Antonio Giovinazzi wins second race after an amazing performance today and leaves this new circuit after winning both races this weekend. Pierre Gasly climbs podium with his teammate with Sirotkin completing in P3 after the amazing race through Baku streets.
Amazing race this morning in Baku. Many incidents and finally again Giovinazzi stays on top after having been in last position during the first lap but being able to perform so well to make it through the victory in last lap. The other face is Matsushita, who despite maintaining the lead did everything wrong today and ended retiring after causing some incidents.
The race started on time and clean but changing and challenging for drivers. Matsushita was able to take lead from De Jong in first meters of the race, while Evans went to third. This position would not las long for the New Zealand license driver, as Rowland and Sirotkin would early pass on. The Russian reached the Campos driver just after passing his teammate Gelael.
Behind, the action was on, until Eriksson and King touched in first turn, making the Swedish into the wall and retiring, while King would return – quite dangerously – into the track after his failed overtake intent. Canamasas found them in front of him and had to stop so no crashing into them, while losing many positions. This incident would be investigated after the race.
Matsushita was accelerating and deaccelerating continuously so to maintain lead, but this made many drivers confuse and created a bunch of cars running in parallel to the first turn. This put Sirotkin and Rowland in second and third position after a battle, while De Jong finished last after not being able to brake on time in first turn. Armand crashed onto the wall and Safety Car was back on.
When restarted again Matsushita repeated his technique, with even 5 cars in a row. Many touches and Malja losing his front wing – eaten by Canamasas – and crashing onto Rowland, who would end up last. Malja abandoned as with Gelael, deploying Safety Car again with Marciello and Gasly in podium positions.
Tension was permanent and drivers were complaining about Matsushita’s acceleration and deacceleration, but Japanese driver would still repeat it until he touched Marciello, both losing the lead and making Gasly and Giovinazzi in P1 and P2. Both Prema had been on last positions in lap 1, but were now fighting for victory.
Giovinazzi was getting closer to his teammate when 5 laps were left and despite having a non-working DRS. In a lap he was showing his front wing to the Red Bull driver, but not until the last lap he would pass Gasly after a really clean but amazing battle for the lead. Sirotkin watched how this went on from the distance, completing the podium.
Amazing performance by the Italian driver, amazing weekend and amazing races we lived here in Baku. Giovinazzi leaves this new circuit in calendar as only winner by the moment and having collected pole position and fastest lap, having won everything he could win.
Results:
Pos. | Car | Driver | Team | Gap | Diff |
1 | 20 | A. Giovinazzi | PREMA Racing | After 21 Laps | |
2 | 21 | P. Gasly | PREMA Racing | + 1,7 | + 1,7 |
3 | 2 | S. Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | + 4,1 | + 2,4 |
4 | 4 | J. King | Racing Engineering | + 5,5 | + 1,4 |
5 | 10 | A. Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | + 14,6 | + 9,1 |
6 | 18 | S. Canamasas | Carlin | + 15,9 | + 1,3 |
7 | 24 | N. Jeffri | Arden International | + 17,4 | + 1,5 |
8 | 12 | A. Pic | Rapax | + 17,9 | + 0,5 |
9 | 5 | A. Lynn | DAMS | + 19,5 | + 1,6 |
10 | 19 | M. Kirchhöfer | Carlin | + 22,3 | + 2,8 |
11 | 9 | R. Marciello | RUSSIAN TIME | + 23,2 | + 0,9 |
12 | 15 | L. Ghiotto | Trident | + 26,0 | + 2,8 |
13 | 6 | N. Latifi | DAMS | + 28,3 | + 2,3 |
DNF | 23 | D. De Jong | MP Motorsport | + 52,2 | + 23,9 |
NC | 22 | O. Rowland | MP Motorsport | + 1 Lap | – |
NC | 1 | N. Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | + 8 Laps | – |
NC | 7 | M. Evans | Pertamina Campos Racing | + 9 Laps | – |
NC | 8 | S. Gelael | Pertamina Campos Racing | + 10 Laps | – |
NC | 11 | G. Malja | Rapax | + 10 Laps | – |
NC | 14 | P. Armand | Trident | + 12 Laps | – |
NC | 3 | N. Nato | Racing Engineering | + 12 Laps | – |
NC | 25 | J. Eriksson | Arden International | + 14 Laps | – |