Chance of a safety car? 100%

After Bahrain there was much fanfare over some Formula 1 testing, when the real excitement was actually that my F2 fav Louis Delétraz landed a job as Haas simulator driver. He is apparently very good at providing feedback about the car, but they probably also need his cheery persona to balance out all that Steiner swearing and inter-team crashing.

Practice: Raghunathan channels Austin Powers

Back to the slightly less glamorous F2 practice session at Baku, Raghunathan got himself stuck in a cul-de-sac where he spent a painfully long time trying to turn around, Austin Powers style.

He then proceeded to miss the weigh bridge and was subsequently told he would have to start from the pitlane, overriding his ten-place grid penalty from the previous race. Probably would have been best for him to just stay in the garage. 

Ghiotto was fastest, with Matsushita in second and King third.

Boschung crashed at the end. I wonder if he’ll write about it in his blog (edit: he didn’t).

Qualifying: Gelael runs over two marshals

Qualifying started eventfully with Sean Gelael stopped randomly in the middle of the track, before his car set on fire for a bit. After the marshals put out the fire and tried to move him out the way, Gelael managed to get the car running again and promptly ran over two marshals. He later had his qualifying result disqualified for his dangerous actions.

The qualifying highlight was the Delétraz track guide. Ok, no one will ever be as good at it as Jack Aitken, but see how fast that guy talks even in his non-native language. Something to behold. He’s still my favourite.

Matsushita took pole, with De Vries and Ghiotto behind him in second and third. Deletraz was only 12th, wtf.

Feature Race: Mayhem

Apparently the pole sitter usually wins the Feature Race in Baku (probably due to the fact that the race is typically one long safety car period), making it an easy win for Matsushita then.

As promised, the pack couldn’t make it safely around the first lap. De Vries took the lead from Matsushita right from the start, Aitken jumped from eighth to third and the rest was just mayhem, mostly caused by Schumacher, who almost took out Ghiotto. Alesi almost took out his team mate Boschung, Ilott was straight to the pits with a broken wing, and the safety car was deployed.

After the safety car restart, De Vries managed to keep his lead, with Matsushita, Aitken and Latifi just behind him. Then Matsushita’s car broke and he was off to the pits where his team spent two laps trying to fix the problem. So much for that fated win.

In seemingly no time at all, De Vries had pulled out a 6.4 second lead, but his pitstop went horribly wrong and he barely managed to stay at the front. It wasn’t long before Aitken and Latifi made it past.

As De Vries and Latifi had a proper battle for second, Aitken managed to pull away in the lead. But then Zhou crashed. Safety car.

Calderón’s car also failed her, leaving her stuck in the middle of the track. Her radio wasn’t working so sadly she was unable to hear the “what’s wrong darling?” message from her team. Or maybe she just chose to ignore the blatant sexism. As the safety car was out anyway, they just cleared her car away along with Zhou’s.

Craziness

The safety car restart was full F2 craziness. Delétraz hit Boccolacci. Ghiotto rammed Sette Câmara who went spinning out into the wall. King was hit by Hubert. The safety car was immediately redeployed.

By now, the whole safety car business had taken so long that there were only two laps left. This time the restart was more civilised. Aitken managed to retain his lead and take his first F2 Feature Race win. De Vries was second, but Latifi lost his third place to King. 

Jack “The-Jack-Attack” Aitken (no I did not make that up, it’s apparently a thing…), was very pleased, he tried to keep his hand waving to a minimum, despite clearly being a naturally animated speaker.

De Vries was the most gracious loser ever although he was very upset because he was “certain” that people didn’t know the new safety car restart regulations. The pain of having to work with people that don’t have the same level of attention to detail as you.

Penalties…

Ghiotto got a five-second penalty for causing a collision, and so despite his late charge from tenth to sixth, he was moved back down to ninth, arguably the worst position, being just one away from reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race. I wouldn’t want to be the one who had to deliver that news to Ghiotto. As a result, Mazepin moved up to the coveted eighth place.

Boccolacci also got a two-place grid penalty for the Sprint Race, as he failed to enter the pitlane at the end of the race. Presumably he found his way eventually and isn’t still driving around the track…

Sprint Race: Safety cars galore

Nikita Mazepin was on pole for the Sprint Race, with JM Correa and Sean Gelael in second and third. Mazepin seemed to have some issues at the start, dropping down to third as Gelael jumped everyone for the lead.

There was also much action behind as everyone overtook everyone else. Calderón locked up at turn two and took Delétraz and Boschung out with her. Earning her a three-place grid penalty for Barcelona as well as my distinct disapproval.

The safety car came out, giving me a chance to actually work out what order everyone was in. For the record, Gelael was first followed by Correa, Latifi, Mazepin and Aitken.

At the restart they did not all crash for a change. Mazepin was overtaken by Aitken and Boccolacci, while Latifi passed Correa for second. Then there were suddenly four cars all competing for second place (Latifi, Correa, Aitken and Boccolacci), which was great news for Gelael up front.

After the F2 TV people finished showing us some of the world’s most boring replays (including Sette Câmara not passing Hubert), we saw that Latifi had dispatched those behind him before catching and passing Gelael, with Correa and Aitken quickly following suit. Ghiotto also seemed to have come from nowhere just to overtake Gelael, followed by De Vries. Poor Gelael suddenly went from first to sixth in only a few laps.

In first place, Latifi should have known it wasn’t worth building a lead, as Alesi crashed into the wall, triggering another safety car. Alesi’s forlorn “I’m so sorry” message channelled Leclerc-esque levels of Baku sadness.

Restart chaos ensued with much locking up and hitting each other:

• Aitken put Correa under pressure, who then locked up and nearly took Latifi out.
  
• De Vries passed Aitken for third
  
• Ghiotto hit the wall causing a pile up with Mazepin and King
  
• The safety car was deployed

After much roundy roundy, Aitken captured the thoughts of everyone watching, asking “Could the marshals be any slower?”

Ten minutes later, the marshals had untangled the pile up of cars and there were two laps to go. They mostly all survived the restart this time, and Latifi kept his lead, although Aitken managed to take third place back from De Vries. Schumacher, meanwhile, pushed his team mate Gelael out of the way to take fifth. Just like his dad. Two more cars pushed their way past Gelael too, suddenly leaving him in eighth and probably annoyed that he got stuck with Mick as a team mate. I think it’s fair to say things were not going well for Gelael. 

Latifi won his second race of 2019, second-place Correa had other priorities, “Champagne baby, champagne.” Aitken’s second podium of the weekend was totally worth it just to hear that “The Jack Attack is back!”

And finally, Raghunathan got a five-second time penalty for passing Zhou at the safety car restart before reaching the appropriate line (don’t let Nyck hear), demoting him from last place, to five seconds later in last place.

The standings…

So De Vries didn’t win, again, but as people always say, Baku is an outlier so…

Latifi now leads the championship by 19 points from Aitken, followed by Ghiotto in third. Fourth-place De Vries is one point behind Ghiotto.