Russell storms to redemptive F2 sprint race win in Baku
ART Grand Prix’s George Russell pulled off a remarkable recovery drive from 12th on the grid to take his maiden Formula 2 victory in the Baku sprint race.
The Mercedes F1 junior driver looked set to win Saturday’s feature race until an ambitious lunge from Nyck De Vries forced him wide at Turn 1, with Russell dropping down the order.
ART Grand Prix’s George Russell pulled off a remarkable recovery drive from 12th on the grid to take his maiden Formula 2 victory in the Baku sprint race.
The Mercedes F1 junior driver looked set to win Saturday’s feature race until an ambitious lunge from Nyck De Vries forced him wide at Turn 1, with Russell dropping down the order.
But the Briton made a brilliant start on Sunday - avoiding a number of stallers on the grid as the lights went out - to surge up to fifth by the end of the opening lap, before charging through to first with a late pass on Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara, who finished second ahead of Prema’s De Vries.
Russell pulled off overtakes on MP Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung and Nicholas Latifi’s DAMS and took advantage of a mistake from championship leader Lando Norris to move up to second on Lap 9.
The 2017 GP3 champion cut a four-second deficit to Camara before catching him with five laps to go. Russell initially pulled off an overtake into Turn 1, but Camara fought back to retake the lead at Turn 2, before Russell completed the race-winning move with four laps to go along the main straight.
Russell crossed the line 2.6s clear of Camara, who claimed his third podium finish of the 2018 season ahead of De Vries. The McLaren F1 junior passed Latifi on the penultimate lap to snatch the final spot on the rostrum, with the Canadian - who bolted into an early race lead at the start - finishing fourth.
Norris recovered to fifth after a mistake while battling for second place dropped him down the order to seventh. The Carlin driver locked up and ran wide in his attempts to pull off a double overtake on Latifi and Russell as the trio went three-wide on the run to Turn 1 on Lap 8.
Trident’s Arjun Maini rose from the lower reaches of the grid to take an impressive sixth, ahead of teammate and fellow Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci.
Roberto Merhi, who plummeted down the order when he bogged down off the line from reverse-grid pole, beat MP Motorsport teammate Boschung to the final point in eighth.
