Baku, September 14, AZERTAC

Joshua Durksen’s patience was tested by debutants Christian Mansell and Gabriele Mini as he waited for the opportune moment to complete passes en route to a dominant maiden F2 victory, according to Motorsport.

Starting from fourth, Durksen took advantage of a poor start from Jack Crawford (DAMS) to move into the top three places, but was comfortable sitting behind the new faces at Trident and Prema in the early phases.

But on lap eight, a DRS move into Turn 1 promoted him past early leader and polesitter Mansell, and an identical move five laps later on Mini completed the job.

Having pulled a gap of close to five seconds, Durksen saw his lead quashed when a crash for Ritomo Miyata (Rodin) caused the safety car to be called into action.

But leaving the restart to the last possible moment, the Paraguayan was able to cruise to the chequered flag to become the 15th different race winner of an enthralling season.

Mansell had started from pole for the partially reversed grid sprint race and made a strong start, with Mini taking Crawford into Turn 1 after the American made a tardy launch.

Despite this, however, Mansell appeared to have pushed his tyres too soon and gradually dropped to eighth by the chequered flag, and subject to a post-race investigation for a clumsy moment of contact with Gabriel Bortoleto (Invicta).

But while the Australian fell back, Mini was able to maintain his position towards the front, dropping behind a recovering Crawford but holding back fellow Alpine junior Victor Martins (ART) by 0.02s as they approached the finishing line side-by-side.

With Bortoleto finishing in fifth and Isack Hadjar 12th – having started in 20th after being judged to have caused a red flag in qualifying – the Frenchman's championship lead has been slashed to just 6.5 points, and extends a scoreless streak to three races, equalling his record run this year.

Luke Browning was the other debutant this weekend, replacing Zak O'Sullivan at ART, and he finished 11th, one place shy of a point after battling with Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Prema) for a sustained period.