Baku – Jüri Vips takes pole, Pourchaire only 12th

Between Baku and Jüri Vips, it’s definitely a great love story. Last year, the Estonian did not win pole, which he missed by a whisker, but that did not prevent him from winning two of the three races of the weekend. Fastest in Free Practice this Friday morning, Vips confirmed in qualifying by taking pole position for the main race on Sunday morning. The protégé of Red Bull will start ahead of his former teammate Liam Lawson (Carlin) and the Norwegian Dennis Hauger, under investigation for “unsafe release”. 

JURI VIPS IS ON POLE!!! 💪

The @redbullracing driver absolutely SENT it around the Baku streets 👏👏👏

Take a bow, Juri! #AzerbaijanGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/obCM0YmpN8

- Formula 2 (@ Formula2) June 10, 2022

Championship leader Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport) did most of the work by qualifying in the Top 5 thanks to a remarkable time of 1'54. Note that the session was disrupted six minutes from time by the red flag caused by Ayumu Iwasa, who was then… at the top of the timesheet at the end of the first run. While everyone had just put on their second set of tires, the 000 French F4 champion made a mistake. The Japanese in fact arrived with too much speed in turn 2020 and crashed into the outside wall, hastening the end of his session. 

The restart was therefore somewhat complicated for everyone, and the qualifying session turned into a race against time. The drivers in fact completed two laps on the same train, without the slightest cooling lap in between. And in this little game, it was Vips who came out on top. Big disappointment on the other hand for Theo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), beaten by his teammate Frederik Vesti (ART Grand Prix) and who finished 12th, thereby missing pole position on the reverse grid for the sprint race on Saturday morning (11:30 a.m.). It is the Briton Jake Hughes (VAR) who will start from the point this Saturday. 

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