Baku F2: Vips holds off Piastri for second straight win

The Red Bull junior fought off teammate Liam Lawson to take the lead from second on the first lap, eventually crossing the chequered flag over a second ahead of Piastri to take 25 points.

The win – his second ever after yesterday’s second sprint race – puts him up to fourth in the drivers standings.

Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman finished in third, having started 10th, while UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich finished fourth.

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung finished fifth after starting seventh, while Lawson finished sixth after starting on pole for the 28-lap race.

The race start was aborted after HWA's Jack Aitken, who should have started 14th, and Campos Racing’s Matteo Nannini, set to start 17th, were unable to get off the line.

The pair returned to the pitlane but Nannini encountered further problems and was unable to start the race, while Aitken managed to get going.

Vips took the lead from Lawson on the first turn, kicking off a dramatic first lap for the final race of the weekend.

Lawson was eventually handed a ten second penalty for a defensive move against ART's Theo Pourchaire on the first lap for forcing another driver off the track into the pit lane exit.

Carlin’s Dan Ticktum, Pourchaire and DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong tangled at Turn 3, forcing Pourchaire into the escape lane and knocking Armstrong out of the race for the second race in a row.

Pourchaire managed to keep his car going but was sent to the back of field before being forced to retire.

The incident resulted in a safety car, under which Ticktum pitted with front wing damage and changed his tyres, but it did not count as a mandatory pitstop. He received a ten second penalty for causing the collision.

The safety car came in on the second lap, with Prema Racing’s Oscar Piastri and Lawson tussling for second on the restart.

Vips was the first of the leaders to pit on Lap 6, taking his mandatory pitstop as the window opened, before his teammate pitted the following lap, taking his ten second penalty and dropping to tenth.

Just two laps later, Piastri passed Vips in the battle for the net race lead along the start-finish straight.

But Piastri was hit with a five second penalty for an unsafe pitstop release in front of UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich.

Despite having been dropped down the order by his penalty, by Lap 15 Lawson was up to eighth place after passing Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala.

Vips continued to face pressure from Piastri, unaided by a struggle to lap HWA's Alessio Deledda on the start-finish straight, for which the latter was handed a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Ticktum finally pitted on Lap 22 and served his penalty, exiting into 10th place, shortly followed by Aitken, who was the last to pit and exited into 11th.

The Carlin driver had made up two positions by Lap 26, with a stunning pass on both Lundgaard and Beckmann in one move on the run to Turn 1, but eventually finished in eighth.

F2 returns at Silverstone from 16-18 July.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP
2	2	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam	6.100
3	1	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	12.600
4	4	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	22.400
5	21	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	24.400
6	7	Liam Lawson	HitechGP	26.200
7	6	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	28.000
8	5	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	29.800
9	9	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	34.000
10	12	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	36.100
11	22	Jack Aitken	HWA Racelab	36.900
12	14	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	39.900
13	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	47.900
14	11	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	48.700
15	25	Marino Sato	Trident	55.400
16	16	Roy Nissany	DAMS	55.800
17	24	Bent Viscaal	Trident	56.900
18	15	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System
19	23	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab
	10	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix
	17	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS
	20	Matteo Nannini	Campos Racing
View full results