Europe – Weekend review (1): Rookie Antonio Giovinazzi impresses and avoids the pitfalls

The pole by a hair for Giovinazzi!

Teammate of Pierre Gasly in the Prema Racing team, Antonio Giovinazzi had remained very discreet during the first four races. With zero points on the board, it was time to shift into a higher gear. Second during the free practice session, the Italian driver triumphed right from the Qualifications by securing a hard-fought pole position.

By achieving a best time of 1:51.752 in the very last minutes (on super-soft tires with red bands), he edged out his closest competitor by a slim margin: a 0.08s difference over Nobuharu Matsushita (ART Grand Prix)! Both the Japanese driver and Serguey Sirotkin (ART Grand Prix) came close to pole position by improving their times in the last minutes, before the decisive lap by the Prema driver.

Behind this leading trio were, in order: Raffaele Marciello (Russian Time), Luca Ghiotto (Trident), Oliver Rowland (MP Motorsport), Marvin Kirchhöfer (Carlin); and the two French drivers: Pierre Gasly (Prema Racing) and Norman Nato (Racing Engineering) started modestly in eighth and ninth position ahead of Sergio Canamasas (Carlin).

On this new track, the 22 drivers on the grid were in full learning mode: during this aggressive exercise, two drivers stood out, Daniel de Jong (MP Motorsport) and Philo Paz Armand (Trident). The two competitors collided here, ending their race in the run-off area of turn 3 and causing a red flag.

Held on Friday, it should also be noted that this qualifying session was postponed by a few hours after issues were detected with the curbs at the Baku circuit. Charlie Whiting and the FIA team took no risks by rescheduling this session to the end of the day, following Formula 1 Free Practice 2 (from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM local time).

Race 1: Giovinazzi hits double in chaos!

Antonio Giovinazzi was definitely unstoppable at the start of the Azeri weekend, by winning the very first GP2 race held on this new Baku circuit!

However, he had to keep a cool head in the face of the numerous twists and turns of this long race! Everything had started very badly with a disastrous start, almost stalling, which saw him drop to fifth place.

Matsushita and Marciello were then vying for the lead, and it was the Japanese driver who was ahead coming out of the first corners. But what chaos behind them! Two French drivers were directly involved: by unintentionally pushing Norman Nato, Pierre Gasly caused a pile-up and the retirement of five cars including his own. Sergio Canamasas, Nicholas Latifi, and the two Carlins of Marvin Kirchhöfer and Alex Lynn were the other victims of this calamitous first corner! Spinning out in the midst of the melee, Nato managed to avoid the worst and was able to continue, but at the very back of the pack.

The safety car was deployed for the first time, for two laps. Once the pack was released, Marciello took the lead in the first corner against Matsushita.

On his side, Giovinazzi gradually began his comeback by first gaining the advantage over Luca Ghiotto, who made a small mistake.

But the safety car was going to come out on the track several more times. On the sixth lap, Philo Paz Armand hit the wall and caused most of the drivers to pass through the pits, getting rid of their super-soft tires.

In the eighth lap, a heated altercation occurred between Arthur Pic, who boxed in Artem Markelov during braking. The Frenchman ended up in the escape road while the winner of the long Monte Carlo race ended up in the wall. The debris littering the track needed to be cleared once more.

Marciello regained control of the race after changing tires and all these incidents, ahead of Matsushita, Jeffri (who had not yet stopped), and Giovinazzi. At the restart, Jeffri and Matsushita succumbed to the simultaneous attacks from Giovinazzi and Rowland, who temporarily moved up to second and third place. Even better, once in second place, Giovinazzi could chase the lead of the race!

Meanwhile, the downfall continued for Matsushita, who went straight at the first corner. Luca Ghiotto and Sergey Sirotkin took advantage of the generosity of the Japanese driver, who was now down to sixth place. Additionally, Jeffri retired on the 15th lap, apparently due to brake problems.

After this tumultuous restart, things became clearer and at the front Giovinazzi was proving to be a threat to his Italian counterpart.

On lap 18, Antonio Giovinazzi took the lead of the race after a perfect slipstream and a clean overtake at the first corner. The Prema Racing driver would not relinquish it.

But behind, the elimination race continued. On the 19th lap, the two Racing Engineering cars gave a very poor team image by colliding in turn 3. This time Norman Nato had to retire for good while Jordan King rejoined at the back of the field. The safety car made yet another appearance on the Azerbaijani track.

As such, the time limit was about to stop the debates: one last time the drivers were released, for two laps. Jordan King once again stumbled with Jimmy Eriksson (Arden International), and eventually, abandonment was at the end of the road, spelling a zero score for the Racing Engineering team.

In front, Antonio Giovinazzi crossed the finish line as the winner. A first victory in the discipline for the Italian driver, a young gun (22 years old) in the GP2 Series. Behind him on the podium, Sergey Sirotkin made a great move by passing Raffaele Marciello slipstreaming on the final straight, the last highlight of this action-packed race!

Here is the podium of the Feature Race in Baku! Congrats @anto_giovinazzi @sirotkin_sergey @Real_RMarciello #GP2 pic.twitter.com/3zpmhIgGVE

— GP2 Series Official (@GP2_Official) 18 juin 2016

The reading of this ranking thus gave a result of ten retirements, a record in this 2016 vintage of the GP2 Series!