The highest placed returning driver this season finished over five seconds clear and took the bonus points for the fastest lap at the Baku City Circuit, in a race which saw four retirements by the second lap.

Second-placed Dan Ticktum, driving for Carlin, started sixth but charged through the field to take his third podium of the year.

UNI-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou finished in third, giving him his fourth podium of the year, with Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala in fourth and ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire making up places on the last lap to finish fifth.

At the start, the yellow flag was out by the second turn as Jack Aitken’s HWA was squeezed into the wall at Turn 1, spinning and ending his race, while the other HWA of Alessio Deledda was out at Turn 2 after running wide into the escape road.

UNI-Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich was handed a ten-second penalty for causing a collision after nudging Prema Racing’s Oscar Piastri into Hitech Grand Prix’s Liam Lawson, who ended up in the wall at Turn 2.

The incident, which brought out the safety car, ended Lawson’s race immediately and caused Piastri front wing damage which forced him to retire a lap later.

The safety car came in on lap 4, leaving Shwartzman in control of the field, and allowing DAMS’ Marcus Armstrong to take fourth from Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung, while Hitech’s Juri Vips snatched P7 from ART’s Theo Pourchaire.

By lap 10, Zhou had passed Daruvala and was up into second, putting pressure onto Schwartzman, before being passed by Ticktum, who had charged through the field from sixth.

Shwartzman had built up a four-second lead by lap 14, before the field settled into a rhythm for the last few laps.

Armstrong had been sitting in fifth, but was passed by Boschung and Pourchaire in the last two laps, leaving him to finish seventh.

The new format means Trident’s Bent Viscaal will start on pole, with Charouz Racing System’s David Beckmann in second, Vips in third and Armstrong in fourth.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Gap
1	1	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam
2	5	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	5.100
3	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	8.800
4	6	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	10.300
5	10	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	11.000
6	21	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	13.100
7	17	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	14.400
8	8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	14.500
9	14	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	17.200
10	24	Bent Viscaal	Trident	17.700
11	9	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	19.700
12	11	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	21.000
13	12	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	21.800
14	4	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	25.800
15	20	Matteo Nannini	Campos Racing	35.900
16	16	Roy Nissany	DAMS	42.400
17	15	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	49.200
18	25	Marino Sato	Trident	1 Lap
	2	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam
	7	Liam Lawson	HitechGP
	22	Jack Aitken	HWA Racelab
	23	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab
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