Formula 2: Juri Vips wins qualifying in Baku

Traditionally, on urban circuits, racers gradually reach the required speed level, because the price of a mistake there is too high and Formula 2 qualifying in Baku was no exception.

The participants also did not accelerate immediately and in the first laps no one tried to show an impressive time. But even under these conditions, Marcus Armstrong managed to stay in the relegation zone, causing yellow flags to appear on the track.

At this stage of the session, Ayumu Iwasa climbed to the first line of protocol, but his time could not be considered representative and the main battle for pole was ahead. Of course it is possible to overtake at the start-finish line of the Baku City Circuit due to the slipstream, but still the first position means something, especially in Formula 2, where the winner of qualifying gets two extra bonus points.

Half the session was over and the riders returned to the pits for fresh SuperSoft tires to make a determined attack on pole.

The last ten minutes of qualifying turned out to be very eventful. Of course, everyone left the track at the same time, which was fraught with all sorts of incidents related to the riders being able to interfere with each other. However, those who were lucky were able to use the slipstream behind the opponent’s car and show a good time.

By the way, Jüri Vips, the Estonian driver of Hitech Grand Prix, was the first to claim pole position, showing the best time during practice. He started to accelerate, had a good time in the first sector, but failed to complete the attempt – red flags appeared on the track.

This was due to Iwasa, who failed to keep the car on the track in Turn 4 and crashed into the guardrail. The impact was quite strong, the suspension on the right side was broken and the Japanese rider could only apologize to his DAMS team over the radio. Ayumu was sent off the track to the medical center for examination. Recall that it was he who showed the best time in the first half of the session and was still on the first line of the timing.

The evacuation of his car was slightly delayed and when the races resumed there was less than six minutes left before the end of the session, giving the riders time for a single full attempt. Theoretically, someone could have had time to start the second attempt, but the condition of the tires would hardly have shown a good time.

The track was very busy and under these conditions protocol was led first by Richard Fershhor, then he was moved from the front line by Felipe Drugovic, who leads the championship, then by Hauger, but in the end Juri Vips was ahead of them all with a lap time of 1:53.762. This is his third pole position of the season.

In the second attempt, which many still did as there was nothing to lose, only Liam Lawson managed to improve on the result by moving up to second place, giving New Zealand rider Carlin his front row position on the grid. Sunday’s race secured. And pole went to Vips, who was even surprised at this and admitted that he didn’t drive the circle perfectly, but turned out to be the fastest anyway, for which he would get two points.

On Saturday, Jehan Daruwala will start the race from pole position with the 8th fastest time today as the sprint uses a partially reversed starting order.

Qualification Results