Ilott takes F2 championship lead after dominant Silverstone win

Callum Ilott converted pole position into a dominant FIA Formula 2 feature race victory at Silverstone to take the lead of the drivers’ championship.

The Ferrari-backed driver was in a league of his own at Silverstone, maintaining the lead on Lap 1 over the rest of the field and stayed there until the chequered flag.

Ilott is now the first repeat winner of 2020 and leads the championship ahead of Christian Lundgaard, who moves into second ahead of former leader Robert Shwartzman. 

The Dane joined Illot on the podium in second, finishing 8.5s off the lead.

Lundgaard had a sluggish start, dropping behind Dan Ticktum and Jack Aitken on Lap 1, re-overtaking Aitken around the outside of the Loop.

ART stopped Lundgaard on Lap 7, a lap earlier than eventual winner Illot but lost out over the pit stops and was unable to challenge for the victory from that point onwards.

Jack Aitken ensured it was two Brits on the podium as the Williams reserve driver picked up his first podium of the season for Campos.

Nikita Mazepin was the highest driver to have opted for the alternative hard to soft tyre strategy - with the top three finishers all starting on softs and then moving onto the hard.

Mazepin pulled off some great moves throughout the race, the first on Mick Schumacher into Stowe having been pushed onto the grass and then on Louis Deletraz for fourth into Brooklands on the final lap.

Deletraz narrowly edged out Yuki Tsunoda for sixth, with the two Prema cars of Schumacher and Shwartzman - also on the reverse strategy - securing seventh and eighth place.

This means it will be a Prema front-row lock-out for Sunday's sprint race.

Guanyu Zhou and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the top ten.

It was a difficult day for Ticktum, who was running as high as second in the first stint - eventually finishing down in 15th.

The British driver plummeted as the race progressed and was visibly frustrated over team radio when overtaking Artem Markelov: “If he pulls that off again, I'm going to crash into him!”

Sunday's sprint race is set to get underway at 1005 local time.