FridayFree Practice: 11.00 – 11.45 Qualifying session: 15.00 – 15.30
SaturdayFeature Race: 12.00 (29 laps)
SundaySprint Race: 14.00 (20 laps)
Warm Up: Pierre Gasly – PREMA Racing“In order to get ready for this round, I have trained on the simulator. The layout is quite interesting and I’m really looking forward to racing there. It’s always more exciting and challenging when we go to a new track that no one knows. It’s another street circuit and it seems really technical with long straights and quite specific corners.
“As we only have 45 minutes for free practice, we will need to adapt really quickly. As always, we will have to be competitive during qualifying. It’s going to be a tough weekend but I’m sure that the team and I will be able to make the difference.
“I think we’ll see more overtaking manoeuvres than in Monaco because the straights are really long in Baku and it seems you have different spots to overtake. Of course, when you race on a narrow track, between the walls and you don’t have any grass or gravel beds, you cannot afford the slightest mistake or you’re out.
“At this point, we don’t know if the tyre degradation will be high or if we’ll be able to push for many laps. It will depend on the track conditions I guess. It’s always easier to control the grip on the Medium tyres. We will discover quite a few things during free practice so we will have to analyse the data quickly after that. That is a brilliant challenge for the teams and the drivers.”
The StakesThe GP2 paddock set up camp this week in Baku, Azerbaijan for the third round of the 2016 season. It is the first trip to this venue for the Series which will be racing alongside Formula One once again.Three weeks ago, Monte Carlo was the scene of two epic races. It was Artem Markelov who came out victorious of the Feature Race after having started P15 on the grid. The RUSSIAN TIME ace made his way up to second behind race leader Norman Nato who looked set for a second win this season. But Markelov elected to pit last and managed to re-join ahead of a disheartened Nato. The following day, Nobuharu Matsushita started from reverse pole and flew to the Sprint Race win, 13 seconds ahead of rookie Marvin Kirchhöfer.Nato left the Principality as the new Series’ leader, one point ahead of Markelov. Up next is Baku, a new track which could hold a few surprises for teams and drivers alike. Although the drivers have been training on simulators and the engineers have been studying every detail of the layout, it will not be until free practice that they will be able to collect and analyse real data.Street circuits are often low in grip with considerable track evolution, and that will be particularly true in Baku where the asphalt surface has only recently been laid. Pirelli have selected Medium and Supersoft tyres for this event. More than ever, strategy will be key during the feature race with a reasonably high performance gap between the two compounds.
Season Stats4 Number of race winners so far in 2016 (Norman Nato, Alex Lynn, Artem Markelov, Nobuharu Matsushita).2 Number of front row starts achieved by Nato in the first two rounds.37 Number of laps led by Nato so far this season.10 Number of podium finishers in four races (Matsushita, Nato, Jordan King, Lynn, Nicholas Latifi, Raffaele Marciello, Markelov, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Pierre Gasly).
NoteworthyJust like Formula One, GP2 Series will race for the first time at Baku this week.
In the drivers’ standings, Norman Nato is 1 point ahead of Artem Markelov and 8 points ahead of Alex Lynn.
In the Teams’ standings, RUSSIAN TIME is 11 points ahead Racing Engineering and 15 points ahead of DAMS.
Marvin Kirchhöfer is the first rookie this season to have achieved a podium finish (Monte Carlo Sprint Race). He is also currently the highest ranked rookie in the drivers’ standings (9th with 18 points).
Seven teams have scored a podium so far (ART Grand Prix, Racing Engineering, DAMS, RUSSIAN Time, Carlin, PREMA Racing and MP Motorsport).
Only four drivers have succeeded in scoring points in every single race so far (Markelov, Lynn, Marciello and Rowland).
