May 04, 2023
Published on tags: 2023

 

The Superleague championship leader had been dominant only to lose victory, yet has still stretched his margin in the title race.
Jake Denehan extended his lead at the top of the Superleague standings despite dramatically missing out on victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Edge Esports driver had been imperious to finish ahead of THR's Luke Maguire at the Baku City Circuit, only to be punished for a pit lane infringement.

Owen McGaugie's late pit stop gave Denehan the gap to lose just the one spot, with the Holland Racing Team stand-in finishing third whilst clinching the fastest lap.

Australian Grand Prix winner and championship contender Adam Maguire failed to finish having already been relegated to the back through a false start penalty.

Denehan's closest challenger, Tom Stevens, now sits 11 points behind the Irishman having secured fourth for the second race in a row, although his battle with Robin Pansar was cut short when the Edonis hit the wall through the castle section late in the race.

Daniel Stepkowski continued his incredible run of consistency with fifth ahead of RSR team-mate Tomasz Wach, with Zsolt Szucs and David Fidock next in line.

Jukkapekka Lalu is yet to finish outside the top 10 this season and led home Dylan Platt in ninth. Pansar, Chris Shepherd, Geoffrey Fournier, Florian Geier and Fabian Szyrzik completed the scorers.

The championship standings show Luke Maguire now third, ahead of Stepkowski and Adam, whilst THR extends its constructors' lead over Edge after Stephane Rouault retired for the second consecutive race.

Nocturne's double DNF sees RSR remain in third with a 22-point gap between the outfits.

McGaugie made his substitute appearance for HRT having breezed to victory in the Superlights event.

The Road2Formula driver led home team-mate Sandeep Singh by 21.541 seconds, with Giuseppe Ragusa clinching third.

That was only after a dramatic end to the race that saw long-time podium occupant Alex Lehoux tangle with Michael Eyres as the Valle driver made a move for third on the run to the finish line.

Eyres limped across the line to finish fourth as Red Arrow racer Lehoux eventually finished 12th.

With Fabrizio Gobbi absent for TX3, McGaugie stretched his championship lead with the Italian, team-mate Ragusa and Singh all packed closely behind.

Jack Mayor took honours in race one in Formula Sprint 1 to cut the lead at the top to team-mate Szymon Frelik.

The Pole would finish third with Thomas Harvey's Spark the meat in a TOP sandwich, before Jan Dragoun secured victory in race two.

The Czech had finished fourth in the opener but impressed to lead home Malta Forces' Mike Kwint and Mayor.

Runaway championship leader Luke Mitchell secured a fourth race win this season with victory in the first race of the Formula Sprint 2 event.

The Alfa Sierra driver led from pole-to-finish ahead of Kings Racing's Scott Mitchell-Malm and Seva Panasenko to collect the 20 points available, whilst Jack Nicholls rose four places to finish fourth.

The GPVWC Academy put a win on the board courtesy of Alessandro Maggio in race two, with a dramatic finish leaving David Jundt just half a second away from victory for Priority 1.

Canadian Maxime Beaulieu rounded out the podium, just holding off Luke Mitchell to collect valuable points for Optiminal.