Sport Barcelona F2: Ilott takes third pole position of the season

© LAT Images Ilott takes Barcelona F2 pole position

Ferrari junior Callum Ilott strengthened his position at the head of the Formula 2 drivers' standings with his third pole position of the 2020 season at Barcelona.

llott was second-fastest in the opening runs of the 45-minute session, falling just 0.025s shy of the early benchmark set by Prema's Robert Shwartzman.

The British driver was shuffled down to third by UNI-Virtuosi team-mate Guanyu Zhou, who took advantage of an empty track after the opening runs to go second-fastest with a time just 0.014s shy of Shwartzman.

Silverstone F2: Ticktum survives late Lundgaard charge for victory

Dan Ticktum scored his first FIA Formula 2 victory in a thrilling Silverstone sprint race, surviving a late charge from Christian Lundgaard on fresh tyres .DAMS driver Ticktum led every lap from reverse-grid pole, but a late safety car period threatened his victory as it allowed Lundgaard and others the chance to change tyres a little cost and try and regain the time loss in a three-lap dash to the finish.The plan came close to succeeding for Lundgaard, who fell just under four tenths of a second shy of victory but recovered to the position he was in when he pitted.

Ilott decided to begin his second run early, and managed to pull a huge gap on the rest of the field with a lap of 1m28.381s to go nearly half a second clear.

Shwartzman couldn't respond on his own second run and fell 0.183s short of a maiden pole, albeit securing his first F2 front-row start to continue his impressive start to his rookie F2 campaign thanks to feature race wins at the second Red Bull Ring round and Hungaroring round.

Zhou looked as if he would threaten his team-mate's provisional pole as he again had the track almost to himself for his final flyer, going fastest of all in the first sector, but the Renault junior lost ground later in the lap and came up 0.220s shy of Ilott meaning he slotted into third place ahead of tomorrow's feature race.

Silverstone F2: Tsunoda handed sprint win after Prema's drivers clash

A collision between Prema's Ferrari juniors Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman handed Red Bull Honda protege Yuki Tsunoda victory in the second Formula 2 sprint race at Silverstone .With just three laps to go, reverse-grid front row starters Shwartzman and Schumacher diced for the race lead, having run in formation for the previous 17 laps.Schumacher had a look to the inside of Shwartzman at Village but was forced to wait until the Wellington Straight to make his move.

© LAT Images Ilott takes Barcelona F2 pole position

Joining Zhou on the second row for Saturday's opening race will be MP Motorsport driver Felipe Drugovich, while Mick Schumacher (Prema) and Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin) will make up row three.

Jack Aitken was seventh for Campos, ahead of practice pacesetter Dan Ticktum (DAMS), Nikita Mazepin (Hitech) and Louis Deletraz (Charouz).

ART Grand Prix's difficult weekend continued with Christian Lundgaard, who is currently second in the drivers' standings and just two points ahead of Shwartzman, qualifying down in 14th with team-mate Marcus Armstong further back in 19th.

It means Lundgaard, who goes into the Barcelona feature race facing a deficit of 23 points to championship leader Ilott.

Barcelona F2 starting grid

Video: "F1 preview: A lap of the Spanish Grand Prix" (The Independent)

Barcelona F2: Matsushita takes surprise F2 win from 18th on the grid

Nobuharu Matsushita pulled off a strategy masterclass in the FIA Formula 2 feature race at the Barcelona circuit to score an unlikely victory after starting only 18th .The Japanese driver bolted for a second set of soft tyres during a safety car period to climb 14 places before then passing late leader Yuki Tsunoda and hot favourite Callum Ilott.Another late safety car incident left only one lap of green flag racing, but MP Motorsport driver Matsushita pulled away strongly to bag his fifth series triumph by 1.6s over Robert Shwartzman.