2024 F2 Season Roundup: Round 12 – Azerbaijan

Roundup of the twelfth round of the 2024 F2 season as the title lead changed hands.

Isack Hadjar arrived in Baku as championship leader but this demanding circuit is notorious for its unpredictable twist and turns, which certainly delivered as the title lead changed hands ahead of the last two rounds.

 

Practice

Campos’ Pepe Marti was first out onto a newly resurfaced track and set 2m 26.311 as the early benchmark time, but it was new ART GP rookie, Luke Browning who set the initial pace on 2m 09.789 as the majority began to set lap times.

Browning’s teammate, Victor Martins soon proceeded to set the pace on 2m 00.384 but times continued to tumble, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s (VAR) Enzo Fittipaldi top at the halfway mark with 1m 58.244 to top the session.

Light rain however unexpectedly disrupted the last 21 minutes of the session, during which there were two red flags as Marti spun out at Turn 6 then Oliver Goethe locked up and crashed into the barriers at Turn 15.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	1m 58.244
2	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 0.652
3	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 0.765
4	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 0.928
5	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 1.359
6	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	+ 1.388
7	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 1.397
8	Christian Mansell	Trident	+ 1.522
9	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 1.820
10	Isack Hadjar	Campos	+ 1.930
11	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 2.257
12	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	+ 2.323
13	Richard Verschoor	Trident	+ 2.375
14	Luke Browning	ART GP	+ 2.478
15	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 2.592
16	Gabriele Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 2.834
17	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 2.927
18	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	+ 2.934
19	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 4.073
20	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 4.377
21	Rafael Villagomez	VA	+ 5.406
22	Niels Koolen	AIX Racing	+ 10.469

 

Qualifying

Hadjar and Marti were first on track for Qualifying and it was the former who set an early benchmark pole time of 1m 57.423 as everyone switched to the super-softs for this session.

Verschoor however was quickest of everyone on the first round of flying laps on 1m 56.023, as he headed Martins and Antonelli, with the top three staying the same at the halfway point although Martins was 0.079 seconds off Verschoor’s time.

The start of the final flying laps was disrupted by a red flag with four minutes and 14 seconds left, after Marti then Hadjar ploughed into the barriers at Turn 1.

Following a 14 minute delay, everyone else was back on track for a single final flier, which saw Verschoor take pole on 1m 54.857 and 0.017s quicker than Antonelli.

Martins qualified third ahead of Maloney, Maini, Bortoleto and Durksen, whilst Mini was the highest-placed rookie in eighth with Mansell having qualified tenth – as Crawford split the pair in ninth and Browning qualified 11th.

Mansell’s tenth-placed meant that he inherited reverse-pole for his debut F2 Sprint Race, whilst title contender – Hadjar qualified 20th following the deletion of his fastest lap due to having caused the red flag.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Richard Verschoor	Trident	1m 54.857
2	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	+ 0.017
3	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.245
4	Zane Maloney	Rodin	+ 0.271
5	Kush Maini	Invicta	+ 0.317
6	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	+ 0.473
7	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 0.474
8	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	+ 0.585
9	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.777
10	Christian Mansell	Trident	+ 0.788
11	Luke Browning	ART GP	+ 0.867
12	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	+ 1.081
13	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	+ 1.279
14	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	+ 1.396
15	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	+ 1.829
16	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	+ 1.839
17	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	+ 1.851
18	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	+ 1.854
19	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 2.030
20	Isack Hadjar	Campos	+ 2.036
21	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 2.361
22	Niels Koolen	AIX Racing	+ 6.787

 

Sprint Race

At lights out, Mansell led from pole but Crawford dropped from second to fourth behind Mini and Durksen on an uncharacteristically well-behaved F2 start in Baku, whilst Browning made up two positions to ninth.

Maloney cleared Bortoleto and Martins for sixth at the start but was repassed by Martins into Turn 2 on the second lap, as the Barbados-born driver ran wide on the exit.

Up front, Mansell couldn’t escape the DRS of Mini and the Italian passed his fellow rookie on the inside of Turn 1 on Lap 7, after Mansell had suffered a lock-up on the previous lap.

Durksen soon followed through on the next lap whilst Martins cleared Maini for fifth on Lap 12, following a lengthy scrap between the pair with Maloney and Bortoleto sat just behind the pair.

On that same lap, Mini suffered a scruffy slide through the final corners which gave Durksen the momentum to pass him into Turn 1 on Lap 13 for the lead.

Mansell meanwhile had lost pace and was double-passed by Crawford and Martins on Lap 15 on the inside of Turn 1, which dropped him to fifth just before the safety car was deployed due to a crash for Miyata at Turn 3 as he tried a pass on Hauger.

During the safety car, Cordeel, Fittipaldi and Villagomez gambled on a switch to super-softs, after Verschoor took the risk on Lap 10.

The safety car period ended at the conclusion of Lap 17 as the top four enjoyed a clean restart on Lap 18 during which Crawford passed Mini for second, whilst Mansell spun Bortoleto into the Turn 3 barriers but the Brazilian somehow kept going.

