Charles Leclerc showed his rivals a clean pair of heels in this morning’s FIA Formula 2 Championship feature race at the Baku City Circuit, easily controlling the race for a lights to flag victory, his second in a feature race and third overall, ahead of Nyck De Vries and Nicholas Latifi. 

The win was set up at the start, with the Monegasque driver getting away easily as the lights went out to lead his rivals into turn one, with Latifi easily following him past a slow Nobuharu Matsushita in front of De Vries and Antonio Fuoco, with the Japanese driver just holding off Artem Markelov and Oliver Rowland into turn two. Unfortunately for Johnny Cecotto, who stalled before being restarted in the pitlane, his race lasted two corners before he found the wall, prompting the first safety car period. 

Leclerc backed the pack up enormously before streaking away to hold the lead at the restart next time through, with De Vries running outside and through Latifi at turn one while behind the Canadian Matsushita and Markelov made short work of Fuoco, who now had Sergio Canamasas to contend with behind him until lap 7, when the Spaniard got past his Italian rival before he tried to regain the position at the next corner: the pair came together and Fuoco ran over Canamasas’ rear wheel and into the wall. 

With almost all of the drivers starting on the supersofts it was time for their stops: Leclerc, Latifi, Matsushita and Rowland were straight in next time by, with De Vries claiming some clean air at the front for a lap before he also inevitably pitted. Discounting Luca Ghiotto, Ralph Boschung and Nabil Jeffri on the alternate strategy, the top five remained Leclerc from De Vries, Latifi, Markelov and Matsushita, with the Malaysian finding the wall next time round to prompt a brief VSC period to remove his car. 

When the race went live again Leclerc wasted no time in moving forward, passing Boschung for P2 just before Louis Deletraz found the wall on lap 12, prompting a second safety car period and killing off any small hope race leader Ghiotto had of scoring any points, compounding his poor luck from qualifying. The Italian easily controlled the restart with Leclerc not needing to pass, and behind the pair De Vries running inside Boschung and Latifi going outside to slide in behind the virtual race leader and putting up an obstacle to those behind looking to snaffle their podium finishes. 

Rowland was on a charge and made short work of Markelov, who was caught behind Boschung at turn one, and when Ghiotto pitted on lap 19 and Matsushita ran deep at turn one the race order was set at the front. 6 laps later Sean Gelael found the barrier at the tight turn 8, leaving Sergey Sirotkin nowhere to go but into him, blocking the circuit: the safety car re-emerged to lead the remainder of the drivers into the pitlane for a red flag finish. 

Leclerc had easily controlled the late pace to hold De Vries, Latifi and a charging Rowland in check for another solid victory. Behind the Briton was Markelov and Norman Nato, who finished on top of Jordan King after a race-long battle, and although Sergio Sette Camara was next into the pits the classification rolled back a lap as usual, leaving Boschung delighted to finish in P8 despite a last lap incident, ahead of Canamasas and Sirotkin.

Feature Race Provisional Classification                                    

Nyck De Vries has claimed the top spot in a busy free practice session this morning at the Baku City Circuit, grabbing P1 late in the session and holding on despite the best efforts of his rivals to depose him over the closing minutes to lead the way by a tenth from Jordan King and Luca Ghiotto. 

In a session slowed by three VSCs and a red flag the McLaren development driver stopped the clock at 1:54.187 with just 4 minutes remaining: the final minutes flew past in a blur as everyone made their best efforts to make up for lost time, but the Dutchman held onto the top spot as the chequered flag emerged. 

The session opened under hot and sunny conditions, and with track temperatures of 45˚ the action was soon just as scorching. Artem Markelov set the first competitive time, with De Vries pushing a little too hard and needing to use the run off at turn 3 before heading on his way once again. Nobuharu Matsushita and Ghiotto soon took over on top, but when Nabil Jeffri tagged the barriers at the tight turn 8 before coasting to a halt the first VSC period opened to remove his stricken vehicle. 

The session went live at the 15 minute mark, but unfortunately for super sub Sergey Sirotkin, in for the weekend at ART, his car rolled to a halt at the start of the long front straight, prompting another VSC and then a red flag as the marshals brought a truck around to remove car #8: with nowhere to take the stricken vehicle they were forced to carry it the full length of the straight, eating into the teams’ valuable track time. 

The track finally reopened on 30 minutes, with everyone looking to reclaim lost time. Oliver Rowland, who was running last on the timesheets, pushed hard to grab a time: the title contender went P4 but lost the rear at turn one and spun into the barriers, stopping his session and slowing everyone else’s as the VSC signs re-emerged while the marshals removed the DAMS car. 

With 5 minutes remaining the track went live once more, with De Vries immediately on the pace: the Dutchman went purple for all 3 sectors to easily claim the top spot, and he waited to see what his rivals could do. King went P2 on the same lap with Ralph Boschung in P3, then on the next lap MP teammate’s King and Sergio Sette Camara went faster to grab P2 and 3, Markelov ran wide at turn one while teammate Ghiotto improved to 3rd, while Antonio Fuoco ran wide before the final straight and just missed a top 3 finish. 

