2017 Baku Sprint Race

The 2017 Baku Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2017 Baku Race 2, was the eighth race of the 2017 FIA Formula Two Championship, staged at the Baku City Circuit on the 25 June 2017. The race would see Norman Nato declared as the winner, after Charles Leclerc was slapped with a ten second time penalty mid-race.

Ralph Boschung would get the race underway from pole, but the young Swiss racer was powerless to prevent Nato and Oliver Rowland attacking his Campos into the first corner. The winner of that little truel proved to be Rowland, albeit only by having the inside line for turn two, with Nato getting squeezed out on the outside of the Swiss.

Indeed, Nato would have to wait until the second lap to get past, throwing a lunge at Boschung into turn two. However, while the Frenchman did elbow his way through it would cost him a part of his front wing, and open the door for Nicholas Latifi to get into third.

However, Nato's pursuit of Rowland was made all the easier when the Brit suddenly slowed on lap six, handing the Frenchman the lead. Behind, Boschung was slipping down the order, while Leclerc was picking off his rivals at the lower-end of the points, having slipped to tenth on the opening lap.

Indeed, Leclerc was already into fourth by the time Rowland retired, and two excellent moves on Nyck de Vries and Nicholas Latifi put him second just after half distance. However, as the Monegasque racer was lining up a move on Nato on lap seventeen news emerged that he had been slapped with a ten second time penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags.

Knowing of Leclerc's impending penalty Nato made no attempts to defend his lead, allowing Leclerc to blast past with three laps to go. The Monegasque duly went flying off to build as big a lead as possible, with Nato able to stick with him as they dropped Latifi.

With that the race was run, with Leclerc crossing the line first, only to drop back to second behind Nato. Latifi was left in third, having slipped over ten seconds behind Leclerc on the final lap, having had to defend heavily from Jordan King, Sergey Sirotkin, Artem Markelov and Nobuharu Matsushita in the closing stages.

Background
There were no changes made the infamously tight Baku City Circuit overnight, meaning there was no need for a morning practice session. However, there were changes to the grid ahead of the race, with post-Feature Race penalties putting Oliver Rowland up into second, having been demoted to seventh in the Feature Race. Other than that the other changes to the order did not affect the reversed position section of the field, meaning Ralph Boschung would still start the Sprint from Pole.

Into the Championship and the maximum score for Charles Leclerc in the Feature Race had ensured that the Monegasque ace pulled out a sizeable lead in the Championship, with 28 points in hand. Furthermore, Leclerc had smashed through the 100 point barrier, ending Saturday afternoon with 108 points to his name. Oliver Rowland, was therefore left to lead charge from second, with Artem Markelov his closest challenger.

Russian Time continued to lead the Teams' Championship, moving five points clear of DAMS in second. Elsewhere, Leclerc's maximum score moved Prema Racing past the 100 point mark, keeping them in third, with ART Grand Prix in fourth on 86. Rapax completed the top five, while Ralph Boschung's maiden points finish finally put Campos Racing on the board.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Grid
The grid for the fourth race of the 2017 campaign was formed from the finishing positions of the Feature Race, with the top eight reversed as per-FIA Formula Two rules.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * King was disqualified from the results for using illegal tyre pressures.

Milestones

 * First Formula Two victory for Norman Nato.
 * Arden International claimed their first F2 victory as an entrant.
 * Also the British squad's seventeenth victory at GP2/F2 level.
 * Charles Leclerc earned his fifth podium finish.

Standings
Charles Leclerc had once again extended the his lead in the Championship after the Baku Sprint, moving 42 points clear of his nearest challenger. Indeed, with 48 points on offer at each round, Leclerc could almost afford to miss an entire weekend and still lead the Championship, with Oliver Rowland and Artem Markelov the only drivers capable of snatching the lead if he did so. As such, with two thirds of the season still to run it seemed as if it was Leclerc's title to lose, with everyone else in a fight for second.

In the Teams' Championship it was still Russian Time who led the way, holding onto their lead by just three points from DAMS. Prema Racing had dragged themselves closer in third, once again exclusively due to Leclerc's efforts, with ART Grand Prix nudging against the 100 point barrier in fourth. Fifth place was still held by Rapax, while Pertamina Arden were slowly climbing up the field in sixth.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.