Martinius Stenshorne claimed second place in the feature race in Baku on Friday, completing a 1-2 for Rodin Motorsport alongside team mate Alexander Dunne, who took the win.
The result didn’t come easily, though. The driver had to fight position by position throughout a race marked by a safety car and a red flag, in order to stay in contention for the podium.
“I think our race was really good. The pace was good, we made some good overtakes, some good restarts,” Stenshorne said after the race. “A bit unfortunate at the end. The safety car came out right after our pit stop, so we lost some positions there.”
According to F2’s official release, the moment coincided with the mandatory pit stops, when Stenshorne, León and Boya switched to soft tyres, but Mari Boya’s crash on the exit of Turn 2 triggered the safety car and shuffled up the running order.
Despite the setback, the Norwegian managed to respond. “I gained them back, and then the red flag put me back again. So I had to do small overtakes this race, but luckily we got the result.”
The red flag, called after a multi-car incident at Turn 3 that took out five drivers, meant the race switched to a time-based format instead of the full 29-lap distance — and on the restart, Stenshorne was placed behind Rafael Câmara.
Still, the Rodin driver got past the Brazilian right out of Turn 3, and a few laps later also passed Oliver Goethe at Turn 3, sealing the team’s 1-2 behind Dunne.
The result confirms a dominant weekend for the team in Baku, which had already locked out the front row in both qualifying sessions ahead of the race.
Asked what has been working so well for the team, Stenshorne credited the collaborative effort between drivers and team.
“I think the team has done a great job giving both me and Alex a good car. It’s not always that you can have a car that can be put on top position and win races. So a big thank you to them,” he said. “I think me and Alex are doing a good job as well to deliver these results, but a big thank you to the team as well for giving us a really good car.”
With today’s performance building on what he’s learned since qualifying, Stenshorne will start from pole position on Saturday and expressed confidence about fighting for the win in Feature Race 2, which closes out the Baku weekend with lights out at 11:00 local time.
“I feel good. I think we had a good sprint race this morning as well, gaining some positions and a good pace. So we just have to see how the race plays out. A lot of stuff can happen,” he said. “But I’m confident for tomorrow that we can bring home another good result for the team.”
Rodin’s 1-2 in Baku also had an impact on the teams’ standings: the team moved up to 267 points, taking third place, behind Campos Racing (310) and Invicta Racing (272).
Image: Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images
