Mick Schumacher beats Yuki Tsunoda in Sochi F2 opener

FIA Formula 2 championship leader Mick Schumacher defeated Yuki Tsunoda as he picked up a second victory of the 2020 season in the Sochi feature race.

Schumacher made a trademark fast-start to immediately jump Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala off the line and move up to second on the run to Turn 2.

The Ferrari Driver Academy member sat behind polesitter Yuki Tsunoda in the opening stint but caught the Carlin driver in traffic following the pit stop window, before pulling off a sensational, race-winning pass at Turn 2.

Prema’s Schumacher initially took the outside line but switched back to sweep around the outside of Tsunoda at the first major braking zone to snatch the lead of the race.

Tsunoda was quickly picked off by Ilott a handful of corners later as the UNI-Virtuosi racer surged into second place to set about chasing down his chief title rival.

Despite a phase of struggling with his tyre life, Tsunoda came back at Ilott and pulled off a brilliant around-the-outside pass at Turn 3 as the Red Bull and Honda protege reclaimed second place.

Ilott struggled for grip on his ageing tyres and came under pressure from the late-charging Luca Ghiotto, who he fended off by just 0.025s in a drag-race to the line to hold onto the final spot on the podium.

Hitech Grand Prix’s Ghiotto was left to settle with fourth, ahead of the front-row starting Daruvala and Jack Aitken, who took sixth running on the alternative strategy for Campos.

Seventh-place went the way of Nikita Mazepin, who beat Guanyu Zhou and Marcus Armstrong to seventh place, while DAMS driver Dan Ticktum soared past Robert Shwartzman late on to claim the final point on offer in 10th.

The result sees Schumacher enjoy a 10-point points swing as the German extended his advantage over Ilott in the championship to 18 points.

Full FIA F2 feature race results in Sochi.