2021 Baku Feature Race

The 2021 Baku Feature Race, formally known as the 2021 Baku Formula 2 Race 3, was the ninth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 6 June 2021. The race would see Jüri Vips secure his second F2 victory, making him the first driver to win a Feature Race and a Sprint Race in the same race weekend since the GP2 Series became F2.

Qualifying would see Liam Lawson sweep to his maiden F2 pole position, a tenth ahead of Hitech Grand Prix teammate Vips. Behind, Oscar Piastri and Théo Pourchaire would share the second row, while Dan Ticktum was the best of the senior drivers in fifth.

The start of the race would be delayed after Jack Aitken, the only driver to select medium Pirelli tyres for the start, and Matteo Nannini stalling on the grid, requiring both to be pushed into the pits to be re-fired. That delay saw the race distance cut by a single lap as the field completed an additional formation lap, before reassembling on the grid for a second attempt.

This time there would be no issues, with Lawson and teammate Vips lunging off the grid and into the first corner side-by-side from the front row. A brief kiss of wheels and the Estonian racer was ahead, with Piastri able to take advantage of Lawson's lost momentum to grab second as Lawson also ran Pourchaire out wide.

However, while the fight for the lead was, relatively, clean, the same could not be said just behind, as Ticktum tangled with Marcus Armstrong and the elbowed out Pourchaire. Their accident left Armstrong in the wall and Pourchaire limping back to the pits with heavy damage, with the Frenchman later sent to hospital for treatment for an arm fracture.

After a brief cameo from the Safety Car the race resumed, with Vips sprinting clear while Lawson got the jump on Piastri to reclaim second. The two Hitechs then set about building a lead, as behind Piastri found himself having to block his teammate Robert Shwartzman to hold third.

Vips was the first driver to abandon his soft tyres at the start of the pit window, while Lawson served his penalty for pushing Pourchaire wide when he stopped a lap later. Piastri completed an additional lap and would rejoin in the wake of Vips, as behind Ralph Boschung would briefly jump Shwartzman before the Russian ace lunged back past to secure third.

The closing stages saw Piastri close right onto Vips' tail, having been slapped with a five second time penalty for an unsafe release from his pitstop. However, try as he might the Australian racer could not find a way past the Estonian racer, although as they started the final tour the #2 Prema was tucked right under the #8 Hitech's rear wing.

Yet, Vips would hold firm on the final tour, claiming victory by a second from Piastri before the Australian racer's penalty was applied. Fortunately for Piastri the five second time penalty would have no effect as he still claimed second ahead of teammate Shwartzman. Felipe Drugovich was next up ahead of Boschung and the recovering Lawson, Jehan Daruvala was next up ahead of a furious Ticktum, while Christian Lundgaard and Lirim Zendeli completed the scorers.

Background
There would be no changes made to the Baku City Circuit ahead of the third and final race of the weekend, with the two DRS zones unchanged. Likewise, there would be no changes to the entry ahead of the final F2 race until mid-July, with all 22 cars in race worthy condition for the third battle of Baku.

Zhou Command
Guanyu Zhou retained the lead in the Championship as the first day of racing in Baku came to a conclusion, and with his healthy advantage still intact despite a non-score in the second race. Behind, Oscar Piastri had moved back into second and 23 points off the lead, level with Théo Pourchaire but ahead on countback due to having one second place finish to Pourchaire's zero podium finishes. Behind Dan Ticktum had moved to within a point of them in fourth, while Robert Shwartzman had also broken into the 50 point region in fifth.

In the Teams' Championship UNI-Virtuosi would end the first day in Baku still at the head of the table, although their advantage had all but disappeared after their non-score. Instead, Prema Racing had moved to within a point of the British squad, with the defending Champions themselves only five ahead of Carlin in third. Hitech Grand Prix were next up ahead of ART Grand Prix, 25 points behind Carlin, while Trident had moved eight clear of HWA Racelab at the foot of the table.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:
 * * Placeholder liveries are show for the second drivers in each team.

Qualifying
Qualifying used the well established format for the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 22 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of either compound of Pirelli tyres.

Report
Qualifying would start with the familiar sight of the entire field driving straight out onto the circuit, although Roy Nissany would not be joining them after his heavy accident in practice. The Israeli racer was hence forced to sit and watch as DAMS teammate Marcus Armstrong set the initial pace, before Dan Ticktum edged him out a minute later. The Brit's time at the top would be short lived, however, as Théo Pourchaire completed the first flying laps at the back of the group, recording a 1:55.455 to go fastest.

