Jüri Vips claimed pole position in Formula 2’s Baku qualifying session, where drivers benefited greatly from the slipstream effect along the main straight.
Liam Lawson will start alongside Vips – who won two races in Baku last year – on the front row for Sunday’s feature race, with Dennis Hauger and Marcus Armstrong behind on the second row.
At the start of the qualifying session, conditions were slightly cooler than during Formula 1’s first practice, with air temperatures at 25C and track temperature at 44C.
Despite the multiple red flag stoppages in the morning’s practice session, the opening 15 minutes of qualifying were largely incident-free. Ralph Boschung overshot into one of the many runoff areas, but otherwise drivers managed to largely avoid the walls around Baku. Boschung was later placed under investigation for an impeding incident involving Vips at turn 16, after Boschung had rejoined the track.
Ayumu Iwasa was fastest at the halfway point with a 1’54.493. However, Iwasa crashed into the wall with six minutes to go – what had looked like a dominant run turning into disaster. Once out of the car, Iwasa was collected by the medical car, due to the G-forces of the incident, although he was able to get out of the car unaided.
The session restarted with 5’50 to go, with drivers hurrying out on track to attempt to get in the perfect spot where they were close enough to cars ahead to receive a tow, but not so close as to be stuck in traffic.
With one minute remaining, the times started seriously falling. Jake Hughes, Richard Verschoor, Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson, Felipe Drugovich and Dennis Hauger were all able to beat Iwasa’s time in quick succession, using the advantage of a tow as drivers circulated together.
Vips, however, was able to set a 1’53.762 to beat Hauger. Liam Lawson got close to Vips’ time, setting a 1’53.925 despite clonking the wall heavily halfway through his run. However, Vips’ time was otherwise unchallenged in…
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