Vips beats Piastri to Baku Formula 2 feature race victory

Starting on the front row alongside Hitech Grand Prix teammate Liam Lawson, Vips managed to get ahead into Turn 1 on the opening lap. 

Vips quickly established a comfortable lead over Oscar Piastri, who overtook Lawson on the opening lap. 

Lawson’s chances of the podium were ruined when he picked up a 10-second time penalty for forcing Theo Pourchaire off the track. 

Vips’ victory was secured when Piastri was handed a five-second time penalty for an unsafe pit release.

Piastri’s pace was enough as he maintained a 10-second lead over Prema teammate Robert Shwartzman to maintain second.

Baku was the weekend Shwartzman got his season back on track with two podiums in three races.

Starting from tenth on the grid, Shwartzman made the most of the opening lap carnage to move up the order.

Bold moves on Felipe Drugovich and Ralph Boschung put Shwartzman in fourth place, ultimately moving up to third through the pit stop phase once Lawson served his penalty.

Drugovich got ahead of Boschung into Turn 1 on Lap 24 to finish fourth, while Lawson managed to recover to sixth after his penalty. 

Jehan Daruvala maintained seventh ahead of Dan Ticktum, who set the fastest lap on his way to eighth place.

Ticktum once again had impressive race pace but his chances of a big result were ruined following contact with Pourchaire and Marcus Armstrong into Turn 3 on the opening lap.

Ticktum made it three-wide into the corner, forcing Pourchaire into Armstrong’s path - ruining both drivers' races.

To the Carlin driver’s disappointment, he was handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident.

Christian Lundgaard and Lirim Zendeli completed the points-paying positions in Baku.

Click here for the full F2 feature race result from Azerbaijan