Christian Mansell shone on his FIA Formula 2 debut at Azerbaijan this past weekend (14/15 September), leading the opening race from pole position and scoring a brilliant double points finish on the Baku street circuit.
Fresh from finishing fifth in the final Formula 3 Championship standings after a magnificent second full campaign in the F1 support series, Mansell moved up to make his maiden outing in F2 with the Trident Racing squad in Baku - one of three meetings lined up for the Australian as he completes the 2024 season.
The New South Wales-based youngster also began a new venture in taking in Baku for the first time in his career. Banking crucial mileage and data as he showed top-10 pace in free practice, he brilliantly matched that in the afternoon during a wild qualifying. Finishing tenth quickest in his #23 Trident machine secured him the reverse grid pole position for his first ever F2 race the following day.
From the head of the pack, Mansell - backed by AJM Transport, Castrol, Vawdrey Trailers, Sargeant Transport and Ultimate Driving Tours - made a perfect getaway as the lights went out to dive into the opening corner still leading the field. With the pace in his pocket early on, the Trident driver edged out a small gap over former F3 rival Gabriele Mini and continued to look comfortable in his new environment.
Mansell continued to lead the way even without the assistance of DRS, until lap seven with he was powerless to defend on the long main straight into Turn 1. The same happened a lap later but Mansell remained in a podium position heading towards the closing stages.
By the time the safety car emerged, Mansell was sitting fifth after tyre degradation began to set in. A chaotic restart commenced, beginning with light contact between Mansell and Gabrielle Bortoletto at the second corner that dropped him down to seventh and into a battle with Kimi Antonelli - taking eighth place for a point on his exciting debut.
The Rush Performance, Infinity Sports Management, IOR Petroleum, AMSL Diabetes Australia and NTI-backed driver started 10th for the second race the following day. Following a huge accident that delayed the action from the original start, Mansell lined up eighth on the rolling start and instantly attacked Mini into Turn 1 to grab seventh place.
He soon battled his way ahead of race one winner Josh Durksen to head into the pit window sixth, but the undercut of rivals ahead of him dropped him to the edge of the top 10. He stayed there to the chequered flag to bring a promising debut weekend to a close with a 10th place finish.
Christian Mansell: “I'm very happy with how that first weekend went, and you can't complain with points, leading a race and starting from pole can you?
"A crazy race on Saturday. It was such a cool feeling to lead my first F2 race but eventually I started to suffer from tyre degradation and fall back. Either way I’m not too worried about how it played out, as it's experience in the right way and it was promising to say the least.
"Sunday was always going to be a challenge but I was up for accepting it. I'm glad to see everybody come away from the accident unscathed, and we showed great pace in the early laps on the restart. All race we had something, and to get points made it all the better.
"It's been a nice opening to Formula 2 for us and I'm looking forward to getting back into the car for two more rounds. Thank you to Trident for their great work and to Richard Verschoor for his support this weekend; a huge congratulations to them for their brilliant win on Sunday."
Mansell's next action in the FIA Formula 2 Championship will be over the weekend covering 29 November to 1 December, when he heads to the Losail circuit in Qatar for the first time.
Images from Dutch Photo Agency.
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