After two wins on the streets of Baku last season, Jüri Vips has picked up where he left off in Azerbaijan and stormed to his second pole position of the 2022 Formula 2 championship.
The Estonian narrowly missed out on pole in Baku last season to his team-mate and fellow Red Bull junior, Liam Lawson but it was Vips’ turn to beat Lawson to the top spot of Sunday’s grid, pipping him by a tenth a half.
After taking the first win his F2 career in Monaco’s Sprint Race, PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger made it an all Red Bull junior top three after setting a time just short of Lawson and Vips.
It was a windy afternoon session at the Baku City Circuit and DAMS‘ Ayumu Iwasa was caught out at Turn 4 which brought out a red flag. The Japanese driver was on provisional pole at the time of the incident and looked like he had some serious pace in his locker, but thirteenth was the best he could manage following his retirement.
Credit: Prema Racing
Once the session got back underway, the times started to topple with Trident’s Richard Verschoor and Hauger clocking in some quick times.
Vips’ left it till the final minute of the session to produce a wonderful lap which was nearly half a second faster than anyone else on the track. His performance in the middle sector of the track proved to be the trick up his sleeve as nobody could get anywhere near it.
Lawson then tried to answer back shortly after Vips’ attempt but his pace just couldn’t be matched. Hitech Grand Prix proved to be the fastest team on the track after Marcus Armstrong put himself in fourth position in Sunday’s Feature Race with a late charge.
The championship leader, Felipe Drugovich set the fifth fastest lap while Verschoor had to settle for sixth place. Carlin’s Logan Sargeant took seventh after a scrape with the barriers and he’ll line-up on the fourth row of the grid ahead of Jehan Daruvala in eighth.
Frederik Vesti managed to set the ninth fastest time which means he will line-up alongside Jake Hughes who will be on reverse-grid pole position for Saturday’s Sprint Race.
| POS | NUM | NAME | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | Jüri Vips | EST | Hitech Grand Prix | 1:53.762 |
| 2 | 5 | Liam Lawson | NZL | Carlin | +0.163 |
| 3 | 1 | Dennis Hauger | NOR | PREMA Racing | +0.211 |
| 4 | 7 | Marcus Armstrong | NZL | Hitech Grand Prix | +0.215 |
| 5 | 11 | Felipe Drugovich | BRA | MP Motorsport | +0.238 |
| 6 | 20 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | Trident | +0.267 |
| 7 | 6 | Logan Sargeant | USA | Carlin | +0.432 |
| 8 | 2 | Jehan Daruvala | IND | PREMA Racing | +0.439 |
| 9 | 9 | Frederik Vesti | DNK | ART Grand Prix | +0.485 |
| 10 | 24 | Jake Hughes | GBR | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.594 |
| 11 | 3 | Jack Doohan | AUS | Virtuosi Racing | +0.601 |
| 12 | 10 | Théo Pourchaire | FRA | ART Grand Prix | +0.678 |
| 13 | 17 | Ayumu Iwasa | JPN | DAMS | +0.721 |
| 14 | 16 | Roy Nissany | ISR | DAMS | +0.965 |
| 15 | 4 | Marino Sato | JPN | Virtuosi Racing | +0.970 |
| 16 | 22 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Charouz Racing System | +0.976 |
| 17 | 21 | Calan Williams | AUS | Trident | +1.248 |
| 18 | 15 | Ralph Boschung | CHE | Campos Racing | +1.378 |
| 19 | 25 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.559 |
| 20 | 12 | Clément Novalak | FRA | MP Motorsport | +1.694 |
| 21 | 23 | Cem Bölükbasi | TUR | Charouz Racing System | +1.970 |
| 22 | 14 | Olli Caldwell | GBR | Campos Racing | +2.485 |