The predicted chaos arrived in bucketloads across the weekend at the Baku City Circuit as leaders chucked away victories, championship protagonists ran into strife and the tech pro barriers took a knock or two. We also welcomed back Campos’ Ralph Boschung after missing the previous two rounds with injury.
Very few drivers came out from Baku unscathed, but there were a handful who used this to their advantage and used this as their chance to shine. Here’s the report cards from round 6 of the 2022 Formula 2 season.
Top of the Class:
Felipe Drugovich – Qualifying: 5th | Sprint: 5th | Feature: 3rdÂ
It’s hard to remember a weekend in recent F2 history where a driver has done so little yet come away with such a haul of points that Championship leader Felipe Drugovich did from Baku. The MP Motorsport driver, admittedly at one of his weaker tracks as previous results allude to, qualified a respectable fifth on Friday.
Already thinking about the Championship, Felipe was particularly cautious on the opening lap and Safety Car exchanges, dropping to eighth.
But, in a similar vein to 2021 Champion Oscar Piastri, Drugovich simply maximised results when he wasn’t winning. Whilst many lost their cool, the Brazilian driver swerved the carnage to finish 5th in the Sprint Race and 3rd in the Feature Race.
As his Championship rivals faltered, notably the Hitech duo of Jüri Vips and Marcus Armstrong, as well as ART’s Théo Pourchaire and Carlin’s Liam Lawson, the Brazilian increased his Championship lead by 49 points. Which after 6 rounds is looking pretty ominous for the chasing pack.
Jehan Daruvala – Qualifying: 8th | Sprint: 2nd | Feature: 4th Â
This side of the Prema garage has admittedly gone under my radar this season, mostly because Jehan has relied on strong Sprint races to recover from some average qualifying performances. Only once this season (Jeddah) has Daruvala finished higher in Sunday’s Feature Race than he finished on Saturday.
That record extended again in Baku, but this weekend was the strongest of the lot. Although Jehan will be ruing his teammate Dennis Hauger’s error that set off a chain of events that ended his comfortable hold of P1 in the race.
Jehan led comfortably until lap 18, the second of three Safety Car restarts, where he ran wide at turn 1 after locking up and letting Vesti through. These interruptions from the SC were caused by teammate Hauger crashing into turn 3 on lap 14, which ate into Daruvala’s advantage. Ultimately, the Red Bull junior had to settle for P2.
On Sunday, Jehan pulled off an aggressive strategy by stopping on lap eight to ditch the supersofts for the mediums, which allowed the Red Bull junior to move up from 8th to P5. He then took P4 after Vips’ incident and was closing behind Drugovich despite older tyres.
He ultimately finished 4th and with a fourth double points haul this season. Jehan remains P3 in the Championship but closes to 10 points behind Pourchaire in 2nd.
Dennis Hauger – Qualifying: 3rd | Sprint: DNF (FL) | Feature: 1st
The first of the drivers that may have had a blemish, a rather large one at that, but the rest of the weekend was strong enough to deserve a place on the top of this list. The 2021 Formula 3 Champion followed up on his Monaco Sprint Race win with his first Feature Race victory in Baku.
This victory came in somewhat fortunate circumstances as long-time race leader JĂĽri Vips crashed at turn 10 with three laps to go, but Dennis was applying significant pressure for much of the second stint, which probably contributed to the incident by forcing Vips into a mistake.
The race ended under the Safety Car, so the Norwegian tasted champagne from the top step for the second time in as many rounds. The Prema driver wasn’t perfect this weekend, however.
Despite a season-best P3 in qualifying, Hauger crashed into the wall at turn 3 on lap 14 of the sprint whilst battling over P7 with ART’s Pourchaire. The resulting incident triggered a number of restarts and safety cars that culminated in teammate Jehan Daruvala losing his comfortable lead and the Sprint Race win.
