PREMA had a mixed Sunday as Formula 2 concluded with the Sprint Race in Mugello.
The Italian team secured valuable points for the championship as Mick Schumacher strengthened his lead in the drivers’ standings. The German finished fourth after a strong race to help him score good points.
Schumacher said: “P4 is a decent result for us today. I lost a position at the start and getting past Markelov in the early stages of the race took quite a lot of life out of the tyres. That’s why, in the end, I had to focus on holding my position and defending against Zhou, which fortunately worked out. After all, I am really happy with having scored 18 points and taken over the championship lead this weekend.”
Robert Shwartzman was forced to start last due to an electronic issue in the first race but showed an impressive performance to start his fight back. Despite how hard it is to pass at Mugello, the Russian bought home ninth place.
Shwartzman said: “It has been another bad weekend for me. Everything was influenced by yesterday’s issue, which forced us to retire the car in Race 1. We had the potential to do a really good job yesterday. Today, starting from last, I did my best to make as many overtakes as possible. Overall, the pace looked good even though I lost a bit of time with a small mistake at the end. No points, not what we needed, but there’s not much I could have done differently this weekend. Hopefully, we will have three good weekends, but I’m not expecting anything. I just hope this streak of bad luck has ended and to do a really good job at my home Grand Prix which is really important for me. We will work very hard and try to do our best there…”
Both PREMA drivers are still in the battle for the championship with three rounds to go in the Formula 2 championship and the Italian team will be hoping that one of their drivers will take the crown in the last three rounds