George Russell cut down Norris’ championship lead to two points by leading his countryman home in Austria.
F2’s first rolling start provided no drama as barely anything happened. Russell kept the lead on Norris, the man on charge in the first laps being Deletraz, who passed Maini on lap 2 and Günther on lap 4. De Vries was also looking to gain places, taking advantage of the fact that Aitken in P4 was slower than the leaders and cause a train of cars to form behind his ART. The Dutchman passed Albon at turn 9, but one lap later he locked at turn 4, perhaps with a puncture, ran deep and had to use the escape route around the gravel trap. He pitted for tyres but retired a few laps afterward.
On lap 6 the Safety Car was called on track for Boschung’s car which had become stranded trackside due to an engine failure. As the pit window had just opened, everyone on super softs pitted for the harder rubber. Chaos arose in the pit lane with possibly unsafe releases for Deletraz and Günther at least. Camara lost some positions having to let cars through, while ART completed a double pit stop perfectly.
Maini led Gelael and Markelov, then came the rest of the drivers in the real battle for the win. Günther passed Deletraz while Markelov fought against Gelael, but had to try three times at the inside of turn 3 before he finally could make the move stick. That paved the way for Russell to attack Gelael, which he did on lap 16. Günther and Deletraz were trying to pass Aitken, with the Briton edging both off track as he defended the inside line at turn 3. Eventually Deletraz passed him at turn 1, both ran wide but Aitken stopped a few metres after the corner with a technical issue. The Safety Car was brought out again.
At the restart, Günther attacked Norris at turn 1. Markelov passed Maini for the lead at turn 4 and a few seconds later at the same spot Merhi further demoted the championship leader. Merhi passed Günther for net second place but Russell was now also ahead of Maini. Deletraz retired in the pits with a technical issue while in net 5th position; Norris overtook Günther, who started his downfall as he ran out of tyres.
Gelael and Maini pitted, but Markelov waited a little more. Meanwhile, Albon and Fuoco were on a charge, going from the bottom of the points-scoring positions to just below the podium in a matter of laps. Günther dropped out of the points, but not after a final overtake on Latifi when Fukuzumi passed the Canadian and left him vulnerable.
Norris caught and passed Merhi after a lengthy battle; the Spaniard also fell victim to Fuoco on the final lap.
Markelov started his charge with two laps to go. In 13th place, he was 4s faster than the cars in front. He started the final lap in 12th, passed Ferrucci, Latifi and Günther on the straight between turns 1 and 2, even putting half a wheel on the grass and thus risking to slide into the back of the Arden. He caught up with Fukuzumi, tricked him into thinking he would have taken the inside line at the final corner, then went wide and with better traction crossed trajectories and blasted past the Japanese in the run to the flag, earning reverse pole for tomorrow.
Race Results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Russell | ART | 40 laps | 25 + 4 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | Carlin | +5.131 | 18 |
| 3 | Antonio Fuoco | Charouz | +9.633 | 15 |
| 4 | Roberto Merhi | MP Motorsport | +11.796 | 12 |
| 5 | Alexander Albon | DAMS | +14.643 | 10 |
| 6 | Sergio Sette Camara | Carlin | +16.900 | 8 |
| 7 | Tadasuke Makino | Russian Time | +18.834 | 6 |
| 8 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | +24.690 | 4 + 2 |
| 9 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Arden | +25.528 | 2 |
| 10 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | +26.585 | 1 |
| 11 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | +27.406 | |
| 12 | Luca Ghiotto | Campos | +29.485 | |
| 13 | Sean Gelael | Prema | +37.135 | |
| 14 | Arjun Maini | Trident | +39.355 | |
| 15* | Maximilian Günther | Arden | +49.153 | |
| Ret | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +8 laps | |
| Ret | Jack Aitken | ART | +21 laps | |
| Ret | Nyck de Vries | Prema | +33 laps | |
| Ret | Ralph Boschung | MP Motorsport | +36 laps | |
| Ret | Roy Nissany | Campos | +37 laps |
*NOTE: Günther received a 20-second time penalty for unsafe release.
Fastest lap
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Fastest lap | Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:17.062 | 38 |
Fastest lap points
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Fastest lap | Lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:17.062 | 38 |
Standings
Drivers’ Standings
| Pos. | Driver | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris | United Kingdom | 122 |
| 2 | George Russell | United Kingdom | 120 |
| 3 | Nyck de Vries | Netherlands | 75 |
| 4 | Alexander Albon | Thailand | 83 |
| 5 | Artem Markelov | Russia | 77 |
| 6 | Sergio Sette Camara | Brazil | 76 |
| 7 | Antonio Fuoco | Italy | 74 |
| 8 | Jack Aitken | United Kingdom | 49 |
| 9 | Luca Ghiotto | Italy | 47 |
| 10 | Louis Deletraz | Switzerland | 44 |
| 11 | Nicholas Latifi | Canada | 33 |
| 12 | Sean Gelael | Indonesia | 29 |
| 13 | Roberto Merhi | Spain | 35 |
| 14 | Arjun Maini | India | 23 |
| 15 | Maximilian Günther | Germany | 20 |
| 16 | Ralph Boschung | Switzerland | 10 |
| 17 | Tadasuke Makino | Japan | 14 |
| 18 | Santino Ferrucci | United States | 5 |
| 19 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Japan | 6 |
| 20 | Roy Nissany | Israel | 0 |
Teams’ Standings
| Pos. | Team | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlin | United Kingdom | 198 |
| 2 | ART | France | 169 |
| 3 | DAMS | France | 116 |
| 4 | Prema | Italy | 104 |
| 5 | Charouz | Czech Republic | 118 |
| 6 | Russian Time | Russia | 91 |
| 7 | Campos | Spain | 47 |
| 8 | MP Motorsport | United Kingdom | 45 |
| 9 | Trident | Italy | 28 |
| 10 | Arden | United Kingdom | 26 |
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