PREMA Racing, Shwartzman back to victory in Bahrain

Robert Shwartzman delivered a phenomenal run today at Bahrain International Circuit, posting his fourth win of the year, more than anyone else in the field, to take race 2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship weekend. The 21-year-old Russian started from pole and never really looked back, handing PREMA Racing win number 6 and a hefty boost in terms of the team championship. Despite having his initial advantage wiped away by a safety-car situation, Shwartzman set up a blistering pace and progressively increased his margin all the way to the finish.

Mick Schumacher had a good start and then kept his nose clean in the hectic initial phases of the race. The series leader struggled in the final part of the race after suffering tyre damage in a lock-up and had to settle for P7 which further stretches his championship position with the incidents in which his main title contenders were involved.

The championship is now heading into the final round of 2020, scheduled on the Bahrain outer circuit next weekend. 

“Quite a turbulent race today. The start wasn‘t actually impressive, and even afterwards I could never really attack but had to constantly manage my tyres. Obviously it was even worse after the big lock-up that I had, so all I could do is drive home as safe as I could. The positive aspect to take away is that I am still in the lead so I am very much  looking forward to the last race weekend of the season.”

Qualifying: P10

Race 1: P4

Race 2: P7

Fastest Lap: 1:42.283

Fastest Lap: 1:47.001

Fastest Lap: 1:47.179

“I’m very happy with today’s result because we improved the car from yesterday and I added some improvements in terms of my driving as well. I want to thank the team because we didn’t really start on the right foot this weekend and we eventually did a good job in the end. Finally, we managed to do everything right. It was basically no mistakes apart from few lock-ups in turn 10, but it’s really… “loosey-goosey” in that corner and you can get away with that. The start was good, not incredible but good enough to keep P1. I defended well and managed to open up a good gap pushing quite hard. At the end of the safety-car situation, I managed to do a good restart and I kept first place without having to defend in turn 1. In the end, I saw I had Mazepin behind on a similar pace to mine and I just did my job, keeping it as clean as possible and delivering at the end. “

Qualifying: P14

Race 1: P8

Race 2: P1

Fastest Lap: 1:42.654

Fastest Lap: 1:46.595

Fastest Lap: 1:46.545