F2: Juri Vips takes second win on the bounce with Feature Race triumph in Baku

Red Bull Junior Juri Vips continued his dramatic upturn of form in Baku, taking his second win in a row in the Feature Race to firmly ignite his title challenge, with the Hitech Grand Prix driver now up to fourth in the standings.

Beating out Alpine junior Oscar Piastri and Ferrari prodigy Robert Shwartzman, Vips becomes just the second double-winner of 2021, and is the first driver in Formula 2 to take two victories in a single weekend.

WATCH: Red Bull junior Vips takes maiden win in second Baku Sprint Race

Emphatically overcoming his pole-sitting team mate Liam Lawson at the start of the race, Vips then held off Piastri and Shwartzman for the following 28 laps, with the former finishing second to slice Guanyu Zhou’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship down to just five points.

The UNI-Virtuosi racer finished outside of the points in 13th, telling his team over the radio he just didn’t have the pace.

Shwartzman was up from 10th after a disappointing Qualifying session and scored his second podium of both the season and the weekend, following up his Sprint Race 1 win with P3 to move up to third in the title fight.

Starting from pole, Lawson’s race didn’t go as he would have envisaged, with the Hitech driver handed a 10s penalty for a defensive move on Theo Pourchaire at the start of the race and ending the day sixth.

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