Third race weekend of F2 welcomed Baku, Estonian Vips was on a rampage

Azerbaijan’s Baku has become the venue for the third installment of Formula 2, the Formula 1 youth series. The city’s second circuit in a row offered a large number of first-lap collisions, as well as some bad races for the current leader of the standings.

Qualifying

Unlike Monaco, where the last race was held, qualifying was run as normal, for 30 minutes and for all drivers. However, there were only 21 of them this time, as the Israeli driver of the DAMS stable, Roy Nissany, crashed heavily at the end of free practice and his monoposto was not able to be repaired.

The battle for the top spot for Sunday’s main race was eventually won by Liam Lawson, who was joined on the front row by Hitech GP teammate Jüri Vips.

The key 10th place, which means pole position for the first sprint race on Saturday morning, fell to Russian driver Robert Shvartsman. Championship leader Kuan-Yu Zhou finished eighth.

Sprint 1 – 21 laps

Saturday’s racing started at 9.30am “Czech” time. And as is typical for Baku, there was a lot going on right from the first lap. In the first corners, the race was over for 4 drivers, including the winner of the qualifying session, Lawson.

The whole event was otherwise collision-free and unfortunately the first Azerbaijan race was not as attractive as expected. Still, the performance of one driver is worth mentioning. Dan Ticktum came from 6th place at the start to claim silver during the race, adding a solid 12 points to the championship.

The race was won by Robert Švarcman in start-finish style, who built up a solid lead at the start and never let it go. Two points for the fastest lap went to Théo Pourchaire. And pole position for the second race of the day went to Bent Viscaal.

Sprint 2 – 21 laps

The second race in Baku was also the 100th race in the modern history of F2. And it was a much better spectacle than the morning. Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson, the first race’s retirees, were the main characters.

Both drivers managed to climb from the very back of the grid to the points. For Lawson, that made it two points for seventh place, and it was Piastri who scored the last eight points.

The race was also a success for the Czech colours as German rider David Beckmann finished second for the Czech Charouz racing system team.

The race was eventually won by Jüri Vips. He and Beckmann were joined on the podium by India’s Jehan Daruvala, which meant that two Red Bull juniors were among the top three.

The main race – 28 laps (shortened from the original 29)

Traditionally, Sunday was a longer and better scored race. Already before the start there were problems with Mateo Nannini and Jack Aitken, so the race was reduced to 28 laps from the original 29.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any crashes in the first corners for the third time either. This time the race was “only” over for Marcus Armstrong, who pulled a black Peter in the triple duel into turn 3, because as the driver furthest to the outside he had no chance of avoiding the barrier.

A slight upset in an otherwise calm race was then brought about by the pit stops, when Oscar Piastri got ahead of Vips thanks to an overcut. Time penalties also played a role, which shuffled the cards quite interestingly.

In the end, however, nothing changed in the lead and the Estonian anthem could be played a second time in Baku. Robert Švarcman showed a great performance, going from tenth place at the start to third at the finish. On the other hand, still the championship leader Kuan-Yu Zhou finished without a point for the second time in a row and his rivals were quite close to him.

Oscar Piastri is currently only 5 points behind the Chinese in the main race. Formula 2 will have to wait until the long weekend of 16.7 – 18.7. when it will be held in the cradle of motorsport, the British Sliverstone.

Source:: F2