BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, won the first Formula 2 race of his career on Sunday at the Hungaroring.
Starting from reverse-grid pole position, Schumacher led the race from start to finish to win on the same circuit that witnessed four of his father's 91 grand prix victories.
Although Sunday's sprint race carries fewer points than Saturday's feature race, the win is something of a breakthrough for Schumacher who has not finished on the podium all year in his debut season in F1's feeder series.
"It feels great," he said. "That's a pretty summed up view of it, but I am just happy to be over the bad luck [earlier in the season] and it's good to score a decent amount of points.
"Hopefully the result today will give me a boost going into the summer break, but also going into the next race. I'm really looking forward to that."
Schumacher's mother, Corinna, was under the podium to watch her son receive the winner's trophy and Mick said he planned to celebrate the victory with his family on Sunday evening.
Schumacher, 20, held off Nobuharu Matsushita for the entire race after maintaining his lead from pole position over the Honda development driver on the run down to Turn 1. From that point onwards, Schumacher never looked under serious threat, despite Matsushita staying within DRS range for the majority of the race.
Schumacher won the Formula 3 title last year and is currently a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. After testing F1 cars for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo in Bahrain earlier this year, he was tipped for a move to F1 as early as 2020 but on Sunday said he is in no rush to make the move to the top level of motorsport.
"I think only time can tell," he said. "Having the first victory in F2 is a great thing but I still need to work a lot on myself and whether I get into F1 next year or in two years or three years, I don't know.
"As I said, I only time can tell that, but I will do my best possible to try to learn as much as possible to be able to then, when I do the step, be ready and feel comfortable in an F1 team."
Due to his surname, Schumacher's career has come under intense scrutiny and when he started out in karting he raced under his mother's maiden name, Betsch, to avoid unwanted attention. His elevation into the ranks of the Ferrari Academy, the team synonymous with his father's career, has only increased the hype around him this season. In Germany last weekend, he drove his father's 2004 Ferrari to the delight of his home fans in Hockenheim.
Schumacher is now 11th in the Formula 2 standings on 45 points, 151 points off championship leader Nyck de Vries. Four rounds remain in the championship in Belgium, Italy, Russia and Abu Dhabi, with two races at each round.