Drama

It was back to Baku and Boschung was also back, again. Chaos and Safety Cars also promised to be back, as the teams braced themselves to spend most of their weekend fixing bits of broken car. Although I’m not sure anyone was prepared for drivers getting banned, while parents and trainers fought it out in the paddock…

Practice: Not so much drama

Uncharacteristically for Baku, half of the practice session had passed before anyone was struck down by a wall-related mishap. Someone had to go first though and sadly for Clément Novalak, it was him. The red flags were out as the marshals wheeled him away.

Everyone was soon back on track when the lights went green, except Roy Nissany, whose engine cover was off, as mechanics diligently worked on his car, and Ralph Boschung who was smashed into a barrier. The red flags were back out.

Normal running resumed with six minutes to go and everyone filed back out to try to go fast. Liam Lawson was fast, but not as fast as Jüri Vips who was top of the time sheets as the clock hit zero. Lawson was second and Marcus Armstrong was third.

Qualifying: Iwasa’s personal drama

Ayumu Iwasa led the way in Qualifying, setting a speedy provisional pole time, while Boschung was doing a 1,000-point turn trying to get out of the escape road, and Armstrong was being told by his team that they couldn’t help with any of the things he was complaining about, “That’s all on you Marcus.”

Iwasa was still fastest as they all went out for their last few qualifying attempts, that is until he was crashed into the wall. “I’m sorry,” he mournfully declared as the red flag waved. Five minutes were left when the session restarted, giving the drivers one final lap to try and go faster. And they did. Iwasa could do nothing, only watch his name tumble down the timing screens, all the way to 13th place (unlucky for some!). Pole position instead went to Vips, with Lawson second once again and Dennis Hauger third.

Sprint Race: Going wide drama

Jake Hughes qualified tenth, meaning he took pole for the Sprint Race. Frederik Vesti was second and Jehan Daruvala third. Daruvala said he thought the race would be chaotic, but he planned to have a good start and stay ahead of that shit (maybe not his exact words). Vesti was very sensibly talking about saving tyres, while Hughes had basically given up on life having any kind of plan.

Vesti had an excellent start, jumping straight into the lead, but then fucked it up by going wide, allowing Daruvala and Hughes to get past him. Daruvala had already dealt with Hughes at the very start and so was now in the lead of the race and speeding ahead, trying to get as far away from everyone else as possible. Vesti was left in third, trying to fend off Logan Sargeant and Richard Verschoor. Initially, it looked as though the start hadn’t been typical Baku levels of chaos, except for a tell-tale sign in the form of a wonky front wing on Jack Doohan’s car. Race Control promptly showed him the black and orange flag and he was off to the pits for a new one.

Up front, Vesti had now managed to see off Sargeant and Verschoor, and was hounding Hughes in a manner that looked like he would easily get past, yet he just couldn’t. After several laps of attempting to get by Hughes in a more traditional way, Vesti gave up that approach and just overtook him around the outside, taking Vesti up to second place behind Daruvala who was now miles away.

As Vesti got to work chasing down Daruvala, everyone else bunched up behind Hughes, until eventually he couldn’t hold them back any longer and basically the entire field proceeded to overtake one by one, except Roy Nissany who went for the overtake but then missed the corner and ended up down the escape road instead.

Meanwhile, Hauger’s focus turned to trying to overtake Pourchaire for ninth place. With Pourchaire having failed himself to overtake Vips ahead of him, Hauger decided to power past Pourchaire, except Hauger hit the wall instead and the Safety Car was deployed. “Are you ok?” asked Hauger’s team. He confirmed with only swearing, while Pourchaire carried on down the road, having a rant at his own team, “He’s a stupid idiot… what an idiot.”

After the incident had been cleared away, Daruvala led the field through what appeared to be a surprisingly drama-free restart, until the mass of cars cleared, revealing the battle-scarred stragglers. Vips could be seen reversing out of an escape road, having been barged by Enzo Fittipaldi, and Olli Caldwell was trundling to the pits for a new front wing while complaining about Cem Bölükbasi. The Safety Car was straight back out.

Having nailed the first Safety Car restart, the second should have been easy for Daruvala, except it wasn’t. Daruvala went wide at the first corner, leaving Vesti to seize the opportunity, flying by to take the lead of the race. Verschoor also tried to take his chances with Daruvala (Sargeant was far out of the third-place picture by now having (probably) lost places during one of the Safety Car restarts), but Daruvala held him off, defending hard against Verschoor and Lawson. This battling was perfect for Vesti who was left to get on with trying to pull as big a lead as he could.

All the excitement was apparently too much for Verschoor and he was suddenly in the wall, “I’m sorry,” he told his team sorrowfully as the Safety Car was called. By the time it was safe to go racing again, there was only one lap left and Daruvala clearly wanted his race lead back. Vesti, however, managed the restart perfectly and there was nothing Daruvala could do but accept second place. While the front runners all behaved in an orderly fashion, there was a massive crash in the background, as Boschung squeezed Calan Williams into the wall, Bölükbasi ran into the back of Williams and Marino Sato ran into the back of Bölükbasi. Despite looking a little shaken, everyone was fine, although Boschung was handed a three-place grid penalty for the Feature Race for causing a collision.