After a single cooldown lap to prepare their tyres the field went for second runs on their original rubber, with Armstrong again managing to pop-up at the top of the pack at the end of his run. However, the #17 DAMS would again be displaced by Ticktum and then Pourchaire before the field completed their next laps, with a third set of runs quickly following. This time Armstrong would set the pace and hold onto provisional pole, the New Zealander claiming a 1:55.057 as the field swept into the pits for fresh supersoft Pirelli tyres.

Ticktum was the first to return to the circuit, specifically asking his team to head out early so they could avoid any potential red flags around the flat-out street circuit. The Carlin team concurred and sent the #5 car out at the head of the pack, with the Brit duly toppling Armstrong's effort to go fastest. However, there would be a barrage of improvements in the closing stages of the session, as second runs on fresher tyres caused an en-masse swell in pace.

Indeed, Ticktum and Armstrong would soon find themselves bumped back to fifth and sixth in the rush, with Pourchaire able to get back ahead of them, before he too was dumped back into fourth. Liam Lawson and Jüri Vips duly stole the show, with the two Hitechs exchanging fastest sectors as they duelled for pole position. Indeed, after the second runs the two Hitechs had moved into first and second with Oscar Piastri trailing them, with their third runs set to decide who would start from pole.

Ultimately, however, that duel would fizzle out before the end of their final runs, with Vips' pace collapsing in the middle sector. Lawson, meanwhile, would just find a few hundredths to secure his maiden F2 pole with a 1:54.217, while Vips' earlier 1:54.355 was still good enough for second. Piastri was next up ahead of Pourchaire, while Ticktum and Armstrong would share the third row, while Robert Shwartzman qualified in tenth to secure pole position for the 2021 Baku Sprint Race 1.

Post-Qualifying
After qualifying a trio of penalties were announced after several drivers were found to have impeded their rivals during the session, albeit inadvertently. Christian Lundgaard was the first to receive his penalty, dropping him to fifteenth on the grid after impeding Guanyu Zhou, while Jack Aitken was slapped with a three place grid penalty of his own for blocking Lundgaard. Guilherme Samaia was the final driver to be penalised after blocking Bent Viscaal in the closing stages of the session, although the Brazilian racer would only drop on position after qualifying in twentieth.

Elsewhere, Nissany was given permission to start after failing to qualify, while Marino Sato served a three-place grid penalty for driving his car in a dangerous condition during Free Practice.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:
 * * Lundaard, Aitken and Samaia served three place grid penalties for impeding other drivers during qualifying.
 * † Sato served a three place grid penalty for driving his car in a dangerous condition during Free Practice.
 * ‡ Nissany was allowed to start the race despite failing to set a time in qualifying at the stewards' discretion.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Piastri served a five second time penalty for an unsafe release.
 * † Beckmann served a five second time penalty for failing to follow the race directors instructions.
 * ‡ Nannini was unable to start the race after stalling on the formation lap.

Milestones

 * Second career victory for Jüri Vips.
 * Vips became the first driver in the FIA Formula 2 Championship era to win to races in the same weekend.
 * Also the first time that the same driver had won two races at a single GP2/F2 meeting since Antonio Giovinazzi at the 2016 Baku Sprint Race.
 * Hitech Grand Prix secured their sixth win as an entrant.

Standings
At the end of the third race weekend of the season it was status quo at the head of the table, as Guanyu Zhou had remained at the head of the field on 78 points after nine races. However, the Chinese ace's lead had been cut to just five points over the course of the Baku weekend, with second placed Oscar Piastri now with Zhou firmly in his sights ahead of the midway point of the season. Robert Shwartzman was next up ahead of Jüri Vips, while Dan Ticktum rounded out the top five with all of the top five within eighteen points of Zhou.

In the Teams' Championship Prema Racing had moved to the top of the Championship hunt for the first time since the second race of the season in Bahrain, having moved onto 139 points for the campaign. They had hence moved twenty points clear of former leaders UNI-Virtuosi, who were themselves six ahead of Hitech Grand Prix in third. Hitech were level on points with Carlin but ahead courtesy of their three wins to Carlin's one, while ART Grand Prix completed the top five.

Only point scoring drivers are shown.