Roy Nissany on the straight that was approaching the last corner.

Then he moved to the left to claim his line for the corner but had not cleared Nissany and as a result collided with the Trident car, which was launched in a spectacular crash over Schumacher’s rear wing.

The session was broken off again, this time for good, and Schumacher is being investigated into the incident.

Behind the pair of Tsunoda and Mazepin from the front row, Jehan Daruvala managed to finish two Carlin-led Red Bull Juniors in the top three, and he will start alongside Shwartzman, who was left by the failure to take pole the title fight has slipped.

Felipe Drugovich recovered from an off on his first hot lap and finished fifth for MP Motorsport from Renault F1 Junior Christian Lundgaard from the ART Grand Prix.

Artem Markelov used HWA’s early second runs to jump to seventh place, and he’ll share fourth row with DAMS-led Williams protégé Dan Ticktum.

FIA Formula 2 Championship, Formula Racing, Mick Schumacher, Bahrain International Circuit, Formula 2, Formula 1, Roy Nissany, Callum Ilott, Carlin Motorsport