(Motorsports news) Jehan Daruvala continued his good form by taking another podium as he finished 2nd in the Sprint Race in Baku. Frederik Vesti took his first F2 victory at the Baku Grand Prix in the sprint race, as he snatched the lead from Jehan Daruvala after the second safety car restart. It marked the Mercedes junior's first win of the season, and this was subsequently the first victory since the F3 feature race in Austria last year. Daruvala finished a good second position and attained some good points in the F2 World Championship. In the end he held off a charging Liam Lawson, who took the final podium place for Carlin.

Frank Vesti briefly took the lead from polesitter Jake Hughes at the start, but a lack of drive out of Turn 1 allowed Daruvala to pass him into the lead, dropping him to third. Vesti made a good move past Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hughes for second on lap six. From there, Vesti played the  waiting game as he was unable to make it past Daruvala on the first restart after a safety car was produced by Dennis Hauger when he took a trip into the wall. Almost immediately from there the Mercedes junior was able to take advantage of a lock-up from the Prema driver to move into first.

Racing resumed on lap 17, with Daruvala holding on to the lead for a while before the safety car was deployed again after Enzo Fittipaldi and Vips made contact at Turn 2. Once again, the pack was bunched up and then released on lap 19 but this time Daruvala locked up on the restart and allowed Vesti to go past him and take the lead up the inside of Turn 1. The action came down to a final lap shootout, as Vesti held a firm lead, with Daruvala struggling with his tyres, Lawson closed on him and was embroiled in a battle for second behind him, the Prema driver defended well and came second .

Dennis Hauger snatched the 2 feature race victory in Baku after a heartbreaking crash with just for Juri Vips.The Hitech driver was in a commanding lead from the start, starting on pole and he held onto the position despite three safety cars in the race but his race ended with just five minutes left on the clock, after he found the wall in the castle section and allowed Hauger into the lead. The race ended under the safety car with Prema and the Red Bull rookie claiming his first feature race win after taking his first sprint victory in Monaco last time out. The crash allowed Logan Sargeant into second, with championship leader Felipe Drugovich taking the final podium spot, despite starting from eighth. Daruvala took fourth place, marking another strong points haul for Prema. With this result Felipe Drugovich extends his lead to 132 points with Theo Pourchaire in second with 83 points but Daruvala closed up to second with 73 points

Jehan said, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed but I’m still happy with the race I did. I had a great start, had everything under control and felt I deserved the win. It’s a shame to miss out by such a narrow margin but we’ll take the positives from this and now focus on Sunday’s feature race."

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