JOHN BENNETT CHARGES FROM THE BACK TO TOP 10 FINISH IN BAKU

British racing star John Bennett impressively fought back to a top-10 finish on an otherwise challenging FIA Formula 2 Championship event in Azerbaijan last week (24-26 September).

After starting the month with his best weekend of the 2026 season at Monza, which featured his second career F2 podium finish, the Salisbury-based driver was then cruelly out of luck in Madrid when he was removed from both races by two collisions.

The Trident youngster, who claimed a superb maiden F2 win in the summer at Spielberg, hoped to put that right as the series headed to the Baku street circuit, which played host to an extended schedule of three races this time.

Action started as early as Thursday, with free practice and a double qualifying outing being the order of the day. It started well for Bennett, sitting just outside the top 10 at the end of practice, before two tight qualifying sessions saw him finish 15th and 17th respectively.

Friday played host to the first two contests, beginning with a 21-lap sprint race. Bennett was initially a victim to a chaotic start, falling to the rear of the pack after contact from Joshua Durksen's Invicta. The safety car made an early appearance though, allowing for a spectacular recovery to follow from the Trident driver.

Bennett instantly disposed of Cian Shields on the restart and then steered past Rafael Villagomez in quick succession, whereafter his surge continued with moves on Emerson Fittipaldi and Colton Herta. With five laps to go, he was up to P14 from P21, when the safety car emerged again - this time to remove Durksen's car from the barriers.

A manic restart saw cars scattered across the road after tripping over each other at Turn 1. Bennett expertly dodged his way through all of the carnage and even evaded a spinning duo directly in front of him to not only survive, but climb up the order. He continued his charge to the very end, with nail-biting final overtake at the chequered flag on Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak securing him a brilliant 10th position.

Race two later that afternoon was the first of two longer feature races, including a mandatory pitstop for all drivers. Bennett was among those starting on the super soft Pirelli tyres, and emerged after a solid opening stint three places better off from his grid slot in 12th place, ahead of Trident team-mate Laurens Van Hoepen, as the safety car was scrambled. His race sadly unravelled at the restart though, as he was an innocent party in a multi-car collision that eliminated multiple drivers.

One final race on Saturday morning remained, Bennett hopeful of coming away with a strong result. Unfortunately, luck evaded him once again, as he was abruptly punted into a spin at the first left-hander, ending his race immediately.

John Bennett: "We were very unlucky in Madrid, and sadly it was much of the same this time for us. Our pace was definitely there, as shown in the first race, but Baku is one of those circuits where it's very easy to be accidentally caught up in other people's incidents. That was twice the case this weekend unfortunately!

"We can be proud of how we recovered in the sprint though, and we could have gone even further if it had been a longer race I think. We've got plenty still in our locker, the sprint performance showed our race pace was amongst the strongest on the grid, so we are optimistic going into the next round."

Two events remain on the FIA Formula 2 Championship calendar, the first of those being scheduled to take place in Qatar over the 27-29 November.

Images from Dutch Photo Agency.