2019 Baku Sprint Race

The 2019 Baku Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2019 Baku City Circuit Race Two, was the fourth race of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship, staged at the Baku City Circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the 28 April 2019. The race, which was held in support of the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, would see Nicholas Latifi claim a second victory of the season, extending his Championship lead.

Nikita Mazepin would start the race from pole, although he found himself mugged at the start, with a charging Sean Gelael the man to sprint into the lead. Indeed, the Indonesian racer blitzed his way past Mazepin and Juan Manuel Correa through the first corner, with Correa also slipping ahead of the Russian.

Unfortunately the clean start would only last through to the second corner, for Tatiana Caldéron managed to knock Ralph Boschung into Louis Delétraz, leaving all three with heavy damage. The safety car was therefore called to allow their damaged cars to be removed form the circuit, with Gelael heading Correa and Mazepin.

Gelael duly aced the restart to re-establish his lead, while Latifi dived past Mazepin to claim third. The Canadian racer duly began to harass Correa for second, but would have to wait for a couple of laps before passing the American rookie.

Latifi now began his charge for the lead, demolishing Gelael's two second lead in the space of two laps. It took another lap before Latifi was able to claim the lead, sending his DAMS skating inside the Prema into the first corner.

With that Latifi was off, charging away from Gelael to establish a fair lead, while the Indonesian racer was left to tumble down the order. He subsequently slipped behind Correa and Jack Aitken, with the Brit having had to keep Nyck de Vries and Luca Ghiotto at bay before pouncing on Gelael.

The safety car then made its second appearance of the day, this time to cover the removal Giuliano Alesi after he skated into the barriers while trying to pass Guanyu Zhou. A dramatic restart then saw Correa almost manage to scythe past Latifi into the first corner, before the race was instantly neutralised again as Ghiotto smashed into the barriers.

There were only a couple of laps left when the race restarted for a third time, with Latifi this time able to keep ahead of Correa. Behind, de Vries lost out to a charging Aitken into the first corner, while Mick Schumacher completed a similar move on teammate Gelael to secure fifth.

With that the race was over, with Latifi able to keep Correa at arm's length to claim victory. The American rookie himself was satisfied with his maiden podium finish, while Aitken was a happy third after battling up from eighth on the grid.

Background
There were no changes to either the entry list or the Baku City Circuit, despite the fact that most of the cars had required overnight repairs after the Feature Race.

Fourth place for Nicholas Latifi in the Baku Feature had been enough to put the Canadian racer back on top of the Championship hunt, leaving him on 47 points heading into the Sprint. Luca Ghiotto, meanwhile, had dropped to second, eight off the leader, while Jack Aitken had leapt into third after his Feature win. Nyck de Vries was next up in fourth ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara, with fifteen drivers on the board.

In the Teams' Championship it was still DAMS who led the charge, having completed the Feature with 74 points. That left the French squad 24 points clear of UNI-Virtuosi in second, with a seven point gap back to Campos Racing in third. ART Grand Prix were next ahead of Carlin, while the Sauber Junior Team were on the board, albeit down in ninth.

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

Grid

 * * Boccolacci was handed a two place grid penalty for failing to enter the pitlane as instructed by the race director after the Feature Race.

Race
It was a comfortable morning in Baku for the F2 Sprint Race, with no threat of rain and warm air and track temperatures ensuring that the field would have good conditions for the start. Elsewhere, there was a late change to the grid as Dorian Boccolacci was penalised for ignoring an instruction from the race director after the 2019 Baku Feature Race, resulting in him being pushed back two places on the grid. He would hence start from seventh in Sprint, as Nikita Mazepin lined-up on pole position having finished eighth during Saturday's running.

Report
The start of the race saw Mazepin make a clean start, although both he and fellow front row starter Juan Manuel Correa would be unable to deny a hard charging Sean Gelael from taking the lead, the Indonesian racer having darted around the Russian from third. Gelael duly seized the position through the first corner, while Correa followed the Indonesian through to secure second, while Nicholas Latifi got a good run to claim third into turn two. Behind it was a very clean start compared to the events of Saturday, with no lock-ups or collisions to thin the field in the opening moments.

That changed at turn two, as Tatiana Caldéron, Ralph Boschung and Louis Delétraz tried to go three abreast into the left-hander, only for the Colombian racer locked up and bounced into Boschung. Boschung was hence pushed into Delétraz, with the #21 Trident and #1 Carlin down the escape road and out, while Caldéron wound up facing the outside wall on the exit of the corner. The rest of the field squeezed past the #18 Arden, which was also out with suspension damage, although with three cars stranded there was little choice for the officials but to throw a Safety Car.

Before the SC was scrambled there would still be some fighting on-track, with Jack Aitken sending a stunning lunge down the inside of turn three to take both Jordan King and teammate Boccolacci for fifth. King would also move ahead of Boccolacci on the exit of turn three, having danced his car around the outside of the #14 Campos, while Anthoine Hubert and Nobuharu Matsushita duelled at the back of the top ten. They were all duly reined in by the SC at the end of the opening tour, with Gelael leading the field to the start/finish line for the restart on lap three.