With chaos and double-waved yellow flags all round, Vesti crossed the line to win his first F2 race. Daruvala was behind in second, while Lawson was third. Never has there been three more different ways of expressing emotion through a thumbs up than the moment they stood together on the podium, posing for a group photo. Vesti with a “I’m so happy, this is all really great” thumbs up, Daruvala with a “Yeah, whatever” thumbs up, and Lawson with a “Cool, I suppose that wasn’t bad” thumbs up. Insightful body language analysis brought to you right here.

Feature Race: Tabloid drama

Vips, Lawson and Hauger were starting the Feature Race from the front, with Lawson and Hauger both sounding ready to win the race, while Vips reminisced about how great his start was last year. That kind of positive thinking seemed to work for Vips, as he managed to keep the lead off the line, while Armstrong passed Hauger for third. Vesti went from hero to zero by stalling on the grid. Amaury Cordeel also did some zero work by crashing into Caldwell, causing a Safety Car. Bad times all round as Caldwell was out of the race and Cordeel had finally accumulated enough penalty points (12) to be banned from the next round at Silverstone.

As the Safety Car entered the pits once more and racing was back underway, there were plenty of battles through the field, not least between Lawson and Armstrong over second place, allowing Vips to start pulling out a lead. Novalak, however, was in the pits with a laptop plugged into his car. Never a good sign mid-race.

Soon it was time for the mandatory pit stops to begin, with Lawson and Hauger among the first to stop. Lawson’s pit stop was so slow that he came out behind Hauger, while later on Armstrong somehow managed to come out ahead of Vips, leaving Vips no choice but to overtake Armstrong on track, like a proper racing driver (although probably with DRS, I don’t know, I didn’t write that down). After a few laps of pit-stop frenzy, only Williams and Boschung hadn’t pitted, as they had started on harder tyres, running the alternative strategy. It was at this time that Nissany tried to overtake Bölükbasi, but instead crashed into him, leaving both their races ruined and the Safety Car back out. Nissany declared “We have an idiot on the track,” while Bölükbasi more simply complained “He just fucking hit me.” Bölükbasi’s dad and Nissany’s trainer also weighed into things and apparently had a bit of a barny.

Boschung used the Safety Car opportunity to have a quick pit stop, although way too early for his tyres to be able to last, whereas Williams took a more cautious approach, staying out in the lead of the race. Just behind, and waiting for Williams to pit so he could retake his place at the front, was Vips, followed by Armstrong and Hauger. Although not for long, as the Safety Car restart was chaos, with Vips and Armstrong nearly hitting each other and broken front wings all round. A Virtual Safety Car was called. Lawson glumly stated, “I don’t know what to say”, while Armstrong apparently had a lot to say because his team told him to, “get off the radio and get on with it please.” Lawson, Armstrong, Iwasa and Pourchaire were all off to the pits for various fixes, while Williams and Vips miraculously remained unscathed at the front. “Safety Car restart has been noted” announced the stewards. It was even too much for them to pick apart.

The end of the Virtual Safety Car meant Vips was under pressure from Hauger who was now behind him, as they all bunched up behind Williams. Clearly not wanting to get in the way of the real race leaders, Williams locked up and went straight down an escape road, allowing Vips to speed away from the pursuing Hauger. The whole thing had taken so long that by now Race Control had given up counting laps and started a 15 minute countdown clock, while the stewards put everyone under investigation and started dishing out penalties, like a weird penalty roulette (if roulette involved an extensive collection of camera angles and copious amounts of data from 22 F2 cars).

However, none of that mattered. With just six minutes to go, Vips hit the wall, several walls. Bits of barrier and polystyrene were scattered across the track, as his chassis slid to a halt. Bent wheels, a broken front wing, a demoralised driver. He was out. The Safety Car was deployed.

There was no more time and no one had the appetite for another restart, and so the race ended. Hauger victorious, Sargeant in second, and Felipe Drugovich stealthing his way into third place. Afterwards they traded stories about how they dodged Vips and all his debris on their way to the podium. They were joyous, but who knows if Vips ever made it further than being curled in a ball at the foot of the Baku castle wall, a mixture of sadness and frustration that Vips knows only too well.

No championship drama

Despite barely even noticing Drugovich this weekend, he got even more points and is now even further in the lead of the championship (with 132 points), ahead of Pourchaire (83 points) and Daruvala (73 points). Sargeant and Hauger’s podium helped move them up to fourth (59 points) and fifth (55 points) respectively, while Armstrong (55 points), Vips (51 points), Doohan (50 pints), Fittipaldi (45 points) and Lawson (44 points) have dropped down to cover the rest of the top ten places.

The next round is at Silverstone in a few weeks. I’m sure a nice cup of tea will make everything better for Vips.