Vips holds big advantage after F2 Baku practice

The first running of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend saw Juri Vips lead FIA Formula 2 practice by a long way in a truncated session.

The Estonian’s 1:55:210 was a massive seven tenths quicker than anyone else could manage which will give him and the Hitech GP team a lot of confidence ahead of qualifying.

Any late laps from the other drivers were halted by a huge crash for Roy Nissany as the Israeli hit the barrier hard at turn 13 and then again at turn 14 such was the speed of the shunt. He got out of the car unscathed but it leaves a big rebuild job for the DAMS team.

Ralph Boschung went second fastest for Campos, continuing his outstanding form from Monaco two weeks ago where he scored a massive 22 points over the three races.

The feature race winner from Monaco, Théo Pourchaire, was third fastest but over a second off the benchmark time from Vips although the Frenchman did his time without the benefit of a tow down the long start/finish straight.

PREMA kicked off their weekend in good fashion with Robert Shwartzman leading Oscar Piastri in fourth and fifth. Shwartzman in particular needs a good weekend having yet to stand on the podium in 2021.

Marcus Armstrong provided some joy for DAMS in sixth ahead of Bent Viscaal. The Trident driver also saw his teammate Marino Sato hit the wall, this time at turn 15 in the early stages of the session but he managed to limp the car back to pit lane on three wheels.

David Beckmann was an encouraging eighth for Charouz ahead of Dan Ticktum and Christian Lundgaard rounding out the top ten. Championship leader Guanyu Zhou was only 12th for UNI-Virtuosi.