» Formula 2: Russell victorious in Sprint Race

The 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship season has its fourth different race-winner in as many races after Mercedes F1 junior George Russell claimed victory in Baku’s Sprint Race.

The new Dallara F2 2018 chassis design, particularly its new Hewland transmissions, continued to cause more dramas. No less than five drivers – a quarter of the field – failed to get off the starting line, with Jack Aitken, Feature Race winner Alex Albon, Artem Markelov, Maximilian Günther and Luca Ghiotto all stranded on the grid when the lights went out.

Former F1 driver Roberto Merhi started from the reversed grid pole alongside MP Motorsport teammate Ralph Boschung, but both had poor getaways with Merhi tumbling down to ninth place.

Sprint Race start - 2018 Formula 2 Championship Race of Azerbaijan

Cars swerve left and right as no less than five drivers stalled at the start, with clutch problems becoming an increasing concern for drivers.

DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi rocketed into the lead from the second row, slotting in ahead of Boschung and championship leader Lando Norris. Incredibly, the trio was overtaken by Norris’ Carlin Motorsport teammate Sergio Sette Câmara, who carved his way by in an impressive opening lap.

The Brazilian pulled away from Latifi over the subsequent laps, who was coming under increasing pressure from Norris once the McLaren junior driver overtook Boschung.

Norris slipstreamed Latifi to overtake the Canadian into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 7, but Latifi held his nerve and reclaimed second place at the next corner.

By now Russell was honing in on the pair of them, and on the next lap he and Norris tried to slipstream around either side of Latifi. Norris outbraked himself at Turn 1 and was forced into the run-off, dropping to seventh place in the process.

Latifi held off Russell, but the ART driver managed to make the move stick on the next lap before setting about chasing down Sette Câmara.

He slashed the Brazilian’s four-second lead, as Sette Câmara showed the pressure he was under by making his own mistake at Turn 1.

By Lap 15 Russell was within DRS range and eventually made his move for the lead of the race three laps later at Turn 1. Sette Câmara gamely hung on and reclaimed the position with a counter-attack at Turn 2.

The pair jostled for position over the remainder of the lap before Russell was able to make the move stick into Turn 1 on the next lap. This time Sette Câmara had no response, allowing Russell to ease out to a 2.6-second lead by the end of the race.

Sette Câmara earned plaudits for finishing in second place – his third podium finish in four races – but the writing was on the wall when his car stopped on its in-lap to the pits. After it failed to deliver the required one-litre fuel sample to the FIA scrutineers, he was disqualified.

That promoted Nyck de Vries – who charged from fourteenth and overtook Latifi on the penultimate lap – into second place, with the Force India reserve driver completing the podium.

Norris recovered to fourth after his earlier mistake, overtaking Merhi and Boschung in the process to extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings to 14 points over Albon.

Merhi and Boschung also fell behind Trident rivals Arjun Maini and Santino Ferrucci, with the Haas F1 Team juniors claiming fifth and sixth respectively ahead of the MP Motorsport pair.

The top ten was completed by Russian Time rookie Tadasuke Makino and Charouz driver Louis Delétraz.

Makino’s teammate Artem Markelov retired with an engine failure, while Campos Racing’s Roy Nissany (for the second time this weekend) and PREMA’s Sean Galeal both retired after separate crashes.

Trident duo Arjun Maini and Santino Ferrucci also passed Merhi and Boschung, who had to settle for eighth and ninth respectively. Russian Time’s Tadasuke Makino completed the top 10.

Makino’s teammate Artem Markelov retired with an engine failure early on with Roy Nissany running off and Sean Gelael hitting the wall at Turn 1.

Antonio Fuoco’s Charouz stopped on the formation lap and Gunther also failed to finish the race.

2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship Race of Azerbaijan – Sprint Race Results (21 laps)
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Result	Pts
1.	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	21	41:32.101	15
2.	Nyck de Vries	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	21	+ 4.774	12
3.	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	21	+ 5.016	10
4.	Lando Norris	Carlin Motorsport	21	+ 5.842	8
5.	Arjun Maini	Trident Racing	21	+ 13.606	6
6.	Santino Ferrucci	Trident Racing	21	+ 19.108	4
7.	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	21	+ 22.391	2
8.	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	21	+ 24.379	1
9.	Tadasuke Makino	Russian Time	21	+ 25.130
10.	Louis Delétraz	Charouz Racing System	21	+ 46.561
11.	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	21	+ 1:20.531
12.	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden International	21	+ 1:27.942
13.	Alexander Albon	DAMS	21	+ 1:33.104
14.	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Vexatec Racing	20	+ 1 lap
15.	Maximilian Günther	BWT Arden International	18	+ 3 laps
	Not Classified	Team / Entry	Laps	Result
DSQ.	Sergio Sette Câmara	Carlin Motorsport	21	Fuel Sample
DNF.	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	11	Accident
DNF.	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	2	Accident
DNF.	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	1	Engine
DNS.	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System		Mechanical

Championship Points:

Points were awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint Race on a 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 sliding scale.

Post-Race Penalties:

Sergio Sette Câmara – who provisionally finished 2nd – was disqualified when his car could not produce the minimum required fuel sample for post-race scrutineering.

Image via FIA Formula 2 Championship