Returning for round 12 of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season, MP Motorsport started racing again at the Baku circuit in Azerbaijan.
Coming into the weekend, the team st P4 in the championship with Gabriele P3 and Oliver P15. With 3 rounds left, including Baku, which had an additional feature race. The team looked to optimise the home-stretch points haul as best they could.
Free practice at Baku went ahead on a Thursday morning for Formula 2, where all the drivers ran on the soft tyre compound.
Unlucky for Oliver, early on in the session he ended in the runoff area of Turn 3; however, he was able to overcome and get back out on track. Later on in the session, Oliver's car locked up and ended up stopping after it touched the barrier at the entry of Turn 5.
Overall, Oliver only ran a total of five laps and came out of the practice session in P21 with a fastest lap time of 2:10.947.
On the other hand, Gabriele had a smooth-sailing free practice and completed a solid twenty laps during the 45-minute session. Overall, he came out P5 with a fastest lap time of 1:57.033.
With two qualifying sessions, which were set later that day to determine grid positions for the two feature races and sprint, there was plenty of opportunity for Gabriele and Oliver to improve upon their practice session.
However, Gabriele was disqualified from the practice session due to an insufficient quantity of fuel remaining in his car post-session.
Free Practice Results:
The first 20-minute qualifying session at Baku went ahead on a dirty track with lots of dust.
Oliver was the first driver out on track who had clean air and was not giving another driver a tow; however, he was also not receiving one himself.
In a similar position to Monza, midway through the session there was a traffic queue of drivers in pursuit of a tow for a fast lap, all while attempting to not give away one themselves.
Once the cars got going again with four minutes remaining, Gabriele, as well as a couple of other drivers, locked up and ran off track at Turn 1, which threw off a crucial lap.
In one final attempt, both Gabriele and Oliver needed a solid flying lap, with Gabriele in P14 and Oliver in P20.
Oliver was able to improve and move up to P19 with a fastest lap time of 1:57.636; Gabriele remained in P14 with his fastest lap time of 1:56.874.
Qualifying 1 Results:
Not long after the first qualifying session concluded, the second and final qualifying session went ahead to determine the second feature race starting positions.
In the first half of the session, both Oliver and Gabriele put in solid lap times that put them originally within the top ten. However, at the midway point, Gabriele had dropped to P11 and Oliver to P16.
In a final push for everyone on the grid, Oliver was able to set a faster time for himself of 1:55.317, which moved him up to P15. Meanwhile, Gabriele unfortunately dropped a couple of positions to P16 with a fastest time of 1:55.443.
Qualifying 2 Results:
On a sunny Friday at Baku, the Sprint Race for Formula 2 began, with Gabriele starting in P14 while Oliver started further back in P19.
On the opening lap, there was an incident on the launch involving Boya and Câmara. However, Oliver made the most of the chaos and launched himself forward and cleared four cars to come out P15, right behind his teammate on the opening lap before the safety car was deployed.
After the safety car was rescinded on lap 3, Oliver and Gabriele were head-to-head with one another, with Oliver momentarily snatching up P14 before losing the position to his teammate the following lap.
As the race continued, Oliver rocketed up to P14 ahead of Inthraphuvasak on lap 8. Following, a couple laps later, Oliver flew ahead of Dürksen to take P13 on lap 13, then ahead of León on the following lap to take P12.
Gabriel's race started slower, where he maintained his grid start and was unable to make up a position until lap 7 when he overtook Inthraphuvasak for P13. Following that, on lap 8, Gabriele began picking up the pace and was producing purple sectors across the circuit. As this progressed, Gabriele on lap 11 overtook Miyata around the inside to take P11, then Dürksen on the following lap rocketed up to P11, before finally soaring ahead of León to move up into the provisional points-scoring position to take P10.
On lap 18, Dürksen hit the barrier of turn 1, which incited a safety car, during which Câmara served a pending ten-second time penalty, which promoted Gabriele to P9 and Oliver to P11, setting the two drivers up for a double points-scoring position if successful once the safety car came in.
However, tragedy struck on the restart. There was chaos at the first corner between multiple drivers in the mid-field in which both Gabriele and Oliver were involved. The two teammates touched and dropped out of the points to P13 and P15. Oliver was further overtaken by Villagómez and dropped to P14.
In a heartbreaking turn for a promising sprint race, both MP Motorsport drivers finished outside of the points and were lucky to finish the race. Nevertheless, their pace throughout the session provided hope for the two feature races to come.
Sprint Race Results:
The first feature race of the weekend began on the Friday afternoon at Baku with Gabriele starting in P14 and Oliver in P18.
During the reconnaissance laps, Montoya spun out and was forced out of the race, which aided in pushing both MP Motorsport drivers up by one position each once the race began.
The opening lap witnessed Yamakoshi pit immediately, which promoted Oliver to P16, while Gabriele maintained P13.
Gabriele's race for the first quarter was uneventful until most of the pack at the front of the grid began pitting on lap 7, which promoted Gabriele to P10, and after more pitted on the following lap, brought Gabriele up to P5 by lap 8.
One of the pitted drivers on lap 8, Boya, stopped on track after his pit stop with an issue, which brought out the safety car. During this, the final leaders yet to pit, including Gabriele, pitted under the safety car on lap 9, where Gabriele came out of the pits in P8.
