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Mick Schumacher believes he can "save" Baku F2 weekend after spin

Ferrari Formula 1 junior Mick Schumacher hopes he can "save the weekend" after a "costly" mistake cost him a strong Formula 2 finish in Baku

Prema Racing driver Schumacher immediately launched forward from his sixth-place starting spot in Saturday's feature race before running wide at Turn 1, which cost him places.

The reigning European Formula 3 champion then battled past 2018 GP3 champion Anthoine Hubert in the early running, and was seventh after the pitstops when he lost the rear end of his car at Turn 16, spun and stalled.

Seventh would have matched his best F2 result - in the Bahrain sprint race that he started from pole position - and a number of cars ahead of him when he spun then failed to finish the Azerbaijan race.

"The start was quite good and it was close in Turn 1," said Schumacher.

"In the beginning, the pace was great.

"We pitted a little earlier than some others and I gained quite a bit of time.

"Unfortunately, after the stop, the car suddenly didn't feel as good anymore with a lot of understeer, and I eventually made a driving mistake which proved really costly.

"I think there is still the potential to save the weekend tomorrow, with the racing here being usually exciting, so I will try my best."

Schumacher will start the reversed-grid race from the back row of the grid after the incident, which ended his race because he could not restart the car.

Gelael used "experience" for Baku comeback

Schumacher's Prema team-mate Sean Gelael came through from 19th on the grid to seventh, a result he put down to both pace and luck.

The day before, Gelael had an power issue and pulled to a stop in qualifying.

He was helped by two marshals who pushed his car at the middle but when he successfully got it restarted, the rear wheels collected the two marshals and Gelael was disqualified from qualifying.

Picking his way through the field, even running sixth before being passed by erstwhile points leader Luca Ghiotto, Gelael - in his fifth season of F2/GP2 - said experience was key.

"I finally finished in the points," said Gelael.

"We showed the pace since free practice.

"Luck wasn't on our side yesterday, but it was a bit today, I'm not going to lie.

"We had a good start and we were always in the top 10 area for the whole race.
"
I was [aiming] for the points and the game plan was always to stay safe and out of trouble because the pace was there.

"So I tried to use the experience I have in Baku to stay out of trouble.

"Hopefully, we can get a good result tomorrow too."

Gelael will start from second on the grid on Sunday, behind Alfa Romeo F1 reserve driver Juan Manuel Correa.

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