Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Joshua Duerksen followed his fine form from Monza with a maiden Formula 2 victory in the Baku sprint race, as he benefits from a strong bond with his AIX Racing team.
The Paraguayan pulled off a brave move on DAMS’ Jak Crawford into the inside of turn one at the start of the race. Then, he managed his pace in chasing down the leaders, overtaking Trident’s debutant Christian Mansell on lap eight of 21, then claiming the lead from Prema’s Gabriele Mini on lap 13. After that, he quickly broke clear and not even a late safety car period put his lead under threat.
“I thought no, please don’t,” Duerksen recalled in the press conference about the moments before the safety car was deployed. “I saw on the screen a car inside the wall. I was like ‘no, I will have safety car now’.
“I was hoping for a virtual safety car because this would help me a lot. But sadly, the safety car came out and I was like ‘alright, now I have to make sure I get a good restart.’ Then I just kept going and luckily, I studied this track a lot and I knew that on the safety car restart many guys would go straight on T1 because this happened many times last year. So, I was really cautious on the braking for T1, and I still almost went off. So luckily, I prepared myself pretty well for this.
“After I was just pushing like qualifying laps just to make sure Jak [Crawford] was out of the DRS zone. From there I was just managing the tyres to get home.”
Duerksen was delighted to achieve his first series victory at a track he first thought he would struggle at.
“After free practice, I though Baku will be tricky, but luckily the track improved so I was feeling more confident.”
The F2 rookie, who stepped up directly from the Formula Regional European Championship just like Andrea Kimi Antonelli, has clearly exceeded his own expectations and explained why he thinks he has been able to.
“The team has done a great work,” he said. “The car is improving, of course. I was improving as well with the car, having a better feeling, just connecting better with the car. And I hope we can continue like this, with this progress.”
He then added: “I think we connect all pretty well, a really good relationship. We understand each other pretty well, and I think this is a combination that we need to make things happen. I mean, I really understand what I need from the car, and I understand their point of view. And I think we are matching pretty well. And this is of course helping to get these results.”