Jak Crawford takes feature FIA F2 pole in Baku amid red flag stoppages, as Porsche announces departure of Antonio Felix da Costa from Formula E.
Jak Crawford earned the Aramco Pole Position Award in Baku for DAMS Lucas Oil, a 1:54.791 handing the American his first pole since Jeddah. Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli had to settle for second, the Invicta Racing driver just 0.019s off the top spot, with Gabriele Minì third for PREMA Racing. The first round of laps arrived with Roman Stanek laying down the time to beat on a 1:55.985 for Invicta Racing.
Alexander Dunne picked up from where he left off in Practice, going quicker than anyone else shortly afterwards as he put in a 1:55.843 to lead. Teammate Amaury Cordeel then brought out the Red Flags shortly afterwards, tagging the barriers at Turn 13 that left him with session-ending damage. Qualifying resumed with 22 minutes left, with Dunne at the front of the queue as things got back underway.
Dunne improved his time to a 1:55.569 but moments later, Browning matched that time exactly to slot into second. Leonardo Fornaroli then smashed that, with his 1:55.191 putting the Championship leader top of the pile. That was until Crawford bettered him by just 0.399s to go onto provisional pole. PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì split the pair, going ahead of his compatriot and into second by just 0.001s.
Dunne had looked to be going for another lap with a purple sector one but contact with the wall left him with damage. He aborted the lap and returned to the pit lane. His rivals remained on circuit, but the majority opted to come back in, though Fornaroli delivered an improvement to go up to second, 0.019s off Crawford’s earlier effort.
With fresh Supersoft Pirelli tyres fitted, drivers returned to the track with just under 10 minutes left on the clock. Dunne was the last to get back out on track after the Rodin Motorsport mechanics made repairs to his front-right suspension. The next set of laps got started but were quickly abandoned after Victor Martins found the barriers at Turn 3.
The ART Grand Prix driver was out of the car and OK, but the Red Flags were waving once again with just over four minutes left of the session. Following the barrier repairs, Qualifying resumed and there was a rush to get ideal track position for one final attempt. Dunne delivered the fastest first sector just before the Red Flags were back out following a crash for Roman Stanek and John Bennett at Turn 1.
It gave Crawford top of the pile ahead of Fornaroli and Minì. Martins wound up fourth, Dunne followed in fifth ahead of Browning in sixth. Josep María Martí followed ahead of debutant Martinius Stenshorne, Stanek and Sebastián Montoya in P10.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1968995443309764896
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of Friday’s Qualifying session in Baku, several drivers have been handed penalties. Firstly, Amaury Cordeel has lost his fastest time from Qualifying. The driver of Car 16 hit the barrier at Turn 13, causing a Red Flag. As the sole cause of the stoppage, Cordeel breached Article 33.5 of the FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations. The Stewards heard from both the driver and a Rodin Motorsport team representative following the session and also examined available video evidence.
They determined that the Belgian was the sole cause of the Red Flag, leading to the session being stopped, resulting in several drivers having to abandon their attempts in the session. As a result of there being no external contributing factors, Cordeel has had his fastest lap time deleted. Cordeel was left without a representative time during today’s Qualifying session within the 107% cut-off. He has been given permission to start both races by the Stewards.
Secondly, ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins has also lost his fastest time in Qualifying. The driver of Car 14 lost control in Turn 3 and crashed causing a Red Flag. As the sole cause of the stoppage, Martins breached Article 33.5 of the FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations. After examining video evidence and speaking to both from both driver and a team representative, it was determined that Martins was the sole cause of the Red Flag, causing the session to stop and forcing several drivers to abandon their laps.
As a result of there being no outside contributing factors, the Frenchman has had his fastest time deleted. This drops Martins from fourth to 13th in the final classification. Roman Stanek has also had his fastest time deleted for being the sole cause of a Red Flag. Car 2 ran wide at Turn 1 and in an attempt to join the track collided with the Van Amersfoort Racing car of John Bennett, causing a Red Flag.
The Stewards heard from Stanek and a team representatives following the session and examined available video evidence. In a separate hearing, the Stewards found the Czech driver to have been wholly responsible for the collision, resulting in a Red Flag, the suspension of the session and causing several drivers to abandon their laps. As a result of there being no external contributing factors, Stanek has had his fastest time deleted.
This drops Stanek from ninth to 12th in the final classification. In addition to that, the Invicta Racing driver has also been given a five-place grid penalty for both races after he was found to have caused a collision with Bennett at Turn 1. The Stewards spoke to both drivers and their team representatives and also examined video evidence. It was determined that Stanek had been wholly to blame for the incident as after going off at Turn 1, he attempted to rejoin the track, but did so in an unsafe manner, causing contact with Bennett.
As a result, Stanek has been given a five-place grid penalty to be served in both races. Lastly, AIX Racing driver Joshua Duerksen has also been given a grid penalty for rejoining in an unsafe manner ahead of TRIDENT’s Laurens van Hoepen. After reviewing video evidence and hearing from the drivers and their team representatives, the Stewards found that Duerksen had rejoined in an unsafe manner ahead of van Hoepen, who was on a flying lap during Qualifying.
As a result, they elected to assign a grid penalty for both races. However, the Stewards found that with the incident occurring in a section of the track where there were Yellow Flags, a one-place grid penalty was applied instead of the standard three.
Other news –
Porsche and Antonio Felix da Costa part ways in Formula E: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2025/motorsports/porsche-99x-electric-abb-fia-formula-e-team-farewell-antonio-felix-da-costa-40573.html
Gresini confirms factory Ducati bike for Alex Marquez in 2026 MotoGP season: https://www.gresiniracing.com/en/alex-marquez-and-gresini-motogp-2026-is-factory/
[The story is as per press release]