Its round four and we are at Baku! The track on the calendar as well as Monza that always produces such high drama. Remember the incident between SLR Southerner, FRA Ham and ZyDRAD? Could we see similar once more?
One Shot Quali! It was the usual names at the front but a new name on Pole Position. Crispy2001 would claim his first ever F2 pole position with a margin of just under two tenths quicker than Championship leader Raceroller22. Third place qualifier SLR Darnell was a further four tenths back but still just pipped fellow Championship rival UKBeastAssassin who had to settle for fourth. SLR Dodgy would qualify an impressive seventh even beating season one Champion FRA Jam to become the highest Evo Class qualifier.
The Feature! For the first few laps the top three remained the same despite Darnell starting on the mediums. We saw changes further down where UKBeastAssassin was jumped by both SLR Southerner and SLR Dodgy. Darnell would show great pace on the harder tyre right up until a poorly timed safety car which derailed his strategy completely along with a couple of other drivers. All super soft starters would make their stop under the safety car leaving the medium starters a bigger mountain to climb. Safety car comes in and Darnell has the lead without making his stop. It was time to try and pull away to limit the damage from the poorly timed safety car. He would be leading from Crispy and Raceroller who were fighting for the net lead. Corners later there was drama as Crispy would lose traction and make contact with the wall damaging his wing which also damaged his chance for the win. With four laps to go Darnell would make his stop which would drop him to thirteenth but on the super soft tyre which would set up an end of the race for the UNI Virtuosi driver. Eyes were now on the battle for second between Southerner, UKBeastAssassin and the wounded Crispy. The beast would get the move done on Southerner going into turn one but did he have enough pace to close and catch Raceroller? All though his end of race pace was great it wasn’t enough as Championship leader Raceroller would once again win the feature ahead UKBeast and SLR Southerner. FRA Jam would take his best finish of the season so far with fourth just pipping SLR Van Doorne on the line. Reigning champion FRA Ham finished sixth with Evo Class winner for the feature SLR Dodgy finishing an impressive seventh ahead of the wounded Crispy and his UNI teammate SLR Darnell who would take fastest lap in the last few laps. NonRipeLoki would take the last points scoring position in tenth.
The Sprint! The driver on pole for the feature was also on pole here for the sprint in Crispy. He would share the front row with SLR Dodgy. FRA Ham and SLR Van Doorne would share row two just behind. Away we went in a wet Baku sprint where it was absolute carnage in turn one and even a bit further on. Small contact with Jam into the back of Dodgy would create chaos. Dodgy would spin upon oncoming traffic leaving Southerner nowhere to go creating a domino affect with multiple drivers colliding into the back of the helpless ART car. Further on we saw a separate incident between FRA Ham and SLR Van Doorne. Two corners later Darnell would completely miss his breaking driving off into the run off dropping multiple places in the process. Into lap two our running order was Crispy, Jam, Beast, J Lee Menz, Loki and SLR Xhaka! Few laps after the chaos we had an interesting battle for ninth between Darnell, Ham, Southerner and Smoke…..this would sum up the Sprint race. The battle was mad and all just for a position outside of the points. By lap five the rain would stop but how long would it be until the track becomes dry enough to start seeing some drivers pit for the slicks? Until then we got entertained by a thrilling battle for fourth between Evo Class drivers Loki and Menz. At lap six we began to see drivers putting on the slicks however this would be too early as when the drivers at the top end began to pit three laps later the time seemed more fitting as the drivers found pace on the slicks straight away. Loki and Darnell were the only drivers to gamble with the wets to the end which ultimately didn’t pay off. Come the finish Crispy would make amends from the feature to win the sprint with Jam provisionally in second and UKBeastAssassin in third with another podium. Raceroller would recover well to finish fourth ahead of teammate and Evo Class sprint winner Loki. Southerner would recover to sixth ahead of J Lee Menz and SLR Van Doorne for the rest of the points.
Baku once again proved to be another entertaining round as expected on the Formula 2 calendar. Raceroller would extend his Championship lead whilst also gaining confidence after every race that passes. Could take a lot to beat the scot this season. We see you in three weeks for the round of Austria which to some is a very happy place!
Blogs Driver of the round: NonRipeLoki
Qualifying
1 CRISPY2001 1:48.999
2 RACEROLLER22
3 SLR DARNELL
4 UKBEASTASSASSIN
5 SLR SOUTHERNER
6 FRA HAM19
7 SLR DODGY
8 FRA JAM40
9 SLR VANDOORNE
10 NONRIPELOKI
11 J LEE MENZ
12 LP SMOKE
13 SLR HYPERZ
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95
15 SLR COLDEN
16 SLR BENNETT
17 SLR XHAKA
18 -
19 -
20 -
Feature
1 RACEROLLER22
2 UKBEASTASSASSIN
3 SLR SOUTHERNER
4 FRA JAM40
5 SLR VANDOORNE
6 FRA HAM19
7 SLR DODGY
8 CRISPY2001
9 SLR DARNELL 1:50.130
10 NONRIPELOKI
11 SLR XHAKA
12 SLR HYPERZ
13 J LEE MENZ
14 LP SMOKE
15 SLR COLDEN DNF
16 SLR BENNETT DNF
17 N1GHT RANG3R 95 DSQ
18 -
19 -
20 -
N1GHT RANG3R 95 - Ignoring invites to leave session due to connection.
Outcome: Disqualifcation to N1GHT RANG3R 95
NonRipeLoki vs N1GHT RANG3R 95 - Causing collision
Outcome: 10 sec 3LP to N1GHT RANG3R 95
Reason: Causing major damage to lower rear of NonRipeLoki car
SLR Xhaka vs N1GHT RANG3R 95
Outcome: Racing incident, No further investigation.
NonRipeLoki vs SLR Dodgy
Outcome: racing incident no further action
Reason: Slr Dodgy leaves enough room on the inside for NonRipeLoki.
Sprint
1 CRISPY2001
2 FRA JAM40 + 5 SECS
3 UKBEASTASSASSIN
4 RACEROLLER22 1:51.354
5 NONRIPELOKI
6 SLR SOUTHERNER
7 J LEE MENZ
8 SLR VANDOORNE
9 SLR DARNELL
10 SLR BENNETT
11 SLR XHAKA
12 FRA HAM19 + 5 SECS
13 SLR COLDEN
14 N1GHT RANG3R 95 QUALI BAN
15 SLR DODGY
16 LP SMOKE DNF
17 SLR HYPERZ DNF
18 -
19 -
20 -
SLR Dodgy vs FRA Jam40 - Causing collision
Outcome: 5 seconds 2LP to FRA Jam40
Reason: FRA Jam40 causing major collision at turn 1 reduced pen due to track condition.
SLR Vandoorne vs FRA Ham19 - Unsafe rejoin
Outcome: 5 seconds 2LP to FRA Ham19
Reason: FRA Ham19 rejoining track unsafely causing collision.
N1GHT RANG3R 95 - reading up early
Outcome: Qualifying ban next race & 3LP.
NonRipeLoki vs SLR Hyperz
Outcome: 10 sec 3LP to SLR Hyperz
Reason: SLR Xhaka misses his braking point hitting the rear of NonRipeLoki car causing no damage
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