Liam Lawson claimed his maiden F2 pole position ahead of Juri Vips as Hitech GP locked out the front row for Sunday’s Baku Feature Race.
Lawson snatched pole by 0.138 seconds from Vips following an entertaining qualifying session in which championship leader, Guanyu Zhou struggled to eighth on the grid, off the back of an incident packed Practice which saw various incidents litter the session.
Other highlights included Campos’ Ralph Boschung continuing his improved form and DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong enjoying his best day of the season so far.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s Formula Two action in Baku.
Practice
A quiet start to F2 practice saw MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendeli set the initial pace until a brief period of chaos descended, as Trident’s Marino Sato smashed into the exit barrier at Turn 15 to prematurely end his session with a broken front right suspension and half-missing front wing in the 11th minute.
Three minutes later, Zendeli came to a halt down the escape road at that same corner to trigger a six minute Virtual Safety Car (VSC), as marshals wheeled him 45 degrees to his left to ensure he faced the circuit but was unable to get his car restarted and eventually had to retire from the session.
Once the VSC was withdrawn, HWA Racelab’s Jack Aitken went quickest with 1m 57.840 but was immediately displaced by British compatriot, Dan Ticktum who went 0.115 seconds quicker just two minutes later.
Campos’ Ralph Boschung continued his new-found form around street circuits after impressing in Monaco as he displaced Ticktum by 0.208s, before dipping to 1m 56.942 then 1m 56.378 on his next two laps respectively.
A frantic final five minutes saw the track evolution ramp up as Hitech’s Juri Vips went fastest overall with a stunning 1m 55.210, as Boschung settled into second and the only driver to get within one second of the Estonian.
Roy Nissany brought out a red flag with one minute left after losing control out of Turn 13 and spun into the inside wall before sliding and slamming into the outside wall on entry to Turn 14, which caused enough damage to rule the Williams development driver out of Qualifying.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | 1m 55.210 |
| 2 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.766 |
| 3 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 1.113 |
| 4 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | + 1.165 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | + 1.184 |
| 6 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | + 1.305 |
| 7 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | + 1,384 |
| 8 | David Beckmann | Charouz | + 1,568 |
| 9 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | + 1.585 |
| 10 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 1.611 |
| 11 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | + 1.650 |
| 12 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | + 1.809 |
| 13 | Jack Aitken | HWA Racelab | + 2.050 |
| 14 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 2.294 |
| 15 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | + 2.351 |
| 16 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 2.481 |
| 17 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | + 3.011 |
| 18 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | + 4.343 |
| 19 | Matteo Nannini | Campos | + 4.537 |
| 20 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | + 6.276 |
| 21 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | + 8.052 |
| 22 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 25.211 |
Qualifying
Marcus Armstrong headed the queue out of the pitlane as everyone opted for two warm-up laps apart from Sato, who opted to do his first run in the mid-session gap due to receiving a three place penalty for the opening sprint race after failing to retire his Trident in Practice at a marshal extraction post.
Armstrong went on to set the first benchmark lap time of 1m 56.251 but was quickly displaced by Lawson and Vips before Theo Pourchaire went quickest with 1m 55.455.
Dan Ticktum soon afterwards went top by 0.147s but was soon knocked off provisional pole by Christian Lundgaard, Pourchaire, Lawson and Vips, as Armstrong on his second flier went top with 1m 55.057 at the halfway point.
Armstrong again went on to lead the field back out for their final runs but failed to improve on his best time as Lawson went fastest from Vips with a 1m 54.332 as Oscar Piastri leapt from 15th after his opening run to third fastest.
The top three eventually stayed in that order although Lawson found 0.115s to claim pole for Sunday’s Feature Race with 1m 54.217, with his Hitech GP teammate and fellow Red Bull junior – Vips joining him on the front row.
Lawson also earned four points for his pole position which put him fourth in the standings above Ticktum and 28 points off Zhou who leads the standings with a maximum of 51 points on offer across all three races this weekend.
Piastri had to settle for third alongside title rival, Theo Pourchaire with Ticktum and Armstrong sharing the third row ahead of Boschung and Guanyu Zhou, whilst Jehan Daruvala and Robert Shwartzman round out the top ten.
Shwartzman however has clinched reverse-pole for the opening Sprint Race with Daruvala alongside him on the front row.
There however were three post Qualifying penalties with Christian Lundgaard penalised three grid spots for the first Sprint Race, having been found to have impeded Zhou between Turns 13 and 14 and will now start from 15th..
Jack Aitken has also been hit with the same penalty for impeding Lundgaard between Turns 7 and 8 and drops from 14th to 17th on the reverse-grid as a result,, whilst Guilherme Samaia impeded Bent Viscaal at Turn Three and will now start 21st instead of 20th behind Sato once all penalties are applied in chronological order.
Nissany meanwhile will start 22nd on the reverse-grid due to having not taken part in Qualifying after his Practice crash.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 1m 54.217 |
| 2 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | + 0.138 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | + 0.291 |
| 4 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.422 |
| 5 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | + 0.613 |
| 6 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | + 0.697 |
| 7 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.745 |
| 8 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.895 |
| 9 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 0.905 |
| 10 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | + 0.944 |
| 11 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.956 |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 1.028 |
| 13 | David Beckmann | Charouz | + 1.119 |
| 14 | Jack Aitken | HWA Racelab | + 1.434 |
| 15 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | + 1.441 |
| 16 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 1.771 |
| 17 | Matteo Nannini | Campos | + 2.246 |
| 18 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | + 2.362 |
| 19 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 3.322 |
| 20 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | + 3.576 |
| 21 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | + 4.047 |
| Roy Nissany | DAMS | No Time Set |
Leave a Reply