Arden's Norman Nato won a breathless Formula 2 sprint race in Baku after on-the-road victor Charles Leclerc dropped to second with a 10-second time penalty. <\/p>\n
Nato - who led for most of the race once a gearbox problem had eliminated early leader Oliver Rowland - took his first victory of 2017 despite being passed by championship leader Leclerc, who was given a penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags. <\/p>\n
DAMS driver Nicholas Latifi completed the podium as he finished over 10s behind the battle for the lead. <\/p>\n
At the start of the 21-lap race, Rowland attacked polesitter Ralph Boschung on the run to Turn 1 but the Campos Racing driver defended hard against the pitwall. <\/p>\n
The tighter line meant Boschung went wide at the exit of the first corner, which gave Rowland the chance to dive up the inside for the left-hand Turn 2 and the Briton grabbed the lead under braking. <\/p>\n
Rowland began to edge clear and Boschung came under attack from Nato - who lost his right front wing end plate against the rear of the Swiss driver's car as he went by on lap three. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Nato then started to home in on Rowland while Leclerc, who started down in eighth place after winning Saturday's feature race, began to pressure a gaggle of cars including Artem Markelov, Sergey Sirotkin and Jordan King. <\/p>\n
Rowland's race ended suddenly when he encountered gearbox issues at the start of lap eight, which allowed Nato to move into the lead. <\/p>\n
At the same time, Leclerc finally began to make progress as he blasted past Markelov using DRS on the pit straight and defended hard when the Russian Time driver hit back. <\/p>\n
Ferrari Formula 1 junior driver Leclerc moved up two places in a thrilling move as he and Sirotkin used their DRS advantage to sweep either side of Boschung heading into Turn 1 approaching half-distance, and Leclerc then dispatched ART Grand Prix driver Sirotkin around the outside of the left-hander. <\/p>\n
Leclerc was 10s off the lead as he went past King with a familiar DRS blast on the main straight and he quickly closed in on Latifi, who was running second after Rapax's Nyck de Vries retired down the Turn 3 escape road. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Prema Racing driver Leclerc eased past Latifi and then set fastest lap after fastest lap to chase down Nato for the lead. <\/p>\n
But just as he was catching the French driver it was announced he was under investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags - the same offence that frustrated Rowland and three other drivers in the feature race. <\/p>\n
Leclerc moved into the lead on the road with three laps to go but just a few moments later his penalty was confirmed and his chances of emulating Antonio Giovinazzi's double win in Baku for Prema in 2016 disappeared. <\/p>\n
King finished fourth ahead of Sirotkin, Markelov, Nobuharu Matsushita, Luca Ghiotto, and Boschung. <\/p>\n
Sergio Sette Camara rounded out the top 10 for MP Motorsport. <\/p>\n
RESULTS - 21 LAPS: <\/p>\n
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:<\/p>\n
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Read the rest here: <\/p>\n
Baku F2: Arden's Norman Nato wins thriller ahead of Charles Leclerc - autosport.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arden's Norman Nato won a breathless Formula 2 sprint race in Baku after on-the-road victor Charles Leclerc dropped to second with a 10-second time penalty. Nato - who led for most of the race once a gearbox problem had eliminated early leader Oliver Rowland - took his first victory of 2017 despite being passed by championship leader Leclerc, who was given a penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags Continue reading