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Australia

Silverstone F2: Albon wins after Russell pit drama

Alexander Albon was victorious in the Silverstone Formula 2 feature race as early leader George Russell suffered a slow pitstop and a penalty for speeding in the pits.

Podium: race winner Alexander Albon, DAMS, second place George Russell, ART Grand Prix, third place Antonio Fuoco, Charouz Racing System

Podium: race winner Alexander Albon, DAMS, second place George Russell, ART Grand Prix, third place Antonio Fuoco, Charouz Racing System

FIA Formula 2

Russell led from pole after the rolling start and consistently pulled away from Albon in the first few laps.

With everyone except Tadasuke Makino and Ralph Boschung starting on softs, 17 drivers pitted within three laps in the early stages.

Russell and Albon were the first ones to do so and the duo swapped positions in the pits due to a sluggish stop from the ART crew.

Russell's chances of victory shrank when he, as well as teammate Jack Aitken, received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

The gap between Albon and Russell remained close for the rest of the race as both drivers found their way past Boschung, who had yet to pit, and finished first and second.

They were separated by 4.7s at the line, which then grew to 9.7s after Russell's penalty was applied.

Antonio Fuoco reported a lack of power after the start but the Charouz driver spent the whole race in third, the Italian recording his sixth consecutive top-four finish.

He was attacked by Sergio Sette Camara in the late stages only for the Brazilian's Carlin machine to start blowing smoke, forcing him to retire.

Louis Deletraz (Charouz) had to defend from a train of cars after the pitstops but he only let Sette Camara and Luca Ghiotto (Campos) through.

Ghiotto suddenly had Deletraz and Artem Markelov (Russian Time) all over him on the final lap, with the former demoting him to fifth.

Nyck de Vries (Prema), who lost out to Markelov on a VSC restart, settled for seventh.

Maximilian Gunther (Arden) took reverse-grid pole for Sunday's sprint race in eighth with Aitken and Tadasuke Makino (Russian Time) finishing ninth and 10th.

However, Aitken, who had a second penalty for a VSC infringement, was only classified 13th with Makino dropping to 12th after he received the same sanction.

That promoted Boschung and Lando Norris (Carlin) into the top 10.

Arjun Maini and Norris were running sixth and seventh before the stops but both drivers lost out massively in the pits, dropping to the back of the field.

Both were then involved in incidents later on with Norris making contact with Prema's Sean Gelael, who spun out.

That resulted in the second short VSC stint in the race, the first one caused by Arden driver Nirei Fukuzumi stopping on track.

Maini meanwhile was forced off-track by his Trident teammate Santino Ferrucci, for which the American was given a five-second penalty.

Race results

ClaDriverTeamLapsTimeGap
1 thailand Alexander Albon  france DAMS 29 52'04.519  
2 united_kingdom George Russell  france ART Grand Prix 29 52'14.302 9.783
3 italy Antonio Fuoco  czech_republic Charouz Racing System 29 52'23.026 18.507
4 switzerland Louis Deletraz  czech_republic Charouz Racing System 29 52'31.208 26.689
5 italy Luca Ghiotto  spain Campos Racing 29 52'31.535 27.016
6 russia Artem Markelov  russia RUSSIAN TIME 29 52'31.626 27.107
7 netherlands Nyck de Vries  italy Prema Powerteam 29 52'32.553 28.034
8 germany Maximilian Gunther  united_kingdom Arden International 29 52'38.540 34.021
9 switzerland Ralph Boschung  netherlands MP Motorsport 29 52'41.746 37.227
10 united_kingdom Lando Norris  united_kingdom Carlin 29 52'44.139 39.620
11 spain Roberto Merhi  netherlands MP Motorsport 29 52'44.490 39.971
12 japan Tadasuke Makino  russia RUSSIAN TIME 29 52'44.651 40.132
13 united_kingdom Jack Aitken  france ART Grand Prix 29 52'47.449 42.930
14 india Arjun Maini  italy Trident 29 52'59.374 54.855
15 israel Roy Nissany  spain Campos Racing 29 53'02.583 58.064
16 united_states Santino Ferrucci  italy Trident 29 53'03.913 59.394
17 canada Nicholas Latifi  france DAMS 29 53'04.283 59.764
  brazil Sergio Sette Camara  united_kingdom Carlin 23 41'57.324 6 laps
  indonesia Sean Gelael  italy Prema Powerteam 20 36'40.522 9 laps
  japan Nirei Fukuzumi  united_kingdom Arden International 13 24'02.542 16 laps

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