Baku – Race 2: Norman Nato inherits victory through disqualification
Charles Leclerc came very close to a perfect weekend but had to settle for second place due to a penalty. He finished between Norman Nato and Nicholas Latifi but increased his lead in the championship.
In pole position, Ralph Boschung tried to defend his position at the first corner against Oliver Rowland. The British driver wanted to put aside his penalty from yesterday and turn it into a victory in order to reduce his deficit in the championship. He was able to take the lead as early as the second corner, despite a strong defensive move by the Swiss driver.
Norman Nato, who started in fourth position, had to wait until the second lap to catch up with the Campos driver. Although he was able to move up to second place, his front wing did not come out unscathed, impacting the rest of the race. The Arden driver even took the lead when Oliver Rowmand was betrayed by his mechanics and had to retire. The same misfortune struck Nyck de Vries, who had managed to overtake Ralph Boschung, then Nicholas Latifi, and secure a provisional spot on the podium.
Charles Leclerc didn’t ask for so much after a cautious start, which had relegated him to 10th position. He found himself in 4th position and then continued with qualifying times to move up to the front. He had no trouble getting rid of Jordan King and Nicholas Latifi to aim for the lead.
But it is written that nothing would be spared to the championship leader. So on the 17th lap, he and Sergio Canamasas both received a ten-second penalty for not slowing down enough under a yellow flag. In these conditions, Norman Nato did not seek to defend himself excessively when the Prema driver came up next to him because he knew that the latter would not have time to widen the gap sufficiently.
Indeed, this was the case since the Frenchman was only 1.3 seconds behind at the checkered flag and was therefore able to return to victory, for the first time since Monza last year. Charles Leclerc limited the damage and was able to hold onto second place, which is an excellent result in the championship. He now has a 42-point lead over Oliver Rowland.
Behind Nicholas Latifi, again in third place, has outpaced Jordan King, Sergey Sirotkin, Artem Markelov, Nobuharu Matsushita and Luca Ghiotto.