Behind that top three Sette Camara, Fuoco, Boschung, Charles Leclerc, Nicholas Latifi, Norman Nato and Markelov will all expect better things from this afternoon’s qualifying session, as will Sirotkin (P14) and Rowland (P15) given their truncated track time: with a free practice this exciting, this afternoon’s qualifying promises to be electric.

Preliminary Free Practice Classification 

Charles Leclerc has continued his imperious form in qualifying by claiming his fourth pole position in a row with two stunning laps during this afternoon’s qualifying session at the Baku City Circuit, setting the two fastest times to ensure that Nobuharu Matushita and Nicholas Latifi had no chance to break his pole position run this season. 

The Monegasque driver stopped the clocks at 1:52.129 at the close of the session to improve on an earlier lap which was already good enough for the top spot: the McLaren-Honda development driver was half a second off his pace despite only putting one hot lap into his second set with one eye on the race tomorrow as he and his rivals were unable to come to terms with the PREMA man’s qualifying pace. 

With temperatures soaring the grid was released at the start of the session, and all drivers were on the circuit within the first minute, despite Leclerc, Matsushita and Nyck De Vries all stalling in the pitlane as they waited for the green light. On the first flying set it seemed as though each successive driver was going faster than his predecessor: Antonio Fuoco, Johnny Cecotto, Artem Markelov, Leclerc and Matsushita all briefly held the top spot before Luca Ghiotto found the wall at turn 15, bringing out the red flags to deal with his broken car. 

The race briefly went live before the reds re-emerged for debris, prompting everyone to return to the pits once again, and the track soon live again for just a few minutes before Nicholas Latifi clipped the barriers at the tight turn 8, removing his right front wing and prompting the red flags for a third time at the halfway mark of the session. 

A few minutes later the debris was cleared and the track was live once more, with Leclerc and Latifi soon on a charge: the Canadian went fastest in the first sector but the Ferrari Academy ace was fastest in the second and third for pole, some seven tenths faster than Latifi in P2. The stop/start nature of the session was having an effect on the field as many drivers started to complain about their tyres going off, but Matsushita bucked the trend by grabbing tomorrow’s front row with just 4 minutes remaining before the flag, just as Leclerc went faster again to reinforce his pole position. 

Behind the top 3 De Vries was the only other driver within a second of the top spot, ahead of Artem Markelov, Antonio Fuoco, Johnny Cecotto, Sergio Canamasas, Oliver Rowland and Robert Visiou: after two unusual sessions today, tomorrow’s feature race promises to be unmissable.

Preliminary Qualifying Classification 

Nyck De Vries crushed his rivals in this afternoon’s Sprint Race at the Circuit de Monaco, stealing a march on his teammate at the start before soaring off into the distance for a relatively simple, if well-deserved, win in the Principality to lead a Rapax 1-2 from Johnny Cecotto and Gustav Malja. 

The victory was made at the start: everyone in the Rapax garage held their breath as the lights went out and the grid was released, with poleman Cecotto making a good start but fellow front row starter De Vries making a better one, running around the outside to claim P1 into Ste Devote ahead of his teammate and Malja, who did just enough to fend off Luca Ghiotto as they headed up the hill. 

The McLaren development driver was soon soaring away, building a gap which would last all the way to the flag: Cecotto tried to keep his teammate in sight, and the pair soon built a large gap back to Malja, who had his mirrors full of the blue and white car all race long, but the Venezuelan was struggling more with his car and at the halfway make started dropping back toward his rivals. 

De Vries didn’t have everything go his way: a barrier touch at Tabac quickly focused the Dutchman’s attentions on his driving rather than the result, and he didn’t put a wheel wrong afterwards before finally being greeted by the flag for his best single race result of his career. Behind him Cecotto withstood pressure from Malja for the second half of the race and held firm to round out the 1-2 for Rapax, with Malja delighted to be back on the podium once again. 

Ghiotto followed the Swede across the line for P4, his second strong performance in the principality this weekend but once again denied the podium, while teammate Artem Markelov crossed behind the Italian after muscling past Alexander Albon at Rascasse on lap 20 for 5th, with Thai driver finishing just ahead of teammate Nobuharu Matsushita and Jordan King, who rounded out the points in P8. 

Local hero Charles Leclerc will be bitterly disappointed after a home round that promised so much: a pole and two DNFs means that Oliver Rowland closed the gap between the pair to just 3 points in the Drivers’ Championship, 77 points to 74, with Markelov on 60 ahead of teammate Ghiotto on 56 and ART pair Matsushita and Albon further back on 48 and 37 points, while in the Teams’ Championship RUSSIAN TIME leads the way from DAMS by 116 points to 102 ahead of ART Grand Prix on 85 and PREMA Racing on 79 as they turn their attention to the next round of the championship in Baku on 23-25 June.

Sprint Race Provisional Classification