The GP2 Race At Baku Street Circuit Was Utter Carnage

On a good day, GP2 is pretty chaotic, so throw a new, tight street circuit into the mix and it sparks all kinds of mayhem. That’s exactly what we saw in the first GP2 race of the European Grand Prix weekend at Azerbaijan’s unique Baku City Circuit.

It was actually the first ever race to take place around the tricky street track, providing a sort of dress rehearsal for Sunday’s Formula 1 race. The support series certainly delivered when it comes to drama…

The first lap didn’t go well. Several cars were collected when Norman Nato’s Racing Engineering was spun around at Turn 1, eliminating five drivers in total.

Just after the race was restarted, the safety car was deployed again after Philo Paz Armand found the wall.

Shortly afterwards Artem Markelov and Arthur Pic collided, with the former finding the wall a little later in the lap, probably due to damage.

When racing, the person you don’t want to hit is your team-mate. That’s no secret. But Nato appeared to forget that. He tried a move on team-mate Jordan King but the two collided, with Nato then hitting the inside wall and retiring. A long safety car period followed…

The length of the safety car meant we were presented with a two-lap blast to the finish line, which – of course – sparked lots of drama despite only half of the field remaining. There were crashes, passes and slipstreaming overtakes right at the finish line. Classic GP2!

The race was won by Antonio Giovinazzi, who claimed both his and Prema Racing’s maiden GP2 victory.

Let’s see what the Formula 1 race brings now…