Trident’s Richard Verschoor took victory and Gabriel Bortoleto grabbed the points lead following a huge startline crash which delayed and shortened Formula 2’s feature race in Baku
Verschoor initially led away from pole, but the race was halted immediately as MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe and Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti both struck Kush Maini’s stranded car, the Invicta Racing driver having stalled when the lights went out, with Marti launched into a roll.
Van Amersfooort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez and AIX Racing’s Niels Koolen also retired after being caught up the incident , with all drivers appearing to avoid injury.
Following a lengthy stoppage, the race resumed with a rolling restart, with the scheduled 31-lap contest effectively reduced to a half-hour sprint.
Verschoor led early on before being caught and passed by ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins, who had already dispatched Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli for second.
But Martins work was undone during his mandatory pitstop as he was unable to leave his pitbox intially due to other cars heading down the pitlane, the Alpine F1 junior slipping back behind Verschoor and Antonelli.
Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney made his pitstop one lap than the trio and emerged ahead of Antonelli and Martins in a net second. But Maloney quickly tumbled out of contention after locking up and colliding with Antonelli as he defended the position into turn three, dealing a blow his title hopes.
The incident allowed Martins to move ahead of the delayed Antonelli, who was able to avoid damage. Verschoor maintained the lead ahead of due in the closing stages, and the race finished behind the safety car due to Prema’s Gabriel Mini locking up and sliding into the barriers at turn 15.
Pre-race points leader Isack Hadjar started from the back of the field following his qualifying incident, and the Campos driver briefly led after leaving his mandatory pitstop until the final 10 minutes, but he finished out of the points in 14th following a late off.
Despite reduced points being awarded, fourth place was enough for Invicta’s Bortoleto to take the championship lead with two rounds remaining.
Trident’s Christian Mansell ran behind Bortoleto early on his feature race debut after passing Saturday’s sprint race winner Joshua Duerksen, but the Australian was hampered by a slow pitstop and came home 10th.
AIX Racing’s Duerksen finished fifth ahead of Hitech GP’s title contender Paul Aron, while ART’s Luke Browning scored his first F2 points in seventh despite losing a front-wing endplate early on following a fiesty three-way battle with VAR’s Enzo Fittipaldi and MP’s Dennis Hauger, the latter handed a five-second penalty for the incident and taking ninth behind DAMS driver Jak Crawford.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
