In three fantastic races, Red Bull Academy driver Juri Vips became the first Formula Two driver in its 101-race history to take two wins on the same weekend – with Robert Shwartzman taking the first Sprint race.
In that first race, Shwartzman bounced back from a difficult start of the season with a controlled performance around the streets of Baku. Englishman Dan Ticktum finished in second and championship leader Guanyu Zhou came third.
After a disappointing qualifying left him in tenth for the feature race, Shwartzman started in first due to the top 10 starting in reverse grid order. Shwartzman said he was confident his team would find their pace and they appeared to have achieved that instantly, with the Russian bolting off the line and disappearing into the distance.
Shwartzman’s victory never looked in doubt, despite a commanding charge from street circuit expert Ticktum. The Williams Academy driver started in sixth and picked up the four in front of him with relative ease but was unable to bridge the five second gap to the leader.
Zhou collected his fourth podium of the year ahead of Jehan Daruvala, with Theo Pourchaire finishing in fifth.
Hitech driver Juri Vips dominates the rest of the weekend
The Estonian driver kept his nose clean in Sprint Race 2 to take his first victory in Formula Two. The 20-year-old put in a consistent performance despite multiple stoppages and six retirements to the race.
It was far from plain sailing though as Vips had to navigate two Safety Car restarts while working his way past Bent Viscaal and David Beckmann.
Despite putting up a fight, the rookie, Beckmann had to settle for second ahead of fellow Red Bull Academy driver Daruvala – with Viscaal dropping down to fourth after starting on reverse grid pole.
Shwartzman followed up his win with fifth ahead of Ticktum, who survived a collision on lap one. Liam Lawson made up 13 places to finish seventh, with Oscar Piastri taking the final points place in eighth.
Double delight for Vips
In a fantastic Feature race, Vips bolstered his title challenge by holding off championship rivals and PREMA team-mates Piastri and Shwartzman.
It was Vips’ team-mate Lawson who started on pole and the two would fight for the lead instantly, with Vips taking the lead. Piastri took advantage of the scrap and easily made his way past Lawson. Lawson would then get a 10-second time penalty for pushing Pourchaire off the track at the start of the race, which compounded his troubles.
Piastri’s podium was also under threat, after he was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pits. However, Piastri opened up a seven-second gap to Schwartzman and held on to second.
Shwartzman was up from 10th and scored his second podium of both the season and the weekend, following up his Sprint race victory to move up to third in the title fight.
Piastri sliced Guanyu Zhou’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship down to just five points with the UNI-Virtuosi racer finishing outside of the points in 13th.
Vips moves up to fourth in the standings with 17-year-old Pourchaire in fifth.
F2 takes another month-long break, where we will see action restart on the July 16 at Silverstone.
By Charlie Parker
