Rafael Câmara is leading the Drivers' Championship after inheriting victory in the Baku Feature Race 2. The Invicta Racing driver crossed the line second on the road, but a five-second time penalty for Alexander Dunne dropping a wheel over the white line at pit entry reshuffled the podium. That penalty dropped the Rodin Motorsport driver down to third, promoting Nikola Tsolov to second for Campos Racing and handing Câmara his third win of the season.
It was a wild afternoon on the streets, starting right away when John Bennett was tagged into a spin and a stoppage by Rafael Villagómez at Turn 1 to bring out the Safety Car. Once racing resumed on Lap 3, Martinius Stenshorne kept the lead while Dunne successfully fended off Câmara at the opening corner. Chaos wasn't far away, and Ritomo Miyata's stoppage on track triggered a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 7 right as the first round of mandatory stops got underway.
Not the way we wanted P1 but overall it was a good race, good points for the championship and very happy with this weekend overall,
Strategy and pit cycles shuffled the order dramatically. When Inthraphuvsak stopped on track at Turn 16, another Virtual Safety Car caught drivers coming out of the pits, allowing Dunne to leapfrog into the effective race lead. Câmara, Tsolov, and Laurens van Hoepen pitted on Lap 11 and gained crucial time on their rivals. Dunne fired up his tyres and muscled past Câmara with DRS into Turn 1, while Tsolov climbed to fifth. Câmara latched right onto the back of the Rodin machine, though Invicta calmly hopped on the radio to tell their driver he was free to stay right where he was.
That tactical patience paid off when the stewards slapped Dunne with his race-altering five-second penalty for crossing the line at pit entry. Behind the leaders, Tsolov was on a charge, setting the fastest lap and hunting down Stenshorne. The Campos driver pulled off a DRS-assisted move down the main straight to take third place, then set his sights on the top two. Entering the final lap, the leading trio were covered by just two seconds. Dunne crossed the line first physically, but the penalty dropped him behind Câmara and Tsolov.
“Not the way we wanted P1 but overall it was a good race, good points for the championship and very happy with this weekend overall,” Câmara said.
Behind the podium finishers, Stenshorne took fourth ahead of van Hoepen, with Boya sixth, Beganovic seventh, León eighth, and Gabriele Minì ninth. Roman Bilinski grabbed the final point in 10th place. In the championship standings, Câmara now leads with 207 points to Tsolov's 200, while Dunne sits third on 189, Minì fourth on 163, and Beganovic fifth on 139. Campos Racing holds the Teams' Standings lead on 333 points, followed by Invicta Racing on 297 and Rodin Motorsport just one point behind in third. MP Motorsport sits fourth on 200 points, with DAMS Lucas Oil rounding out the top five on 173. The field now gets a slight break before heading to Lusail for Round 13 on November 27-29.
