Cold tires to blame for chaotic end to F2 sprint race in Baku

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

A late safety car restart knocked out six cars in the Formula 2 sprint race in Baku.

Race leader Dennis Hauger came wide out of the first corner after the restart, hitting the outside wall and damaging the right side of his car. Victor Martins, who was running in second place, followed the same fortune as he also found himself in the Tecpro barriers.

Jehan Daruvala, who was defending fourth on the outside of the turn, couldn’t avoid Martin’s car and went under.

Théo Pourchaire and Arthur Leclerc were also unable to take the corner and found themselves in the barriers. Meanwhile, Jack Doohan locked up under braking, spun around and stalled.

Sauber junior Pourchaire had already anticipated that such a situation was brewing for the races, but could not avoid falling victim to it.

It’s hard to warm up the brakes and warm up the tires during races, the ART Grand Prix rider said after qualifying.

I expect a lot of safety cars. I hope there will be no safety cars, no accidents, no contact. But I mean this track is very special for that, and the racing there is crazy.

The top three said after the race that the track surface was slippery outside the racing line, but felt it was a lack of tire and brake temperature that ultimately led to the tragedy.

The level of grip on the racing line is good. Offline, it’s starting to get a little scary, said Premas race winner Ollie Bearman. When you go to make an overtake, I didn’t really feel the confidence to push like I did on the grip line and also in the safety car.

It’s quite difficult to keep the tires warm, especially the front tires. We saw the two leading guys on the final restart simply understeer. And I think many others have too. It’s really hard to keep the temperature down. And for this half-turn which [me and team-mate Frederik Vesti] fact, we were both slipping all the time. So that makes racing difficult.

Vesti, who finished second, also pointed to the impact of cold tyres.

The real challenge is actually during the Safety Cars, the tires cool down, get a lot less grip and if you speed up you can spin the wheels for a really long time,” he said.

“Also it creates a lot of understeer and just issues for the riders. So it’s something to manage and avoid trouble. It’s quite difficult when you push the limit.

Hitech GPs Jak Crawford accepted the verdict: I had a few times where I was struggling at the start of the race and I was a bit off the line and lost all grip and nearly found myself in the wall a few times.

So it just becomes very difficult, especially on the restart when you have super cold tyres. Cold brakes, cold front tires and you’re spinning for days.

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