Zhou dominates to claw back ground in title fight

Guanyu Zhou recovered a torrid weekend by taking victory in the FIA Formula 2 feature race at Silverstone to keep title rival Oscar Piastri within reach.

The Alpine academy duo started alongside each other on the front row after Piastri blitzed qualifying on Friday but the Chinese driver got the better launch off the line to lead into turn one.

And a clean pit stop, combined with consistently quick race pace, meant no one could get close to the UNI-Virtuosi car as he claimed a handsome win.

Piastri lost out on second to close the gap at the top of the standings even closer after he pitted a lap later than Carlin’s Dan Ticktum. The Brit, at his home race, got his tyres up to temperature in rapid fashion to ensure he could make the pass on Piastri when he pitted a lap later and he pulled away to earn a spot on the podium.

Piastri was put under pressure late on as Richard Verschoor, on slightly fresher hard tyres, tried to make his way back onto the podium after his sprint race win the day before but he couldn’t make a move stick on the PREMA and settled for fourth.

Robert Shwartzman had similar problems to teammate Piastri as he struggled late on, but he too held off a challenge from behind for fifth after race-long pressure from Felipe Drugovich who came home sixth.

Juri Vips was the best of those on the alternate strategy in seventh but he couldn’t make the progress he would have desired, only passing Théo Pourchaire in the train of cars behind Shwartzman. Pourchaire finished eighth.

Lirim Zendeli and Jehan Daruvala also went for the alternate strategy and they completed the points with the latter scoring two extra points for the fastest lap of the race.