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Race report

Baku F2: Shwartzman leads every lap to record first win of 2021

Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman took a convincing victory in the first FIA Formula 2 race of the weekend in Baku, leading every lap for his first win of the season.

Race winner Robert Shwartzman, PREMA Racing

Race winner Robert Shwartzman, PREMA Racing

Formula Motorsport Ltd

The highest placed returning driver this season started from pole at the Baku City Circuit after the top 10 drivers in qualifying were reversed and finished over five seconds clear, with the bonus points for the fastest lap, after a race which saw four retirements by the second lap.

Second placed Dan Ticktum started sixth but stormed through the field to take his third podium of the year for Carlin.

Series leader Guanyu Zhou finished in third, the UNI-Virtuosi driver's fourth podium of the year, while Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala slipped back from second to finish fourth.

ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire continued his strong form from Monaco, making up places on the last lap to finish fifth and move up to second in the standings.

The start proved hectic as the yellow flags came out almost immediately due to several separate incidents.

Jack Aitken’s HWA machine was squeezed into the wall at Turn 1, causing the Williams Formula 1 reserve to spin and end his race on the spot, while his team-mate Alessio Deledda was out at Turn 2 after running wide into the escape road.

Meanwhile UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision after nudging Oscar Piastri (Prema) into Liam Lawson, the Hitech driver ending up in the wall at Turn 2.

The incident, which brought out the safety car, put qualifying pace-setter Lawson out on the spot and caused Piastri front wing damage which forced him to retire a lap later.

Robert Shwartzman, PREMA Racing

Robert Shwartzman, PREMA Racing

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The safety car came in on lap four, leaving Shwartzman in control of the field ahead of Daruvala and Zhou.

Behind, DAMS racer Marcus Armstrong claimed fourth from Ralph Boschung (Campos), while Hitech driver Juri Vips snatched P7 from Pourchaire.

By lap 10, Zhou had passed Daruvala and was up into second, putting pressure onto Shwartzman, before being passed himself by a charging Ticktum.

Shwartzman had built up a four-second lead by lap 14, before the field settled into a rhythm for the last few laps.

Armstrong had been sitting in fifth, but was passed by Boschung and Pourchaire in the last two laps, leaving the Kiwi to finish seventh.

The top 10 was completed by Vips, David Beckmann (Charouz) and Bent Viscaal (Trident), which means the latter will start on pole for race two - which features a reverse of the top 10 finishers from race one.

Baku F2 Race 1 Result

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap
1 Russian Federation Robert Shwartzman Italy Prema Powerteam 21 44'35.734  
2 United Kingdom Dan Ticktum United Kingdom Carlin 21 44'40.878 5.144
3 China Guanyu Zhou United Kingdom UNI-Virtuosi 21 44'44.606 8.872
4 India Jehan Daruvala United Kingdom Carlin 21 44'46.086 10.352
5 France Theo Pourchaire France ART Grand Prix 21 44'46.773 11.039
6 Switzerland Ralph Boschung Spain Campos Racing 21 44'48.858 13.124
7 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong France DAMS 21 44'50.189 14.455
8 Estonia Jüri Vips United Kingdom HitechGP 21 44'50.258 14.524
9 Germany David Beckmann Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 21 44'53.033 17.299
10 Netherlands Bent Viscaal Italy Trident 21 44'53.498 17.764
11 Denmark Christian Lundgaard France ART Grand Prix 21 44'55.472 19.738
12 Netherlands Richard Verschoor Netherlands MP Motorsport 21 44'56.798 21.064
13 Germany Lirim Zendeli Netherlands MP Motorsport 21 44'57.571 21.837
14 Brazil Felipe Drugovich United Kingdom UNI-Virtuosi 21 45'01.583 25.849
15 Italy Matteo Nannini Spain Campos Racing 21 45'11.704 35.970
16 Israel Roy Nissany France DAMS 21 45'18.205 42.471
17 Brazil Guilherme Samaia Czech Republic Charouz Racing System 21 45'25.023 49.289
18 Japan Marino Sato Italy Trident 21 46'07.034 1'31.300
  Australia Oscar Piastri Italy Prema Powerteam 20    
  New Zealand Liam Lawson United Kingdom HitechGP 20    
  United Kingdom Jack Aitken HWA Racelab 20    
  Italy Alessio Deledda HWA Racelab 20    

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