Otherwise it would be marginal gains on the whole for the rest of the field, although debutante Jake Hughes would notably jump to ninth as drivers began heading back to the pits.

Shwartzman then claimed third although he would be shuffled back instantly by Schumacher and Ilott, before Luca Ghiotto and Christian Lundgaard made late runs to also jump the #21 Prema pilot.

Indeed, an equally strong start from the German youth would see the #20 Prema jet past Jehan Daruvala, with the Indian racer hampered by the dust on the off-side of the grid.

Into the first braking point of the afternoon and Schumacher had a run on Tsunoda into turn two, although the Japanese racer placed his #7 Carlin on the defensive inside line and held the lead.

With that the order quickly settled, with Tsunoda and Schumacher easing away from Daruvala, while the Indian racer opened a small margin over Ilott, Aitken and Luca Ghiotto.

As the race wore on Mazepin made a bid for the lead, only to lock-up when challenging Aitken on the brakes for turn two, the Anglo-Korean racer having taken the inside line to defend from the Russian.

Mazepin duly went skating into the run-off and had to take the prescribed path to rejoin, with that delay allowing Zhou to sweep back past to claim second on the road.

However, Tsunoda would wash out wide on the exit of the corner, allowing Schumacher to chop back inside and power past on the run to turn three and secure the lead.

The Brit would subsequently ease past the Japanese racer down the weaving back straight with the aid of DRS, before sprinting away to chase title rival Schumacher.

Indeed, Schumacher's title ambitions would be further enhanced by the slow decline of teammate Shwartzman, who slipped from eighth to eleventh in the final laps after moves from Mazepin, Marcus Armstrong and Dan Ticktum.

Indeed, since his stop Shwartzman's race had largely fallen apart, with the Russian racer's bid to keep Ticktum at bay through turn three ending with the #21 Prema getting elbowed out onto the dust and marbles.

However, Tsunoda was not so easily resisted, with the Japanese racer completing a breath-taking manoeuvre around the outside of the #4 Virtuosi through turn three to claim second, with Ilott lacking the grip to respond.

That move settled the race order, with Schumacher having escaped by six seconds in the final laps to secure victory, a win the ballooned out his Championship lead to eighteen points.

Their investigation highlighted the visual similarity of the two cranks, so much so that it was decided that all teams would be given technical drawings of the new part to ensure that they were all installed on the 22 cars for the Sprint Race.

That Article was designed to restrict the number of operational personnel allowed to work on an F2 car to twelve during a race meeting, and Rosin's attempts to communicate with the pitcrew were investigated under that ruling.

Upon the publication of this ruling four teams, noted as ART Grand Prix, Carlin, DAMS and UNI-Virtuosi, would declare their intent to appeal, with a four-day window to do so, although none would officially lodge a protest before the Sochi Sprint.

Indeed, that fight would also see Ghiotto forced wide, and hence lose fifth to Mick Schumacher on the exit, the German racer having been the exception to the start rule in leaping from eighth to sixth.

Behind, however, there would be chaos on the exit, as Guilherme Samaia and Jake Hughes clashed after the Brazilian racer clattered the outside kerb and had a half spin into the side of the #17 BWT HWA Racelab.

Indeed, as Aitken held off Ghiotto through the flat out left hander, the Anglo-Korean racer would have a sudden deflation of his right rear tyre, which kicked the car into a small slide.

Their mutual impacts shredded the tec-pro barriers as both cars ended up buried and with heavy damage, although both Ghiotto and Aitken would escape unaided and without injury.

The final classification was hence based on the finishing order of lap five, with half points awarded due to the fact that the race had not reached 75% of its scheduled distance.