There was plenty of alumni success at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend, with strong result for graduates in Formula 1 and Formula 2.
2013 BRDC F4 champion George Russell earned his third podium of the season with third place for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, just ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who surged up the order from 15th on the grid to fourth, as he narrowed the championship lead once more and thrust his team into the lead of the Constructors Championship standings.
2021 BRDC British F3 race winner Oliver Bearman meanwhile started his second Grand Prix, this time substituting for Kevin Magnussen at Haas. The young Brit, who made his F1 debut earlier in the year for Ferrari, started from 10th on the grid, and after a feisty performance, claimed the final point on offer in the Grand Prix. In doing so, he created a new F1 record as the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two Grand Prix starts.
In Formula 2, Christian Mansell and 2022 GB3 champion Luke Browning made their category debuts as they graduated from F3.
Both scored points, with Mansell taking eighth in the Sprint Race and 10th in the Feature, while Browning excelled in the Feature to finish seventh.
What they said:
George Russell: "It was a really strange race today. It was very difficult on the medium tyre in my first stint. I was over one second off the ultimate pace and finding it hard to control the rear tyre surface temperatures. On the hard tyre in my second stint, the car felt brilliant. In the final 20 laps, I was lapping one second quicker than those at the very front. It is hard to work out exactly why this was and is a little frustrating.
"We were fortunate to get onto the podium and I am glad that both Carlos (Sainz) and Checo (Perez) are OK. We were having a relatively quiet run to P5 after I got past Verstappen, but we will take it. It is a good reward for all the efforts of the team after a challenging weekend on the whole."
Lando Norris: "A great result for the team, with a great race from both sides. First of all, congrats to Oscar (Piastri) for another win, he deserves it. I think I had a great race. I got fastest lap and a good number of points from where we were so I’m very happy. We’re the team that gained the most points today, so I think we should be very satisfied with that. It’s the maximum we could have done today, and we’ve taken the lead in the Constructors’ Championship. A job well done by everyone."
Ollie Bearman: "I missed some pace in the first stint and lost a few positions there and that put me a bit behind in the race as I got some traffic and lost some time. In the second stint, I’m quite happy with the performance. It’s tough when you’re trying to overtake, you really have to push the tires and they get hot, so I was pushing hard to overtake Franco (Colapinto), and eventually Lewis (Hamilton) overtook me, so he was using his experience there to do that. I wasn’t going to finish in the points but there was some misfortune in front of me which allowed me to do so."