Mansell though dropped to seventh amidst that melee behind Bortoleto and Aron as Maini slipped to ninth behind Antonelli, who had worked his way up to eighth and eventually seventh at the checkered flag.

Durksen ultimately clung on to become the first Paraguayan to win a F2 race as Crawford finished second from Mini, as the Italian beat Martins to third by just 0.020s.

Bortoleto, Aron, Antonelli and Mansell rounded out the top eight finishers.

Post-race, Goethe received a five-second time penalty for spinning Cordeel around at Turn 5 on the safety car restart on Lap 18, although he remained 21st in the classification.

In the drivers’ standings, Bortoleto cut his title deficit to Hadjar down to 6.5 points whilst Maloney put himself 13 points off the lead.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	21	44m 00.116
2	Jak Crawford	DAMS	21	+ 3.444
3	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	21	+ 4.579
4	Victor Martins	ART GP	21	+ 4.599
5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	21	+ 7.807
6	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	21	+ 8.793
7	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	21	+ 9.293
8	Christian Mansell	Trident	21	+ 13.436
9	Kush Maini	Invicta	21	+ 15.013
10	Zane Maloney	Rodin	21	+ 15.515
11	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	21	+ 15.740
12	Isack Hadjar	Campos	21	+ 16.208
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	21	+ 17.065
14	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	21	+ 17.094
15	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	21	+ 18.039
16	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	21	+ 20.637
17	Richard Verschoor	Trident	21	+ 22.828
18	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	21	+ 47.405
19	Pepe Marti	Campos	21	+ 52.191
20	Niels Koolen	AIX Racing	21	+ 56.243
21	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	21	+ 102.954
RET	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	14	Crash

 

At lights out, Verschoor led Antonelli, Martins and Maloney away but Maini stalled from fifth on the grid, which left Goethe, Marti and Villagomez with no space to take rapid avoiding action as the quartet collided.

Marti’s Camps was launched airborne and into a roll upon impact but all four drivers otherwise walked away unharmed, as the red flags quickly came out with AIX’s Koolen also eliminated due to severe damage from the incident.

Bortoleto consequently climbed to fifth ahead of Durksen whilst Mansell moved from 10th on the grid to seventh ahead of Mini whilst Aron made up three positions to ninth ahead of Crawford and Browning.

Racing resumed 34 minutes later against 33 minutes left on the clock, with two laps behind the safety car before Verschoor led everyone racing with a rolling start on Lap 4, which was tidy amidst Crawford passing Aron for ninth.

Martins cleared Antonelli on Lap 5 with an inside move into Turn 1 to take second and quickly reeled Verschoor in, but couldn’t complete the pass on Verschoor for the lead until the start of Lap 7.

Durksen, Crawford and Browning were the first to pit on Lap 8 to switch from super-softs to soft tyres, which saw Browning jump Crawford with a slightly quicker stop.

The top three pitted a lap later but Martins suffered a slow stop and was jumped by both Verschoor and Antonelli for the net lead.

Maloney and Bortoleto pitted on Lap 10 with Maloney re-joining in-between Verschoor and Antonelli, but the Rodin driver outbraked himself into Turn 3 which forced him down the escape road and out of the top ten.

Antonelli meanwhile had to take evasive action which allowed Martins to pass him for fifth on the road and net second in the race.

Mini, Fittipaldi and Hadjar all pitted on the following three laps which left Verschoor in the lead come Lap 13 with nine minutes left on the race clock, and he proceeded to take a fourth F2 victory and his first on a street circuit since 2019 Macau GP.

Martins finished second ahead of Antonelli, whilst Bortoleto finished fourth to take the title lead from Hadjar by 4.5 points, with Durksen completing the top five.

Aron finished Browning who claimed his first points in F2 with a seventh-placed finish ahead of Crawford, Hauger and Mansell.

The race however finished under the safety car after Mini locked up and crashed into the barriers at Turn 15.

F2 now takes a two-and-a-half month break before a double-headed season finale kicks off in Qatar from 29 November – 1 December, followed by a trip to Abu Dhabi from 6-8 December.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Richard Verschoor	Trident	17	1m
2	Victor Martins	ART GP	17	+ 0.3
3	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	PREMA	17	+ 0.5
4	Gabriel Bortoleto	Invicta	17	+ 0.8
5	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	17	+ 1.0
6	Paul Aron	Hitech GP	17	+ 1.2
7	Luke Browning	ART GP	17	+ 1.3
8	Jak Crawford	DAMS	17	+ 1.4
9	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	17	+ 1.9
10	Christian Mansell	Trident	17	+ 2.1
11	Enzo Fittipaldi	VAR	17	+ 2.6
12	Amaury Cordeel	Hitech GP	17	+ 3.3
13	Ritomo Miyata	Rodin	17	+ 3.3
14	Isack Hadjar	Campos	17	+ 4.1
15	Zane Maloney	Rodin	17	+ 42.1
RET	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	14	Crash
RET	Juan Manuel Correa	DAMS	3	Damage
RET	Kush Maini	Invicta	0	Collision
RET	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	0	Collision
RET	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	0	Collision
RET	Pepe Marti	Campos	0	Collision
RET	Niels Koolen	AIX Racing	0	Collision