Juri Vips moved into championship contention after winning Sunday’s FIA Formula 2 feature race in Baku.
The Hitech driver, who took his maiden win in race two on Saturday, passed team-mate Liam Lawson at the start and largely controlled the race from there after an early safety car period.
Oscar Piastri finished second, despite serving a five-second penalty, with his Prema team-mate Robert Shwartzman finishing third from tenth on the grid.
An extra formation lap was required before the start after HWA’s Jack Aitken and Campos Racing’s Matteo Nannini stalled on the grid. Both were wheeled to the pitlane, but Nannini was forced out with fluid leaking from his car.
When the lights went out, Vips beat polesitter Lawson into turn one. ART’s Theo Pourchaire tried to take second from Lawson, but was forced off the track into the pit exit lane by the Hitech driver. That allowed Piastri to move into third, before making a move around the outside of Lawson for second at the next corner.
Pourchaire found himself sandwiched between Marcus Armstrong and Dan Ticktum approaching turn two, but the trio collided, sending Armstrong into the wall and out of the race. Ticktum and Pourchaire both pitted with damage, with the latter forced to retire. Ticktum was deemed at fault by the stewards and handed a 10s time penalty after rejoining.
The incident caused a brief safety car period, with the race resuming on the third lap. Piastri fended off a challenge from Lawson for second into turn one, but lost the place one corner later after Lawson made the better exit. But Lawson’s chances of challenging Vips for victory were dashed after he was handed a 10s time penalty for forcing Pourchaire off track on the opening lap.
Saturday’s race one winner Shwartzman was the big mover early on, climbing to fifth after passing Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport), Guanyu Zhou (Virtuosi) and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin).
Vips pitted from the lead at the end of lap six, with Lawson dropping down the order after serving his penalty after pitting a few laps later. Piastri rejoined ahead of Vips in ninth after making his stop But, after being passed by Vips for the effective race lead on the next lap, Piastri was given a 5s time penalty for an unsafe release in the pits.
Ticktum and Aitken ran first and second for a few laps before making their mandatory stops late in the race, Vips resuming his position at the front with seven laps to go and remaining there until the finish. Piastri remained within touching distance of Vips in the closing stages, but ended up 6.1s adrift after his penalty was applied at the chequered flag, with Shwartzman classified just 0.3s behind his team-mate.
Drugovich beat Ralph Boschung to fourth place after passing the Campos driver with a few laps remaining. After his earlier penalty, Lawson finished sixth ahead of Daruvala. Ticktum finished eighth, the Briton making his feelings clear on the radio about his penalty. Lundgaard was ninth for ART, with MP’s Lirim Zendelli the final points scorer in tenth.
Zhou finished out of the points in 13th for Virtuosi, but still leads the championship by five points from Piastri, with Shwartzman and Vips third and fourth in the standings.
Race result (28 laps)
| 1 | Juri Vips | Hitech | 57m08.634s |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | +6.152s |
| 3 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +12.623s |
| 4 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +22.400s |
| 5 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +24.418s |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Hitech | +26.207s |
| 7 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +28.081s |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +29.801s |
| 9 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +34.058s |
| 10 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +36.167s |
| 11 | Jack Aitken | HWA | +36.993s |
| 12 | David Beckmann | Charouz | +39.973s |
| 13 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +47.934s |
| 14 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +48.794s |
| 15 | Marino Sato | Trident | +55.485s |
| 16 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | +55.825s |
| 17 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +56.970s |
| 18 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +1 lap |
| 19 | Alessio Deledda | HWA | +1 lap |
| DNF | Theo Pourchaire | ART | |
| DNF | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | |
| DNF | Matteo Nannini | Campos |
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
