Vips takes first F2 win in chaotic second Baku sprint race

Formula 2

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Jüri Vips has taken his first Formula 2 win, moving from third on the grid to take the chequered flag after multiple Safety Car periods.

Bent Viscaal, who finished tenth in this morning’s sprint race, started from pole position on the partially reversed grid. David Beckmann lined up alongside but Viscaal narrowly got away in the lead.

Chaos broke out behind them as several drivers braked late for the first corner, sending clouds of tyre smoke into the air. Guanyu Zhou and Dan Ticktum collided, Zhou locking up and sending them both into the run-off.

“So fucking annoying,” Ticktum fumed, “it’s like ‘why me’ but it’s happened to other people today so it is what it is.” He was at least able to continue, albeit right at the back of the field.

Théo Pourchaire and Ralph Boschung also tangled on the exit of the corner. Pourchaire was able to continue but forcing drivers behind into evasive manoeuvres.

Before the Safety Car was deployed while cars were retrieved, Beckmann made a move for the lead around the outside of Viscaal at turn five. The race was then neutralised for two laps.

Pourchaire was forced to come into the pits to replace his front wing after the Safety Car restart, he and ART not having noticed the damage before returning to race pace. He assumed Ticktum’s previous place at the rear, on exiting the pit lane, while Ticktum himself immediately overtook Alessio Deledda and Marino Sato to move up to 16th, before doing the same to Samaia and Aitken down the long straight to take 14th, making up four places in a single lap.

Juri Vips was also able to pass Viscaal, to take second place and begin to hunt down Beckmann for the lead.

On lap six Richard Verschoor was pushed into the wall by Roy Nissany, spinning into the TecPro at turn three. This was the same location where two F1 cars crashed during qualifying earlier on, and the banners looked quite haggard from repeated impacts by the time Verschoor landed in them.

“He brake-tested me, he braked very, very early” said Nissany on the radio in protest.

No sooner had the race restarted, with cars on cold tyres, than Marcus Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard ended up in the barriers at turn one, both of them joining the ranks of attrition from a race that entered another hiatus, this time a Virtual Safety Car. Formula 2 drivers are not allowed to pit during VSC periods, meaning no driver could take advantage of trying to get fresher tyres for the remaining 11 laps.

The racing restarted on lap 10 and Beckmann was able to hold the lead from Vips for only less than half the main straight, when Vips nearly took the lead. The Red Bull junior was able to pull out a gap of more than a second over the subsequent three laps, leaving Beckmann to fight with third-placed Jehan Daruvala.

Vips held the lead to the end, with Beckmann and Daruvala completing the podium. The other points-scoring drivers were Viscaal, Robert Shwartzman, Ticktum, Liam Lawson and Oscar Piastri.

Guanyu Zhou keeps the lead of the championship but Ticktum’s sixth-place finish puts him just one point behind second-place Pourchaire.

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Formula 2 race two results

PositionCarDriver
18Juri Vips
214David Beckmann
36Jehan Daruvala
424Bent Viscaal
51Robert Shwartzman
65Dan Ticktum
77Liam Lawson
82Oscar Piastri
910Theo Pourchaire
104Felipe Drugovich
1120Matteo Nannini
1222Jack Aitken
1325Marino Sato
1415Guilherme Samaia
1523Alessio Deledda
1616Roy Nissany
1717Marcus Armstrong
189Christian Lundgaard
1911Richard Verschoor
2021Ralph Boschung
213Guanyu Zhou
2212Lirim Zendeli

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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13 comments on “Vips takes first F2 win in chaotic second Baku sprint race”

  1. Finally, a great result for Vips. Hopefully, this will give a much-needed confidence boost.

    1. The first half of that race was pure madness.

  2. Once again Jehan too slow out of Turn 1 to turn 16 and losing .5sec which he was making in slipstrea,

    1. Dude I really wish you paid more attention to the other drivers in the series! It’s quite clear that Jehan is not making it to F1, so why criticise him every single race?

      1. Mahaverr fan, perhaps? 🤭

      2. @wsrgo
        Right. Very important and deserving result for Juri. no doubt.
        But Chaitanya, like me, is just another Indian motorsport fan (not too many in number) who finally wants someone to do well and not bow out after years of under-performance. Jehan is our only hope now :-D

  3. RandomMallard (@)
    5th June 2021, 16:36

    @hazelsouthwell I don’t think this is quite correct:

    Formula 2 drivers are not allowed to pit during VSC periods

    I believe the rule in question here is Article 39.9b, which states:

    The mandatory pit stop may not be carried out: (…) During a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) intervention, unless the driver is already in the pit entry or pit lane at the time the VSC is deployed

    This rule only applies to the mandatory pitstop in race 3 on Sunday morning I believe. Article 42.4 suggests that they are allowed to pit for tires during a VSC, but it wouldn’t count as their mandatory stop in the FR:

    When initiated during a race, no car may enter the pits whilst the VSC procedure is in use
    unless it is for the purpose of changing tyres or repairing a genuine accident damage

    1. @RandomMallard my understanding is that that could only be used if there was damage to their tyres, eg: a puncture, not to improve pace.

      1. RandomMallard (@)
        5th June 2021, 17:50

        Ah ok. The regulation is a bit vague, but the inclusion of accident damage as a separate wording to tyre changes suggested, at least to me, that they could still stop. It is maybe something that could be cleared up.

  4. @hazelsouthwell

    No sooner had the race restarted, with cars on cold tyres, than Marcus Armstrong collided with Christian Lundgaard at turn one, both of them joining the ranks of attrition from a race that entered another hiatus, this time a Virtual Safety Car.

    Armstrong crashed by himself, Lundgaard’s retirement was in a collision with someone else (Drugovich or Lawson perhaps, can’t recall exactly).

    1. Was questioning my memory when reading that part too. I clearly remember seeing him understeer straight into the barrier all on his own.

  5. Gotta give credit to Dan, what a comeback after being spun on lap one.

  6. Thought Piastri would have a bit more pace than he showed. It was pretty dull once everyone got in the DRS train.

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