22/06/2017
NEWS STORY
The FIA Formula 2 Championship returns to the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan this weekend for the fourth round of the 2017 campaign for one of the trickiest races of the year: the circuit combines the newer parts of the ancient city with a wide open promenade creating a front straight of over 2 kilometres length, with the tight, twisty lanes around the old town wall that will reward pinpoint accuracy and seriously punish any errors, to create a track that is as complicated for the drivers and their engineers alike.
Round 3 saw Charles Leclerc (PREMA Racing) grab pole at his home circuit before retiring from the feature race, handing the honours to title rival Oliver Rowland (DAMS) with Nyck De Vries (Rapax) leading a 1-2 in the sprint for the Italian squad. The Monegasque driver's lead in the standings has been cut to just 3 points ahead of Rowland and Artem Markelov (RUSSIAN TIME), and the fight for the top spot promises to be tougher than ever.
All bar 1 team have scored points after 3 rounds, and on a circuit that is historically attritional given the difficulty of the track for set up and for racing the fight between the teams is likely to throw up some surprising results over qualifying and the two races.
Mario Isola, Pirelli: "Although Baku shares some characteristics with Monaco there are a number of key differences too, most noticeably the higher speeds. With more energy going through the tyres, plus the potential for high temperatures, this means taking the medium tyre as well as the supersoft. This notable gap between the compounds should encourage more opportunities for drivers to go wheel-to-wheel. Based upon last year, one thing that may be similar to Monaco is the likelihood of a safety car and therefore the importance of strategy."
Note:
There will be one driver change for this weekend: Sergey Sirotkin replaces Alexander Albon in car #7 at ART Grand Prix due to an incapacity for the Thai driver.
Oliver Rowland has reduced the championship gap to Charles Leclerc from 26 to 3 points after Round 3.
Following Round 3 in Monte Carlo, PREMA Racing dropped from 1st to 4th in the Teams' Championship.
DAMS have achieved the highest number of podiums so far (5) – 1 more than RUSSIAN TIME, 2 more than PREMA Racing, and 3 more than ART Grand Prix.
RUSSIAN TIME have led the least number of laps so far (14) out of the Top 5 teams in the Standings.
Only 3 drivers have managed to score points in every race so far: Luca Ghiotto, Alexander Albon and Jordan King. This is echoed by their respective teams: only RUSSIAN TIME, ART Grand Prix and MP Motorsport have scored points in every single race to date.
Driver Standings prior to Azerbaijan
| Pos | Name | Nat | Team | Points |
| 1 | Leclerc | MON | Prema Racing | 77 |
| 2 | Rowland | GBR | DAMS | 74 |
| 3 | Markelov | RUS | Russian Time | 60 |
| 4 | Ghiotto | ITA | Russian Time | 56 |
| 5 | Matsushita | JPN | ART Grand Prix | 48 |
| 6 | Albon | THA | ART Grand Prix | 37 |
| 7 | King | GBR | MP Motorsport | 29 |
| 8 | Malja | SWE | Racing Engineering | 28 |
| 9 | Latifi | CAN | DAMS | 28 |
| 10 | de Vries | NED | Rapax | 27 |
| 11 | Nato | FRA | Pertamina Arden | 18 |
| 12 | Cecotto | VEN | Rapax | 16 |
| 13 | Fuoco | ITA | Prema Racing | 2 |
| 14 | Canamasas | GBR | Trident | 1 |
Team Standings prior to Azerbaijan
| Pos | Team | Points |
| 1 | Russian Time | 116 |
| 2 | DAMS | 102 |
| 3 | ART Grand Prix | 85 |
| 4 | Prema Racing | 79 |
| 5 | Rapax | 43 |
| 6 | MP Motorsport | 29 |
| 7 | Racing Engineering | 28 |
| 8 | Pertamina Arden | 18 |
| 9 | Trident | 1 |