The third meeting of the Formula 2 weekend took place in Azerbaijan last weekend, and here is a round up of what happened.
Sprint Race 1
Robert Shwartzman produced a controlled performance around the streets of Baku for his first win of the year, bouncing back from a difficult start to the season to kickstart his title challenge, beating out Dan Ticktum by 5s, with Guanyu Zhou taking third place. A title favourite heading into the campaign, Shwartzman’s sophomore season hadn’t gone to plan in the opening two rounds, with the Russian taking zero podiums and suffering from two retirements, but the PREMA man was always insistent that improvements were around the corner.
Starting from reverse grid pole, Shwartzman began to deliver on that promise, with the Russian’s victory never once looking in doubt, despite a commanding charge through the field from street circuit expert Dan Ticktum, who was on the back of a Sprint Race 2 victory in Monaco. Lining up in sixth, the two-time Macau Grand Prix winner picked off the first four in front of him with relative ease, but came unstuck against Shwartzman and was unable to bridge a 5s gap to the leader. Guanyu Zhou retained his place at the top of the Drivers’ Championship with a fourth podium of the year, while Jehan Daruvala clung onto fourth, despite late pressure from Théo Pourchaire, who had recovered from a tricky start to take fifth.
Sprint Race 2
Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips kept his nose clean in a chaotic Sprint Race 2 in Baku to take his first-ever win, in Formula 2's 100th race, putting on a controlled performance amongst multiple stoppages and six retirements, to finish ahead of Charouz Racing System’s David Beckmann and Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala. Baku is proving to be somewhat of a kick-starter for pre-season title favourites in F2, with Vips joining Robert Shwartzman in taking a maiden win of the season, the duo both bouncing back after disappointing starts to the year.
It was far from plain sailing though, as the Estonian had to work hard for the win. Starting from third, the Hitech driver survived two Safety Car restarts while working his way past Bent Viscaal and David Beckmann. Despite putting up a good fight, Charouz rookie Beckmann had to settle for second ahead of Daruvala, while reverse polesitter Viscaal dropped down to fourth. Shwarztman followed up his maiden win with fifth ahead of Dan Ticktum, who recovered from an opening-lap crash to take sixth. Liam Lawson made up 13 places to seventh, with Oscar Piasti taking the final points’ place.
Feature Race
After a difficult start to the season, Jüri Vips has ensured his title challenge is well and truly in motion, with the Hitech Grand Prix driver winning for the second time in a row in the Baku Feature Race. Beating out PREMA Racing duo Oscar Piastri and Robert Shwartzman, Vips becomes just the second double-winner of 2021, and is the first driver in Formula 2 to take two wins in a single weekend.
Piastri slices Guanyu Zhou’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship down to just five points. The UNI-Virtuosi racer finished outside of the points in 13th, telling his team over the radio he just didn’t have the pace. Shwartzman was up from 10th after a disappointing Qualifying session and scored his second podium of both the season and the weekend, following up his Sprint Race 1 win with P3 to move up to third in the title fight.