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Race report

F2 Azerbaijan: Durksen fights past debutants for maiden victory in sprint race

Joshua Durksen took his maiden F2 victory in Azerbaijan sprint race

Joshua Durksen, AIX Racing, Jak Crawford, DAMS, Kush Maini, Invicta Racing

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Joshua Durksen’s patience was tested by debutants Christian Mansell and Gabriele Mini as he waited for the opportune moment to complete passes en route to a dominant maiden F2 victory.

Starting from fourth, Durksen took advantage of a poor start from Jack Crawford (DAMS) to move into the top three places, but was comfortable sitting behind the new faces at Trident and Prema in the early phases.

But on lap eight, a DRS move into Turn 1 promoted him past early leader and polesitter Mansell, and an identical move five laps later on Mini completed the job.

Having pulled a gap of close to five seconds, Durksen saw his lead quashed when a crash for Ritomo Miyata (Rodin) caused the safety car to be called into action.

But leaving the restart to the last possible moment, the Paraguayan was able to cruise to the chequered flag to become the 15th different race winner of an enthralling season.

Mansell had started from pole for the partially reversed-grid sprint race and made a strong start, with Mini taking Crawford into Turn 1 after the American made a tardy launch.

Despite this, however, Mansell appeared to have pushed his tyres too soon and gradually dropped to eighth by the chequered flag, and subject to a post-race investigation for a clumsy moment of contact with Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta).

But while the Australian fell back, Mini was able to maintain his position towards the front, dropping behind a recovering Crawford but holding back fellow Alpine junior Victor Martins (ART) by 0.02s as they approached the finishing post side-by-side.

With Bortoleto finishing in fifth and Isack Hadjar 12th – having started in 20th after being judged to have caused a red flag in qualifying – the Frenchman’s championship lead has been slashed to just 6.5 points, and extends a scoreless streak to three races.

Luke Browning was the third debutant this weekend, replacing Zak O’Sullivan at ART, and the Briton finished 11th, one place shy of a point after battling with Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) for a sustained period.

   
1
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval km/h Pits Points Retirement Bonus
1
J. Duerksen PHM AIX Racing
24 21

-

           
2 United States J. Crawford DAMS Lucas Oil 7 21

+3.400

3.4

3.400          
3
G. Minì Prema Powerteam
3 21

+4.500

4.5

1.100          
4 France V. Martins ART Grand Prix 1 21

+4.500

4.5

0.000          
5
G. Bortoleto Invicta Racing
10 21

+7.800

7.8

3.300          
6
P. Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight
17 21

+8.700

8.7

0.900          
7 Italy A. Antonelli Prema Powerteam 4 21

+9.200

9.2

0.500          
8
C. Mansell Trident
23 21

+13.400

13.4

4.200          
9 India K. Maini Invicta Racing 9 21

+15.000

15.0

1.600          
10 Barbados Z. Maloney Rodin Motorsport 5 21

+15.500

15.5

0.500          
11
L. Browning ART Grand Prix
2 21

+15.700

15.7

0.200          
12 France I. Hadjar Campos Racing 20 21

+16.200

16.2

0.500          
13 Brazil E. Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing 14 21

+17.000

17.0

0.800   1      
14 Norway D. Hauger MP Motorsport 11 21

+17.000

17.0

0.000          
15 United States J. Correa DAMS Lucas Oil 8 21

+18.000

18.0

1.000          
16 Mexico R. Villagomez Van Amersfoort Racing 15 21

+20.600

20.6

2.600   1      
17 Netherlands R. Verschoor Trident 22 21

+22.800

22.8

2.200   1      
18 Belgium A. Cordeel Hitech Pulse-Eight 16 21

+47.400

47.4

24.600   1      
19
P. Martí Campos Racing
21 21

+52.100

52.1

4.700   1      
20
N. Koolen PHM AIX Racing
25 21

+56.200

56.2

4.100   1      
21
O. Goethe MP Motorsport
12 21

+1'37.900

1'37.9

41.700   1      
dnf Japan R. Miyata Rodin Motorsport 6 14

7 laps

        Accident  

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