Formula 2: Due to mistake VIPs Hauger could win

It can be assumed that not all participants in Sunday’s Formula 2 race in Baku started fresh and rested, as it is possible that some of them have been following the course of events at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since Saturday. evening.

Only a few of this generation of young drivers will enter F1, but strong professionals are always needed in endurance racing, especially as the WEC is now emerging, interest in this championship is growing and more and more teams are in it, including factory versions.

But this is a question of the future, and today the youngsters faced other tasks – it was necessary to drive 29 laps of the main race of the Azerbaijani stage of the series as best as possible and find the right approach to the treacherous Baku City Circuit . Looking ahead, let’s say that not everyone has succeeded.

Jüri Vips started from pole after winning qualifying on Friday, but failed in Saturday’s sprint, so today the Estonian was obviously determined to rehabilitate himself. True, the start of the race was delayed for five minutes, which the riders had to spend in the cockpits of their cars on the starting field under the blazing sun, because by then the air had warmed to almost 25 degrees, and the asphalt temperature was more than 40 degrees.

Vips had a great start, taking pole, second was Liam Lawson, third was Marcus Armstrong, who managed to get ahead of Dennis Hauger. But Felipe Drugovic lost several positions and rolled back to 8th place.

But not everyone managed to start normally – Frederic Vesti’s car stopped and yesterday’s race winner was pushed into the pit lane. A little later Frederik was able to join the peloton, but of course rode last.

In addition, the safety car ran out on lap one when two underdogs, Amaury Cordil and Oliver Caldwell, collided shortly after the start and it took some time for their cars to be evacuated. The safety car entered the pits after four laps and the race was finally able to resume.

At the restart, the top five held their positions and Vips immediately tried to cut a gap on his pursuers, but they wouldn’t let him: Lawson was only a few tenths behind the Estonian’s car and Armstrong held half. a second behind Liam. But after one lap, Yuuri was able to bring the lead to one and a half seconds, as Liam had to follow Marcus more. Soon he really turned to decisive action, and Liam was forced to actively defend himself, he was unable to pursue the leader.

Jehan Daruwala was the first to enter the pits for a mandatory pit stop, and many followed his lead throughout the lap, including Lawson. Thus, Vips continued to lead, and two seconds behind him was Armstrong. However, on lap 10 the leader also visited the pits and the mechanics were brought in with the right rear wheel, with Yuuri returning to the track only seventh. As a result, Armstrong overtook his partner in Hitech Motorsport after his pit stop, but Vips would not take this and soon overtook the New Zealander.

But on lap 12, the safety car went out again – this time due to a collision between Cem Bolukbashi and Roy Nissani in the second corner. Both cars collided with the crash barriers, causing minor damage, and the evacuation of the destroyed vehicles took a few laps. The incident was quite ridiculous and unsurprisingly the stewards paid attention to it but decided to think about it after the race finished.

On lap 15 a restart was given, but this time everything looked quite chaotic. For example, Armstrong nearly knocked his teammate, Youri Wips, off the track, trying to get ahead of him before the first corner. And in the depths of the pack, Theo Purscher collided with someone, damaging the front wing of his car.

They introduced a virtual safety car mode and Armstrong returned to the pits as bald spots formed on his tires as a result of an emergency stop in Turn 1 so he had to say goodbye to plans to fight for the win.

But it was expected that the stewards would have to take a closer look at the events that took place at the restart, as it appeared that several riders had committed violations by acting too aggressively. It soon became known that Jack Duane was the first to be penalized, giving him five penalty seconds.

The track battle resumed, Kalan Williams was in first position, but he still wasn’t in the pits, so soon the race would be led by Juri Vips, who was still second, but Dennis Hauger was already started putting pressure on him.

However, Urey wasn’t about to wait for favors from his rivals either, he launched an attack on Williams, causing him to make a mistake, and the Briton soon found himself in the relegation zone after unsuccessful braking.

Vips returned to first position, but of course he was chased by Hauger who was within a second behind the Est Dallara, and Jüri’s job was to increase the advantage and not let the Norwegian take advantage of the DRS. It didn’t work right away, but on the 19th lap Vips managed to break away more than a second and at the same time show the best lap time.

There were ten minutes to go before the finish of the race and the top five looked like this: Vips led, Hauger was in second, Logan Sargent kept some distance behind him, Felipe Drugovic was fourth, Jehan Daruwala was fifth.

But Hauger, last year’s Formula 3 champion, didn’t want to give up the dream of victory without a fight, so he added again, trying to get the chance to use DRS again, and he succeeded. But then events unfolded according to a completely unexpected scenario: Juri Vips made a mistake while braking in the famous 8th corner – the one near the bailey, and broke the suspension of the bump stop on the right side of the track!

The broken car managed to drive up the hill through inertia on three wheels and stopped in the area of ​​the 10th turn. Yuuri exited the cockpit, dropping his head in despair and covering his face with his hands – which was understandable as there were only two laps to go before the finish. But if he couldn’t believe what had happened, Dennis Hauger in turn couldn’t believe his luck, as he put pressure on the opponent, didn’t slacken his grip and let him make a mistake anyway.

The safety car took off, but race management decided not to restart and the peloton drove the final lap behind a green Aston Martin with FIA logos.

As a result, the win went to Dennis Hauger, Logan Sargent finished second, the championship leader Felipe Drugovich finished third, who remained somewhat in the background for almost the entire race, but still got the desired result, ahead of all his main rivals and the advantage in the individual classification by a few more points.

Sunday race results