What We Learned: The key talking points from Round 12 in Baku

There was plenty going on around the streets of Baku as Formula 2 returned for Round 12 of the 2024 campaign.
We had another two first-time winners in 2024, as Joshua Duerksen and Richard Verschoor added their names to the list of victors this season, putting us up to a staggering 16 different drivers.
So, what did we learn in Baku?
Every driver endures a period where things just don’t go their way. For each of the top four, those moments are crucial to their title hopes, so when Isack Hadjar hit the brakes ahead of Turn 1 in Qualifying and his Campos Racing car went straight, it looked like his turn had arrived.
Coming into the Baku weekend, the Frenchman led the Drivers’ Championship standings, but his once healthy margin was reduced to just 10.5 points over Gabriel Bortoleto following a scoreless weekend in Monza.
Things did not improve in Baku for him after winding up 20th in Qualifying, while Bortoleto and Zane Maloney achieved top 10 grid spots while Paul Aron also ahead of him.
He fought back through the field and avoided the chaos around him, but Hadjar could only manage 12th and 14th in the Sprint and Feature Races respectively, leaving him powerless to prevent Bortoleto from taking over at the top of the Standings.
The Brazilian has been a picture of consistency after his own rough spell, with four non-scores including three DNFs between the Jeddah Sprint and Melbourne Feature Races.
Maloney was the early Championship leader, but seven non-scoring finishes in 11 races between Imola and Budapest hurt his title charge.
READ MORE: Jak Crawford’s Baku Weekend in his Words
Aron also led at one stage in 2024, but he has experienced his own downturn in form after his nine-consecutive points-scoring finishes from Melbourne to Spielberg. Since then, he’s been in the points just twice.
The top four will now be looking to avoid any issues in the remaining two rounds of the season, which will go a long way in keeping them in contention for the 2024 title.
Just outside of the top four, Jak Crawford made it six points finishes in a row in Baku, taking P2 in the Sprint Race and adding more points to his total, going onto 116.
No other driver has more points finishes in a row, and the DAMS Lucas Oil driver still has designs on a top three finish in the Championship. He is currently 19 points behind Maloney in third and has set his sights on closing down that gap in the final two rounds of the 2024 campaign.
Further back, Richard Verschoor has moved himself inside the top 10 in the Championship, with the Trident driver recording the team’s second victory of 2024.
It marked his second consecutive Feature Race podium after earning third back in Monza, and his fourth podium in the last four rounds, a record that only Victor Martins can match with four P2 finishes in the Budapest to Baku span.
READ MORE: Baku Qualifying Analysis: The fine margins in setups and slipstreams that decided the result
But it should come as no surprise that Bortoleto has moved himself into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship after his Formula 3 title was built on such impressive consistency last year.
After the Brazilian’s difficult start to the 2024 F2 campaign, he has been outside of the points just twice since Melbourne. In that stint, he has achieved 11 top five finishes, and taken five podium finishes and two race victories, both in Feature events.
The Brazilian is going from strength to strength in F2, but can he follow in the footsteps of Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri to become F2 Champion at the first time of asking having won their F3 title as a rookie the year prior?
After two false dawns for Verschoor, a race victory in 2024 finally stuck for the Dutch driver as he claimed the Feature win on Sunday in Baku.
It was a great drive by the Trident driver, as he fought with Martins throughout the race in a back-and-forth battle, along with managing his own car after a brush with the wall that left him with bent steering.
After losing out in the first stint to Martins, Verschoor showed resilience that has defined his campaign, and he capped off his fightback with a superb victory under immense pressure as the ART driver closed back in during the final stages.
It was the fifth top-five finish and third podium result since he was disqualified from victory in Budapest in what has turned into quite the strong spell for the Dutch driver.