F2 Austria: Sette Camara wins sprint, Schumacher charge falls short

MP Motorsport driver Jordan King managed to hold the lead from pole on a frenetic opening lap, but in a melee at Turn 4, Guan Yu Zhou was pushed wide and Nyck de Vries moved up to third behind Carlin's Louis Deletraz.

De Vries was the clear form-driver in the early stages and took the lead on lap 3 of 28, but one lap later his pit limiter activated at the exit of Turn 4 and he dropped to fifth.

That triggered a four-wide bid for the lead on the run down the hill to Turn 4 a lap later, where Sette Camara emerged as the leader ahead of Deletraz, Zhou and Luca Ghiotto.

That four remained in order until a bizarre crash for Deletraz at Turn 1 on lap 20 where his rear snapped loose and he heavily hit the outside wall. He reported a brake issue on his team radio.

That induced a long safety car period, but the race restarted on lap 23 and Sette Camara immediately pulled 1.5 seconds on Ghiotto, which was key to the win as he held on to stay ahead of the resurgent Uni-Virtuosi Racing driver in the closing laps.

Ghiotto had gone two weekends without points but corrected that in Austria, as he also finished second in the feature race on Saturday.

His team-mate Zhou had a poor restart and immediately lost out to de Vries, while Schumacher continued his sensation rise.

The Ferrari junior had driven through the order after a technical issue confined him to a pitlane start in the feature race.

Schumacher past Zhou for fourth and then hassled de Vries for the final podium spot over the last two laps, but de Vries defended excellently to hold and seal third.

Schumacher's fourth place ended a run of seven races in which he had not scored points in his maiden F2 season.

Zhou fell further down the order in the closing stages and eventually finished eighth. Feature race winner Nobuharu Matsushita was in the gravel at Turn 4 on the opening lap, but he fought back brilliantly to take fifth ahead of Nicholas Latifi.

Williams junior Latifi was hit from the behind by his DAMS team-mate Sette Camara in the feature race, but he recovered well in the sprint event and passed King and Zhou in the closing stages, with King ending up seventh.

Sauber Junior Team drivers Callum Ilott and Juan Manuel Correa rounded out the top 10.

After the race, Renault juniors Anthoine Hubert and Jack Aitken were given five second penalties for separate cases of contact with each other. Hubert's demoted him from 16th to 17th, while Aitken remained 18th and last.

Results - 28 laps

Drivers' standings