BAKU ANALYSIS: The key moments that played a huge part in Round 12

23 September 2025

It was yet another special weekend of racing in this 2025 Formula 2 season, as Jak Crawford converted Pole Position into a Baku Feature Race victory.

The win serves as a massive boost to the DAMS Lucas Oil driver’s title hopes as he closed to within 19 points off Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

But there is plenty more to discuss from our trip to Azerbaijan, so as we continue to debrief Round 12, let us analyse some of the key moments from this weekend’s action…

ONE LAP IN QUALIFYING

Qualifying was a tale of those who got their second laps in, and the drivers who got just one.

When the light went green, only a handful of drivers completed their laps before the first of three Red Flags was waved, with Amaury Cordeel having crashed at Turn 13.

Before the session was stopped, the likes of Jak Crawford, Victor Martins, Alexander Dunne, Gabriele Minì and Roman Stanek all completed their first laps.

Crawford took pole after a stop-start Baku Qualifying that had three Red Flags

Once the action resumed with just over 22 minutes, those six drivers and the rest of the field came back out, to do their laps on the same set of Supersofts.

Those six drivers all did another lap, with Crawford going fastest ahead of Minì, Leonardo Fornaroli, Martins and Dunne.

The Hitech TGR pair of Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic, in sixth and 11th also did one lap. In fact, the only two drivers that pushed on for a second attempt were Fornaroli, who went from third to second and Josep María Martí, who moved up from P10 to seventh.

A satisfying step forward: Dino Beganovic’s Baku Debrief

As Beganovic explained afterwards: “In Qualifying, I didn’t really put it together. We didn’t really extract what we could have because we were on a very good lap, but we prioritised going out with time for a second run, which never ended up happening.”

Beganovic wound up winning the Sprint and finishing third in the Feature Race, but given that he was 0.055s up on Crawford’s time before abandoning his lap, he may have missed out on pole.

That is because, there were two more Red Flags in Qualifying – the first caused by Martins’ crash at Turn 3 and the second because of a collision between Stanek and John Bennett at Turn 1.

Beganovic won the Sprint Race and finished third in the Feature but did he have a chance at pole?

This meant nobody improved after those initial laps, so in hindsight, for Beganovic and others who old did one lap, finishing those second attempts was the right thing to do.

BROWNING’S SLOW START AND DUERKSEN’S FRONT WING

Fresh from a second place in the Sprint Race, Luke Browning, starting in P5, would have been confident of another podium in the Feature.

But a slow start dropped him to eighth and he lost out to his teammate Dino Beganovic after running wide at Turn 16, before getting embroiled in a battle with Joshua Duerksen for P9.

The two made contact on the run to Turn 3, knocking the right front wing endplate of the AIX Racing car.

Browning’s day would get worse as he lost out in the pitstop phases, and dropped to P16 before a collision with Roman Stanek forced him into the pitlane. While he came back out, he ran a lap down at the back of the field.

As for Duerksen, he continued on with the damage very impressively.

Duerksen fought his way through the field despite sustaining front wing damage early in the race

A DAMAGED AIX FLYING THROUGH THE FIELD

AIX and Duerksen have proven to be a winning combination in Baku before – winning the 2024 Sprint Race – but the Paraguayan’s performance on Sunday was arguably even more impressive.

Starting in P15, Duerksen made up the first five places with a normal front wing. He then got past Browning with damage and then gained three more positions in the pitlane under the Safety Car.

From then on, he flew through the field, overtaking Martí, Fornaroli and Minì – and also gaining a place as Dunne fell through the field following his collision with Fornaroli – to get up to second.

The AIX driver then put pressure on Crawford for the final three laps of the race, but just could not get by the American, and was forced to settle for second.

But still, doing so having started P15 is remarkable, but doing it also with a damaged front wing is certainly eye-catching.

Fornaroli and Dunne's collision negatively impacted both drivers' Feature Race result

FORNAROLI AND DUNNE’S COSTLY CONTACT

It was all going so well for Fornaroli, taking the lead at the start, before being held up in the pitlane, as his team held him back so as not to have an unsafe release.

This meant he dropped down to fourth, and admittedly struggled on the Prime tyre, losing out to Dunne at the restart, which relegated him to fifth.

FEATURE RACE: Crawford holds off Duerksen to take superb victory in Baku

In looking to take the place back, Fornaroli ran into the back of the Rodin Motorsport driver, sending Dunne off at Turn 1, while the Italian got a 10-second time penalty.

It hurt both, as while the Invicta Racing driver recovered to finish third, he dropped down to fifth in the final classification, while Dunne continued on, but eventually retired from the race.

Both drivers missed out on huge points this weekend, as they were in contention for the win on Sunday. They will both hope that those do not prove to be pivotal moments in the Championship.