Verschoor wins shortened Baku feature race, Bortoleto takes F2 lead

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Richard Verschoor won a heavily shortened Formula 2 feature race in Baku after a huge startline crash caused a lengthy stoppage.

Trident’s Verschoor led home ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins and Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli in a reduced-points contest that finished behind the safety car, while fourth was enough for Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto to take the championship lead.

The scheduled 31-lap encounter was immediately red-flagged when Invicta’s Kush Maini stalled and was collected by the unsighted Oliver Goethe (MP Motorsport) and Pepe Marti (Campos Racing), the latter launched into a frightening roll. All three drivers were able to extricate themselves from their cars unaided, and Marti was taken to the medical centre as a precaution. 

Van Amersfooort Racing’s Rafael Villagomez and AIX Racing’s Niels Koolen were also caught up in the incident, leaving the pair also out of the race with car damage.  

Following a 45-minute delay, the remaining 16 cars headed back to the circuit for a rolling restart, with 28 minutes left on the clock when the safety car peeled into the pitlane. 

Martins soon passed Antonelli for second before reeling in polesitter and early leader Verschoor, and the Alpine F1 junior then snatched first place into turn one.

The trio came in for their mandatory tyre changes with 18 minutes remaining, but Martins rejoined behind Verschoor and Antonelli after being held in his pit box as other cars came down the pitlane.

Verschoor controlled proceedings until a crash for Prema’s Gabriele Mini at turn 15 in the closing stages resulted in the race being neutralised once more, and the Dutchman then led the field to the chequered flag behind the safety car.

Rodin Motorsport’s title contender Zane Maloney initially leapfrogged ahead of Antonelli and Martins after making his pitstop one lap later than the pair. Maloney then defended from Antonelli on the run to turn three but locked up and spun after colliding with the Italian.

Antonelli was delayed and lost out to Martins, but was able to continue without damage to finish on the podium.

Saturday’s sprint race winner Joshua Duerksen finished behind Bortoleto in fifth for AIX Racing, with Hitech GP’s Paul Aron keeping his title hopes alive in sixth.

ART’s Luke Browning finished his first F2 feature race in seventh, the Williams F1 Academy member having a lost a front-wing endplate early on during a feisty three-way scrap with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger and VAR’s Enzo Fittipaldi. DAMS’ Jak Crawford was eighth ahead of Hauger, who was penalised for the incident with Browning.

Trident’s Christian Mansell made early progress on his feature race debut by moving ahead of Duerksen into sixth, but the Australian was delayed by a slow tyre change and came home 10th.

Having started from the back of the field, pre-race points leader Isack Hadjar briefly led after being the last driver to make his mandatory stop, but the Campos Racing driver finished out of the points in 14th after going off the road late on, with Maloney the final finisher in 15th.

Race results (17 laps)