Azerbaijan Grand Prix of F2 – Race: Bearman secures a double win, Martins disqualified

A pure domination. Here’s how we could describe Ollie Bearman’s weekend in Baku. The young Prema driver tormented the competition by simply winning every session of the weekend: free practice, qualifying, sprint race, and endurance race.

This Sunday, there was him and the others. At the first turn, Bearman retained the advantage of his pole position, but three laps later, Théo Pourchaire managed to take the lead by taking advantage of the DRS on the long start/finish straight. It only took one lap for Ollie Bearman to execute the same move on the Frenchman and pull away.

HISTORY. MADE. 🏆@OllieBearman becomes the first driver to top every session of an #F2 race weekend! 🥇🥇🥇🥇

Extraordinary from the 17-year-old rookie 🤯#AzerbaijanGP #RoadToF1 pic.twitter.com/9nz6jCIKWS

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) April 30, 2023

Pourchaire to experience

Just like in Formula 1, the second part of the Grand Prix was quite uneventful, with drivers mostly following the same strategy. Théo Pourchaire believed he held the second position for a long time, but he couldn’t catch up to the leader. However, with 6 laps remaining, it was the surprising Enzo Fittipaldi who overtook him, leaving the Frenchman with the third step on the podium. Nevertheless, Pourchaire still regains the lead in the World Championship from a struggling Ayumu Iwasa this weekend, and perhaps that is the most important thing for the Frenchman, showcasing his consistency since the beginning of the season.

In the midfield, the drivers were rather well-behaved, except for a quite ridiculous crash by Brad Benavides and a suicidal overtaking attempt by Jehan Daruvala. The difference was made on the track, and in this game, the French were not bad.

Martins’ huge disappointment

Victor Martins had a great race, trailing behind his teammate Théo Pourchaire, and finished in fourth place at the checkered flag. The best result for Alpine’s protege in a long race this season was unfortunately invalidated later in the afternoon due to an illegal car. Once again, Martins leaves Baku empty-handed after his crash in the sprint race yesterday. This is the second consecutive race weekend without any points for the F3 champion, who paradoxically shows great potential.

BREAKING: Victor Martins has been disqualified from the Feature Race

He’s stripped of his fourth-place finish following a technical infringement on his car#AzerbaijanGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/hivvLOwKOm

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) April 30, 2023

The other French drivers performed well, especially Isack Hadjar, who finished 7th despite starting 18th. Clément Novalak finished 16th.

Rankings of the long race of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix F2