Despite Saturday’s error, Hauger’s haul of 25 points on Sunday moves the Norwegian driver up to P5 in the Championship, only 18 points behind his far more experienced teammate.
Frederik Vesti – Qualifying: 9th | Sprint: 1st | Feature: 7th (promoted from 8th due to penalties)
Vesti is the second driver who may not have had a perfect weekend but ultimately did well enough to make this list. The Mercedes junior returned to form, after an anonymous weekend in Monaco, to be the lead ART driver in qualifying by setting the 9th fastest time.
In the Sprint Race, he bolted from P2 to lead into turn 1, but due to missing gears on the exit, he lost the lead to fast-starting Jehan Daruvala (Prema) and slipped behind polesitter Jake Hughes (Van Amersfoort). It took until lap 6 for Vesti to get back past Hughes, albeit with a lovely move around the outside of turn 3.
Frederik didn’t have the pace to close the 4-second gap to Daruvala, but a series of late safety cars closed the gap. On the second restart, the Indian driver locked up and ran wide into turn 1, allowing Vesti to take the lead into turn 2 on lap 18. Vesti would survive the final restart as the leader to take his maiden victory in F2.
A dream weekend was almost unravelled on Sunday, as the Danish driver stalled on the grid as the race started. But he kept his head down and due to a mix of fortunate safety car interventions and simply not binning it in the wall, Frederik crossed the line P8. He was later promoted to P7 due to a penalty for Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan.
A haul of 16 points moves Vesti into 12th in the standings, but he is in reaching distance of the top 4 and momentum is starting to build for the #9 entry.
The struggle bus:
Jüri Vips – Qualifying: 1st | Sprint: 12th | Feature: DNF (FL)
It must be so frustrating being in the Vips camp, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory yet again as his weekend unfolded in dramatic fashion on Sunday.
Jüri’s confidence was pretty high arriving at a track where he won twice in 2021. He took pole position in Friday’s session, nearly two tenths quicker than former teammate Liam Lawson.
His Sprint Race was nothing to write home about, running in P8 until the first Safety Car restart, where Charouz’s Enzo Fittipaldi forced the Estonian off at turn two. Whilst Vips was able to return to the race, he could only finish P12.
Then came Sunday’s Feature Race, not only nailing the start but Jüri also did all the hard work getting back by teammate Marcus Armstrong who overcut him in the pits, survived a mid-race safety car intervention and Armstrong nudging him around turn 1. After all that, he stuffed it in the wall with 3 laps to go at turn 10. Forcing him to retire from the race.
A very costly DNF, as he was comfortably two seconds clear of the pack. This has all but ended any shot of Championship glory as he slips to 81 points behind Drugovich. We can’t deny his speed and the Red Bull backing, but the number of errors he’s made with his level of experience is unforgivable at this point. It’s going to take a herculean effort to redeem anything in 2022.
Amaury Cordeel – Qualifying: 19th | Sprint: 13th | Feature: DNF
As has been hinted in multiple report cards this season, the Belgian is no stranger to penalties. Unsurprisingly, he has triggered a round ban after getting another point in Baku, therefore averaging two points every round so far in 2022.
The offence this time around was squeezing into Campos’ Olli Caldwell at turn four (and the inside wall) that sent Cordeel airborne on the first lap of Sunday’s Feature race, the Stewards deemed him at fault due to his lack of awareness in spite of actually being in front of Caldwell going into the corner.
There isn’t much else to add really, he qualified near the back and was last but one of the classified finishers in the chaotic Sprint Race on Saturday. Thanks to the number of penalty points he amassed, he will be on the sidelines for Silverstone and then will serve a three-place grid drop for the next round in Austria if he returns. It will be interesting to see who Van Amersfoort will draft in as a replacement.
The paddock will have a small break before a run of four rounds in five weeks across July right before the summer break. First up is Silverstone on the weekend of the 2nd & 3rd of July, where a bruised chasing pack will be aiming to stop Felipe Drugovich’s canter towards the title.