Gelael controlled the restart well to claim the lead at the restart, with Correa surviving a minor lock-up to hold second ahead of Latifi. Behind, Aitken led Boccolacci past Mazepin to claim fourth and fifth, while Matsushita was elbowed back to eleventh from eighth by a lunging Luca Ghiotto. Further around the restart lap Latifi ran around the outside of Correa through turn three to claim second, with the Canadian's rear-left barely brushing the edge of the American's front wing as they turned in.

With that the race began to settle down, with Gelael briefly breaking away, only for Latifi to reel him back in with a succession of fastest laps. Indeed, as the Prema team were warning the Indonesian racer about the Canadian's approach, Latifi was lining up a lunge on the #10 car down the long back straight. The Canadian racer duly managed to draft past Gelael on the long run down the start/finish straight, completing the move on the brakes through turn one.

With that Latifi was away, leaving Gelael to unsuccessfully defend second from Correa into turn one on the following tour. The American's move on the Indonesian racer then allowed Aitken to attack and pass Gelael on the run to turn three, storming down the inside of the #10 Prema with the aid of DRS. Behind them, Nyck de Vries and Ghiotto would move up past Boccolacci, before squabbling for fifth as Aitken completed his move on Gelael.

Ghiotto and de Vries duly moved past Gelael over the following couple of laps, before the race was interrupted for a second time due to an accident for a Trident. This time, it was Giuliano Alesi who caused the Safety Car, ripping the right front wheel from his car after carrying too much speed into turn three when lunging inside of Guanyu Zhou. That intervention would last for three laps, with Latifi the man to lead the field around for the restart, with the race set to finish at the 45 minute time limit, rather than the set race distance.

Latifi controlled the restart well to claim the lead, while behind Aitken got a run on Correa that forced American racer to dive across to the inside line into the first corner. That caused the #12 Charouz-Sauber to lock-up and run wide, with Latifi having to open his steering as Correa flashed across his nose. Miraculously there would be no accident with Correa just managing to avoid the outside wall, and with Aitken having had to avoid Latifi, the American racer would also hold onto second from the #15 Campos.

Furthermore, Aitken would come under attack from Ghiotto into turn two, although a mistimed lunge on the brakes around the outside of Aitken resulted in the #8 UNI-Virtuosi hitting his right-rear before sliding into the outside wall. The rest of the pack hence had a narrower run through the corner, resulting in Nikita Mazepin and Jordan King running into the side of the Virtuosi and nosing into the barrier as well. Anthoine Hubert also got caught out and took to the escape road as the Safety Car was scrambled again, although not before de Vries had snatched third with a lunge inside Aitken at turn three.

A long delay to retrieve the three stuck cars, Hubert having managed to escape from the escape road, meant that the restart was staged with twenty seconds left on the clock, with Latifi taking a very slow run before stamping on the throttle. A cleaner restart saw the Canadian charge into the first corner unopposed, while Correa, de Vries and Aitken remained line astern in his wake. Indeed, the only incident of the restart would come at turn two again, with Nobuharu Matsushita trying to lunge around the outside of the pack only to slide down the escape road.

Towards the end of the restart, and hence penultimate, lap Aitken would get a run on de Vries, and duly eased ahead of the Dutchman on the long start/finish straight to reclaim third. Behind, Schumacher would have a similar run on Gelael, although the German racer would have to beat his teammate on the brakes for turn one, and run his teammate wide on the exit. That also allowed Sérgio Sette Câmara to pass the Indonesia racer, while Boccolacci took seventh from the #10 Prema with a lunge to the inside of turn three.

With that the race was run, with Latifi sweeping across the line to claim victory, a second clear of Correa in second. Aitken was in the American's slipstream but ran out of time to catch the #12 Charouz-Sauber and so had to settle for third, while de Vries and Schumacher finished nose-to-tail behind. Sette Câmara was next up ahead of Boccolacci, while Gelael just kept ahead of Callum Ilott to secure the final point, the duo having flash across the line side-by-side with Gelael ahead by just 0.005s.

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Raghunathan handed a five second time penalty for overtaking before the safety car control line.
 * † Caldéron was handed a three place grid penalty for causing a collision.

Milestones

 * 50th FIA Formula 2 Championship race to be staged.
 * Fourth victory for Nicholas Latifi.
 * DAMS secured their tenth F2 win.
 * Also their 35th win at GP2/F2 level.
 * Juan Manuel Correa claimed his maiden podium finish.
 * Sérgio Sette Câmara recorded his second fastest lap.

Standings
Victory ensured that Nicholas Latifi had extended his Championship lead in Baku, moving nineteen points clear as a result of the win. Jack Aitken, meanwhile, had moved into second ahead of Luca Ghiotto after a strong weekend, with the Italian now 23 off the lead having lead ahead of the weekend. Nyck de Vries and Sérgio Sette Câmara completed the top five, with fifteen drivers on the board after two full rounds.

DAMS had once again extended their lead in the Teams' Championship as a result of the Baku Sprint, moving onto 95 points after the first four races. Campos Racing were now their closest challengers, albeit some 40 points behind, having overtaken UNI-Virtousi in the Sprint. ART Grand Prix were next ahead of Prema Racing, while Trident were still the only pointless team in the field.

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.