Silverstone F2: Gunther leads Russell, Norris for maiden win

Maximilian Gunther scored his first victory in the Formula 2 sprint race at Silverstone as title rivals George Russell and Lando Norris charged to second and third.

Gunther’s lead over Nyck de Vries was less than a second for most of the race but the gap increased to over two seconds after a brief virtual safety car stint.

The gap further increased when Russell made the last move of his impressive charge to finish second.

The Mercedes junior had three laps to catch Gunther, but he could only close the gap to 0.5s as Gunther held on to victory.

Russell had started the race seventh but was able to make moves on Luca Ghiotto, Charouz duo Antonio Fuoco and Louis Deletraz at Brooklands and Artem Markelov in the Arena section.

He was joined by the also charging Norris on the podium – the McLaren junior struggled to get past Alexander Albon initially, but was then able to dispatch Ghiotto and escape contact with Fuoco unscathed.

He was trying to move past Fuoco on the outside of Brooklands, but the Ferrari junior forced him off-track and contact between the duo sent the Italian into the wall.

Norris then passed Deletraz, before getting ahead of the battling duo of Markelov and De Vries in a single move through Vale and Club.

Markelov took fourth ahead of Deletraz and Ghiotto as De Vries dropped down to seventh despite spending 17 of the 21 laps in second place.

Saturday winner Albon had to settle for one point in eighth as MP duo Ralph Boschung and Roberto Merhi completed the top 10.

Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara lost his front wing on the opening lap and finished last, while Gunther’s Arden teammate Nirei Fukuzumi was unable to start the race due to a radiator failure.

Race 2 results









































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