Round 12 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship gets underway at the Baku City Circuit with the weekend’s first and only practice session. With only three rounds left in the 2024 championship, and with the fierce competition at the top of the table, the drivers, particularly those currently in the top 6 of the championship standings, will be hoping for an uninterrupted session to gather as much information as possible around the 6.003 km circuit.
Also hoping for an uneventful practice session will be Formula 2’s newest debutants – ART Grand Prix’s Luke Browning (BRO), Trident’s Christian Mansell (MAN), and PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì (MIN). Browning, the second runner-up in the recently concluded 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship, will be replacing fellow Williams Driver Academy member Zak O’Sullivan, who recently announced that he would not be able to complete his maiden F2 season due to funding issues. Similarly, Mansell who finished fifth in the F3 championship, will be replacing Roman Staněk for the rest of the 2024 F2 season, with the latter, currently twenty-first in the Driver’s Championship standings, having opted to terminate his contract due to dissatisfaction with the equipment provided.
However, Minì’s promotion to F2 is much more temporary, at least for this season, with the Alpine Academy driver filling in for F1-bound PREMA Racing teammate Oliver Bearman. Bearman, who won both the sprint and feature races in 2023 will be returning to F1 this weekend, replacing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen who will miss this weekend’s Grand Prix due to a race ban earned as a result of his accumulation of 12 penalty points. Minì, the runner-up in the 2024 FIA F3 championship, just 23 points behind championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli, will be hoping to impress his bosses at PREMA Racing, to improve his bid for an F2 seat with the Italian team in 2025.
Unlike previous weekends where heavy rain limited the drivers’ practice time, conditions around the track are good, with a track temperature of 34.6 degrees Celsius and an air temperature of 28.4 degrees Celsius. There is a low chance of rain during the session, but the hot conditions may be challenging for the tyres, especially as the track continues to heat up.
As the session gets underway, the drivers begin making their way out onto the track. Campos Racing’s Josep Maria “Pepe” Martí (JMA) is the first to complete his outlap around the circuit. He takes off on his first flying lap to set the benchmark time of 2:26.311. Traffic is heavy on the track with all drivers out of the pitlane to attempt a few early laps around the challenging Azerbaijani circuit.
Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar (HAD) is the next to get his time on the board. He goes ahead of Martí with a time of 2:16.434 but soon drops to second behind DAMS Lucas Oil’s Juan Manuel Correa (JCO) who goes top with a time of 2:15.594.
With just about 10 minutes of the session complete, Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney (MAL) goes top with a new fastest time of 2:13.360. Newcomer Luke Browning (BRO) is quick to improve on this, however, setting a new top time of 2:09.789. Times continue to improve as the drivers, except Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini (MAI), attempt a series of new fast laps around the circuit. Almost 26 seconds separate the new top time of 2:00.384 set by ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins (VMA) from that initially set by Martí who sits P21.
With the first 15 minutes of the session now complete, the standings are VMA, JCO, FIT, BRO, MAL, ARO, ACO, BOR, MIN, VER, HAD, CRA, ANT, HAU, GOE, DUR, MIY, VIL, KOO, MAN, JMA and MAI
F1-bound Andrea Kimi Antonelli (ANT) of PREMA Racing set a new fastest time of 2:00.196. The eighteen-year-old, whose future with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team was announced during the 2024 Italian Grand Prix, soon drops to second, behind Maloney with a time of 2:00.177, and then to third as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi goes top with a time of 1:59.550 – the first lap time under two seconds.
With 19 minutes now complete, newcomers Gabriele Minì and Christian Mansell, improve their lap times to under 2 seconds with Minì setting a time of 1:59.632 and Mansell just slightly slower with a time of 1:59.766. The track has been clearing over the recent minutes, allowing the drivers out on track to continue improving their times. Fittipaldi re-takes his position at the top of the timesheet with a new top time of 1:58.244.
A yellow flag is briefly brought out in Sector 1 by Mansell who goes off at Turn 2. He is soon able to rejoin the track, however, allowing the race to be quickly green-flagged.
Light rain has begun to fall around the track as a yellow flag is brought out in Sectors 1 and 2 as Martí goes off into Turn 6. This is upgraded to a red flag to allow for the recovery of Martí’s car. The drivers are now returning to the pit lane as the rainfall around the circuit increases. This is likely to put an end to any further dry running, with not much rain predicted for the rest of the weekend. The teams will have to decide whether there would be much benefit from a few stints around a wet circuit.
With only sixteen minutes left, the session is green-flagged once more. The drivers are hesitant to return to the track though, with all opting to remain in their pit boxes as the rain continues to fall.
With only about one-third of the session remaining, the standings are FIT, MAI, ANT, MAL, HAU, MIN, VMA, MAN, JCO, HAD, CRA, ARO, VER, BRO, DUR, BOR, ACO, GOE, JMA, MIY, VIL, KOO. With his car having had to be recovered, Martí will be out of the remainder of the session, and whether he holds on to P19 on the timesheet will depend on whether the drivers below him – Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata (MIY), Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez (VIL), and AIX Racing’s Niels Koolen (KOO) – can improve their lap time.
With just about 11 minutes left in the session, Hadjar leads a few of the braver drivers out on track as the rain finally ceases. Christian Mansell, who caused the first brief yellow flag is noted for having rejoined the track unsafely after going off at Turn 2. With just ten minutes remaining in the session, all but two drivers have returned to the track, with the teams hoping to gather some additional data before qualifying.
A second red flag is brought out with just about 7 minutes left in session after MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe (GOE), who made his F2 debut just two weeks ago in Monza, goes straight into the barrier at Turn 14. His car will need to be recovered before any further running is allowed. As time continues to tick down, and with the marshals needing to repair the damaged barrier after Goethe’s accident, it seems unlikely that the drivers will have any significant run time.
Race control announces that the session will resume at 11:44 local time. With less than a minute of run time remaining in the session, the drivers are quick to get back out onto the drying track, hoping for a final lap around the challenging Azerbaijani circuit. With the drivers only able to complete their outlap, however, it is unlikely that they will be able to collect any significant data from this run. This would not have been the practice session that the teams had been hoping for, with conditions having been largely unrepresentative
As the session comes to its end, the standings are FIT, MAI, ANT, MAL, HAU, MIN, VMA, MAN, JCO, HAD, CRA, ARO, VER, BRO, DUR, BOR, ACO, GOE, JMA, MIY, VIL and KOO. More than 10 seconds separate Fittipaldi’s top time of 1:58.244 and Koolen’s time of 2:08.713.
The drivers will return to the track for qualifying at 15:00 local time.
