Richard Verschoor claimed his fourth FIA Formula 2 win and his first of the season after a chaotic Feature Race in Baku which left Gabriel Bortoleto the new championship leader.
The Dutchman converted his pole position into victory after a hectic race which as delayed by half-an-hour after a horrifying start-line crash, with Kush Maini’s stalled Invicta collecting Oliver Goethe’s MP and Pepe Marti’s Campos.
Victor Martins, who harried Verschoor for much of the race, finished second after a late Safety Car would halt his charge. Kimi Antonelli, in contention early-on in the race, would see his chances disappear after an incident with Zane Maloney, but would manage to finish third.
Bortoleto never looked like contending for victory, but did enough to secure a title lead with Isack Hadjar failing to score any points.
Sprint Race winner Joshua Durksen came home in fifth, with Paul Aron sixth and Luke Browning coming seventh in his first F2 Feature. Jak Crawford was eighth, with Dennis Hauger ninth, and Browning’s fellow debutant Christian Mansell in 10th.
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
At the start, Verschoor got away cleanly from pole but Maini stalled, leaving cars to dart quickly to avoid the stranded Invicta, but Goethe and Marti were left unsighted, careering into the Indian, firing a confetti of carbon fibre debris into the air. The red flag was immediately brought out, with a nervous wait to find out if all drivers were OK. Thankfully, all climbed out of their cars unscathed, with a shaken Marti taking a moment on the side of the track to gather his thoughts.
A delay of around half-an-hour would follow, with marshals clearing the carnage. The race would now be up against the clock in terms of the whole time, with around another 30 minutes remaining. Race control opted to order a rolling start procedure for the restart, with the laps reduced so the event would in effect become another sprint-style.
The rolling start would leave Verschoor in a precarious state of vulnerability, and would choose to bunch the pack up and wait until just before the line to put his foot down, catching-out Antonelli and holding his lead.
Martins was now swarming all over Antonelli’s Prema, with Browning taking Hauger for 11th, but the Norwegian immediately taking back the place, with Aron just ahead in 10th place. The Williams Academy man, in his first F2 race, was not looking intimidated, fighting Hauger until part of his front wing was lost after running out of room and tagging the wall.
At the start of lap two, Martins dived down the inside of Antonelli at T1 for second, with Verschoor opening-up a gap of eight tenths. Further back, Mansell was impressing in his first F2 Feature, sitting in seventh ahead of fellow debutant Mini.
With DRS now enabled, Martins set about closing the gap to Verschoor, and was now within range, closing the gap in the first sector, but the Trident would open up a gap in the second, but Martins was much faster in the final sector, giving him a slingshot into T1. Ducking out of the draught, the the Frenchman repeated his move on Antonelli, taking the lead.
Antonelli set the fastest lap so far, with Maloney also keeping tabs in fourth, with Bortoleto just behind. Mansell took Durken for sixth, as Browning, Crawford, Durksen all choosing to pit. Martins would follow a lap later with Verschoor and Antonelli also coming in, giving Maloney the lead. Verschoor would get the jump, with Martins the biggest loser, coming out behind Antonelli, effectively in third.
Maloney and Bortoleto would come in next, with Mini now taking a temporary lead. Maloney would get out ahead of Antonelli, but on cold tyres, he would be vulnerable to the Italian’s stern challenge, and got into T3, Maloney locked-up, leaving Antonelli with little space to turn into, and the two made contact. Maloney would be stranded half-way up the escape road, now in last, with Antonelli now in fifth.
Fittipaldi eventually pitted from his lead on lap 11, with Hadjar now finding himself at the front, with Verschoor in a net lead in second place, with Martins and Antonelli behind him. Hadjar would now pit with just nine minutes left, rejoining in 14th. Durksen, Aron and Browning would be benefit, the pair now fifth, sixth and seventh.
Verschoor, unsighted by TV cameras, appeared to have tagged the wall at some stage, the Trident seeming misaligned, but with five minutes remaining, he would have a 1.2 second lead from Martins.
Mini would set the fastest lap to date as Verschoor continued to keep his buffer, desperately needed to keep Martins out of his DRS range. Antonelli was now falling back from the front two, but new team-mate Mini was in the wall at T15, bringing out yellow flags at the second and third sectors, with the Safety Car deployed soon after. With only one-and-a-half minutes left, Verschoor’s victory was now secure.
Under the crawling pace of the Safety Car, Verschoor crossed the line to take his first win of the season, with Martins and Antonelli following close behind. Bortoleto coming home in fourth ensured he would now be leading the championship, taking it into Lusail in December.
