Gabriel Bortoleto chose a cautious start. On a track with high risk of crashes, the Brazilian dropped three positions early in the race while trying to stay in the points battle, falling from fifth to eighth.
Rookie Christian Mansell started in first and faced pressure from Gabriele Mini, who was also making his F2 debut. The Italian overtook Jak Crawford and began chasing Mansell, but the Australian maintained the lead during the early laps of Saturday’s race.
With the cars running close together, there were few overtakes in the initial laps. On lap 7, Gabriele Mini made a move on Christian Mansell at Turn 1 to take the lead in Azerbaijan. The following lap, Joshua Durksen also passed Mansell.
Championship leader Isack Hadjar started 20th. The Frenchman gained positions but remained far from the points zone. Gabriel Bortoleto held onto eighth place, the last spot for scoring points.
A battle between Victor Martins and Zane Maloney for sixth place gave Bortoleto an opportunity to fight for seventh. The Brazilian began to pressure Maloney and managed to overtake him on the main straight between laps 13 and 14. At the same time, Durksen took the lead.
Shortly after, on lap 15, Bortoleto fell back to eighth after being overtaken by Kimi Antonelli. The safety car was deployed on that lap due to Miyata crashing into the wall. When the race resumed, the Brazilian overtook Antonelli and Maini to move up to sixth. Later, Bortoleto climbed to fifth by passing Aron.
Durksen maintained the lead and claimed victory, followed by Crawford and Mini in the top three. Bortoleto finished in fifth place, adding four more points to his tally. Championship leader Hadjar did not score any points, leaving the gap between Gabriel and the Frenchman at 6.5 points.