The safety Car remained until lap 11, where on the restart Gabriele was overtaken by Bilinski and dropped to P9. However, the race did not stay green for very long due to a massive multi-car incident involving Dürksen, Miyata, Shields, Van Hoepen, Tsolov, Villagómez and Bennett, which red-flagged the race.
When the race was reinstated under the safety car, the race was switched to a 20-minute timer. On the rolling restart, Gabriele maintained his P9 restart position and was immediately on the pounce to hunt down Bilinski ahead in P8. On the 15th and following lap, Gabriele was finally able to make his move on Bilinski and take P7; furthermore, he gained another position to P7 on the following lap when Herta pitted.
On lap 20, Oliver finally pitted and promoted Gabriele up to P6, where he finished his race in the points.
Oliver's race, on the other hand, played the alternative strategy to his teammate, where, unlike Gabriele, who started on the supersoft tyre compound, Oliver started on the harder soft tyre compound to run a longer stint to allow a final sprint on the Super Softs.
On lap 6, Oliver overtook Villagómez and climbed up to P15. On the following two laps, most of the other drivers on separate strategies pitted, which brought Oliver up to P6. Furthermore, on lap 8, after Boya stopped on track after his pit stop, more drivers pitted under the safety car, which promoted Oliver to provisionally lead the race.
The safety car ended on lap 11, where Oliver led the restart. He was able to hold off Dunne behind him and maintain the lead, but the green flag was short-lived as a multi-car collision triggered a red flag.
When the race was reinstated, Oliver led a strong rolling restart and held his position. Dunne made multiple attempts to overtake around the outside; however, Oliver's defence held him off, although Dunne finally snatched up P1 from Oliver on lap 16.
In the closing minutes of the race, Stenshorne attempted an overtake on Oliver, who defended well; however, Stenshorne was able to execute a successful overtake in the closing sectors of lap 19, in which Oliver locked up and dropped down to P6. As a result, the team finally boxed him to swap onto the supersoft tyres to close the final couple of laps.
When he emerged from the pits, Oliver came out in P13, and on the closing 21st lap he was overtaken by Herta and finished the race in P14.
Feature Race 1 Results:
The drivers took to the track for one final race at the Baku circuit, with Oliver starting P15 and Gabriele P16, and both drivers starting on the same supersoft tyres.
The two teammates battled wheel-to-wheel at the start, with Gabriele pushing past his teammate into P14 while Oliver held P15.
The first lap ended with a safety car after Bennett's car needed to be retrieved. On the restart on lap 3, Gabriele maintained P14. During the same lap, Miyata and Dürksen battled ahead, and Gabriele took the opportunity to act on the tussle up ahead to propel past Miyata to take P13.
A yellow flag and virtual safety car were called for Miyata’s car on lap 6, during which multiple drivers pitted, promoting Gabriele up to P9. However, racing did not last long as Inthraphuvasak was involved in an incident which brought out the yellow flags again on lap 9. Nevertheless, this time Gabriele took the opportunity to make his pit stop.
Gabriele emerged from the pits in P14, but was unfortunately overtaken by Bilinski and dropped to P15. Across the next couple of laps, he picked up his pace and set purple lap times to chase Bilinski.
Once Oliver pitted ahead, Gabriele ascended a further position to P13. Following, on lap 19 he overtook Dürksen at turn 1 and climbed to P12.
In a great stint of momentum, Gabriele overtook Montoya the following lap for P11, then overtook Maini on lap 22, which put him into the points. Gabriele on lap 26 overtook Bilinski for P9, and maintained the position to the flags. He finished the race having propelled up seven places.
For Oliver's race, on the lap 3 restart amidst some mid-field chaos, he dropped to P17 behind Herta. However, Oliver began his recovery drive almost immediately, overtaking Herta on the following lap to take P16. Two laps later, he chased Bilinski on lap 6 to snag P14 from the DAMS Lucas Oil driver.
By the end of that lap, Miyata crashed out and instigated double yellow flags, during which many drivers pitted. As a result, Oliver moved up to P10, and following another incident involving Inthraphuvasak on lap 9, Oliver was promoted to P9. Following Inthraphuvasak’s incident, more drivers pitted, which brought Oliver up to P4.
On lap 11, the final drivers ahead pitted, which promoted Oliver up to provisional race leader. On the following lap, Oliver was pushing and nicked the wall in the process, but was able to proceed on the supersoft tyres until lap 14, when he finally pitted.
Oliver emerged just ahead of his teammate in P12; however, Gabriele did swiftly overtake him, and Oliver dropped to P14.
In the final homestretch of the race, Oliver began to chase down Dürksen, and on lap 21 made the move on the Invicta Racing driver to take P13. He then pushed ahead against Montoya and took P12.
On lap 26, Oliver executed his final maneuvre forward to overtake Maini, narrowly finishing outside the points. After dropping to P17 mid-race, he managed to revive his position to the best of his ability to finish P11.
Feature Race 2 Results:
The MP Motorsport team left Azerbaijan with solid points for the championship. Although not the best weekend for the team, there were some highlights to uplift.
In the Sprint Race, before the chaos of the safety car restart, both Gabriele and Oliver had made up a significant number of positions, which had the potential for a double-point finish.
On the other hand, Gabriele was able to maintain a steady intake of points for Round 12 after securing P6 in Race 1 and P9 in Race 2.
After a point-scoring weekend at Baku, the MP Motorsport team leaves Round 12 in Azerbaijan for an almost two-month break from racing before returning at Lusail in late November.
Driver Standings after Round 12:
Team Standings after Round 12:
