Friday afternoon was surprising in Baku, both for the final result and for the incidents that occurred during qualifying. The one who emerged in the end was the Dutchman from Trident Richard Verschoorleading for most of the session and able to further improve his time in the final available stint, snatching pole from Andrea Kimi Antonelli for only 17 thousandths of second. Only 15th the leader of the general classification Isaac Hadjarauthor of a strange error that occurred almost at the same time as that of his teammate Josep Maria Martì, and moreover at the same point of the Azerbaijani track.
A qualifying session that began with an excellent performance by Verschoor, the protagonist of the best time with his Trident and a second sector that was virtually unreachable for the competition. However, the real twist came just over four minutes from the end of the session, when all the drivers returned to the track for their final timed attempts after the pit stop. It was precisely at this point, in fact, that the two fields of the championship leader Isaac Hadjar and his teammate Josep Maria Martí they hit the barriers after being blocked at two different times (a few seconds apart) in curve 1. A very strange episode which, in addition to putting the Frenchman out of any possible fight for pole position, decreed the exposure of the red flag.
At the restart, with only one attempt available, Antonelli managed to shine, author of the best performance at least until Verschoor’s return, who with a time of 1:54.857 snatched pole from the future Mercedes driver, earning his second pole position start of the season after the one obtained on another street circuit like this year. Finally, it is worth highlighting the top ten placings of two rookies in their first ever weekend in Formula 2: among them the Formula 3 vice-champion Gabriel Mini, 8th with the Prema and Christian Mansell, 10th with the second Trident and which will start from pole in the Sprint Race for the inversion of the top ten on the grid. Luke Browning also performed well, finishing 11th despite the risk he ran in the early stages of qualifying of crashing into the wall at the exit of turn 15, as happened to Charles Leclerc in Formula 1 FP1.
F2 / Azerbaijan 2024, Qualifying: Starting Grid
| POS. | PILOT | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | Richard Verschoor | trident | 1:54.857 |
| 2 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Press | +0.017 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +0.245 |
| 4 | Zane Maloney | Rodin | +0.271 |
| 5 | Kush Main | Invicta | +0.317 |
| 6 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta | +0.473 |
| 7 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | +0.474 |
| 8 | Gabriele Mini | Press | +0.585 |
| 9 | Jack Crawford | DAMS | +0.777 |
| 10 | Christian Mansell | trident | +0.788 |
| 11 | Luke Browning | ART Grand Prix | +0.867 |
| 12 | Paul Aron | Hi-tech | +1.081 |
| 13 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | +1.279 |
| 14 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | +1.396 |
| 15 | Isaac Hadjar | Fields | +1.796 |
| 16 | Enzo Fittipaldi | From Amersfoort | +1.829 |
| 17 | Miyata Return | Rodin | +1.839 |
| 18 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | +1.851 |
| 19 | Amaury Cordeel | Hi-tech | +1.854 |
| 20 | Raphael Villagomez | From Amersfoort | +2.030 |
| 21 | Josep Maria Martí | Fields | +2.361 |
| 22 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | +6.787 |
Race dates
So this is the starting grid for Sunday’s Feature Race, with the Tomorrow’s Sprint Race which will see the top ten classified inverted. The first challenge on the Baku street circuit will therefore take place on Saturday at 12:15with the event live on Sky Sports F1The same channel will also broadcast live the aforementioned Feature, in this case scheduled for Sunday morning at 09:35.
#Azerbaijan #Qualifying #Verschoor #pole #Hadjar #wall
