A strong weekend of comebacks for the British driver, who after narrowly missing out on points on Saturday, climbed to sixth place in Sunday’s feature race. Martí also initially achieved the same in the longer race, but a post-race penalty eventually ruined the Spaniard’s fine performance, which had seen him running in podium positions at some stages
The twelfth round of the current FIA Formula 2 season came to an end at the Baku City Circuit, with Arvid Lindblad leaving the Azerbaijani capital with a valuable haul of points—an achievement that was by no means straightforward at the outset. The Red Bull Junior Team member pulled off two remarkable recoveries which, in the case of the second race of the weekend, rewarded him with sixth place. His teammate Pepe Martí, by contrast, experienced the bitter side of racing. A collision on Saturday and a time penalty on Sunday prevented his potential from translating into results.
Friday morning’s free practice allowed the first conclusions to be drawn ahead of the afternoon’s qualifying. Lindblad set a best lap of 1m57.290s, while Martí stopped the clock at 1m57.485s.
The development of qualifying held few surprises, as everyone expected a red flag at some point. The first arrived when Amaury Cordeel hit the wall, with Lindblad narrowly avoiding him as he was running behind at the time. It was during the restart window that the benchmark times were set. Martí produced a best lap of 1m55.576s, good enough for seventh place. Lindblad, meanwhile, posted a 1m56.627s to place 16th in the standings. These would prove to be the only quick attempts, as Victor Martins went straight into the wall, bringing out another red flag. With 20 minutes needed for barrier repairs, the session resumed briefly before yet another incident triggered a further stoppage, leading to an early end.
Saturday’s sprint race, scheduled for 21 laps, saw Martí start fifth on the reversed grid, while Lindblad, carrying a penalty from Monza, lined up at the back. Once the lights went out, Martí made a superb getaway and briefly moved into fourth. However, at the first braking point the Barcelona-born driver was squeezed between Martinius Stenshorne and Rafael Villagómez, resulting in a three-car clash that damaged his car and left him with no choice but to retire in the pits. Lindblad also endured a troubled opening lap, being hit from behind by another driver and spun around. Fortunately, his car remained intact. When racing resumed on lap five, Lindblad began his charge, quickly rising to 15th. He soon dispatched Cian Shields, Laurens van Hoepen, Cordeel and John Bennett. The Briton then overtook Ritomo Miyata before gaining another place at Stenshorne’s expense, when the latter stopped on track, triggering a VSC and later a safety car. Just before the lap-13 restart, rain drops began to fall on the main straight, but that did not slow Lindblad down as he went on to pass Sebastián Montoya and Roman Staněk. He eventually crossed the line in 10th place for Campos Racing, carrying Red Bull’s colors.
Sunday dawned with the track surface still tricky—dirty and slightly damp from overnight conditions. Martí and Lindblad, starting from sixth and 14th respectively on the 29-lap feature race grid, both opted for the softer tire compound in the opening stint. Just like on Saturday, Martí had a strong launch, gaining two positions at Turn 1, and moments later moved into third after overtaking Alex Dunne at Turn 3. Lindblad, in contrast to Saturday, also enjoyed a clean start and made up a place. In the longer race, tire management was crucial, which is why Martí offered little resistance when Gabriele Minì overtook him down the main straight with DRS. Shortly afterwards, Martí and Stenshorne were battling for fourth.
On lap four, the pair clashed slightly at the end of the straight, with Martí making minor contact from the inside. Stenshorne ended up in the barriers, bringing out the safety car. During the neutralization, most drivers—including Martí and Lindblad—pitted. The Campos Racing crew performed brilliantly in consecutive stops, allowing both drivers to gain ground. Martí rejoined in third, ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli, while Lindblad edged close to the top ten. After seven laps the safety car came in and racing resumed. Lindblad kept climbing, passing Miyata to take 10th. Between laps 14 and 16 he made further progress, overtaking Dunne and Kush Maini. Unfortunately, the two Campos Racing cars were on different rhythms. Martí began to struggle with tire wear in the closing stages, losing ground to Joshua Dürksen, Fornaroli and Beganovic, all of whom used DRS on the straight to pass him. Running in sixth, Martí had Lindblad right behind after the Briton had taken seventh from Villagómez. That was the order at the checkered flag. However, post-race the stewards ruled Martí responsible for his contact with Stenshorne, handing him a 10-second penalty that dropped him from sixth to 11th. As a result, Lindblad was promoted to sixth.
Following the close of the European leg of the season, Martí and Lindblad remain sixth and seventh in the overall standings with 112 and 109 points, respectively. In the teams’ championship, Campos Racing still holds third place with 221 points.
The championship now heads into another long break before the final two rounds in Qatar (29-30 November) and Abu Dhabi (6-7 December).
Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing driver in FIA Formula 2): “It was a decent end to what had been a challenging week. Qualifying in Baku was messy with only one lap and a big lock-up that left me down in the timesheets. Starting last after penalties in the sprint race, I recovered well to P10 on Saturday. Sunday wasn’t perfect, but moving from P14 to P6 means solid points after some difficult weekends. Thanks to the team – now we have a long break before Qatar.”
Pepe Martí (Campos Racing driver in FIA Formula 2): “It was a very tough weekend. After a puncture in free practice, we still managed to qualify P6, but on Saturday we couldn’t even complete the first corner and on Sunday, despite having good pace, a penalty left us out of the points. I leave frustrated with the result but positive about the speed we showed, and now the focus is on Qatar.”
