Duerksen hails ‘unbelievable’ first Formula 2 victory in Baku

Joshua Duerksen became the newest member of the Formula 2 winners club when he took to the top step of the podium at the Baku Sprint Race over the weekend.
The AIX Racing driver was in tremendous form starting in P4, getting ahead of Jak Crawford, Christian Mansell and Gabriele Minì, before navigating a tricky Safety Car restart to win the race.
Reflecting on his special Saturday, Duerksen said: “To be honest it was an unbelievable feeling. It took me a while to process everything that happened, all the emotions because to be honest I was not expecting to have a win in my bag in my rookie season.
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“I was expecting at the end of the year to be fighting for the top 10, but never to have three podiums and one win already at this stage. But the emotions were crazy high, I even got confused on the last lap, I wasn’t even sure if it was the last lap.
“I was asking my engineer on the main straight before getting the chequered flag just to make sure and then when I saw it, I was like ‘yes finally’. There were big emotions because I’ve been working really hard to get these results.
“So, to have a win in Baku, at a street circuit, it made it really special for me and also for my country because I am the first Paraguayan to get a victory in F2, so of course this makes it even more special.”
Duerksen revealed that his phone did not stop ringing after the race, as countless messages and calls came through. He admitted that it was only after the weekend when sat on the plane to Paraguay that he finally responded to everything.
But those messages nearly did not happen as Duerksen almost came together with Crawford at the opening corner of the first lap, as he overtook the DAMS Lucas Oil driver for P3.
Talking through it, he says that move was key in his charge to victory as it set him up to put pressure on debutants Minì and Mansell.
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“The overtake was quite tight,” he acknowledged. “I mean I saw the gap and I had to send it and it went well, it was quite tight but it went well. I knew that I had to use this opportunity because for Minì and Mansell it was their first race in F2 and they have done basically zero laps in the F2 car.
“So, they had a lot to discover, especially on the race run, so I knew it was my opportunity to fight for the win. I think my overtake on Crawford into T1 was crucial to be able to fight for the victory later on. I saw the gap and had to send it.”
After biding his time in a bit of a DRS train, Duerksen got past Mansell on Lap 8 on the brakes into Turn 1, before repeating the same move on Minì on Lap 13.
He then built a lead of over four seconds to the PREMA Racing driver before a Safety Car intervention on Lap 15, after Ritomo Miyata crashed into the barrier at Turn 3, took away his advantage.
“I think those overtakes were pretty good,” he said. “I made a good gap and then I was quite sad the Safety Car came out, because I had a nice margin to P2. I was feeling quite comfortable, managing the tyres, and when the Safety Car came, I thought ‘not great’.
“But then I had to get on with it and luckily I had a good restart and made sure I played my cards well, to then defend P1 and keep it for the rest of the race.”
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Duerksen built up another impressive lead, this time to Crawford in P2, winning by 3.5 seconds. It capped off an impressive run of form for him which has seen him finish in the points at each race since the Spa-Francorchamps Feature.
During that time, the Paraguayan also took third in the Monza Sprint and did also end up P5 in the Baku Feature and he believes this form is down to a variety of factors.
“I think it’s a combination of the work we are putting in, the engineers on their side, me on my side with the driving and also at the summer break we were just improving,” explained Duerksen.
“From day one of course it’s a new team, the team is growing a lot, investing a lot to make progress and I think it’s slowly starting to pay off. All the hard work we have been doing since Bahrain because with the new car we had a lot to learn.
“I think we are just finding the sweet spot now with the car, I am understanding well how I should drive the car, the team knows what I need from the car, and I think I know what as well I need from the car to be quick.
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“So, I think all of these combined are just working pretty well, and I hope of course we can keep going like this for the rest of the races and continuing this momentum.”
With a break in action till the next round in Lusail, Duerksen admits he is disappointed to not be racing for a little while as he could drive “all the time”. But he does say that it is a good time for him and AIX to analyse everything in the hopes of finding more performance.
He hopes they will have a car that can help him achieve his targets which are: “Feature Race victory and also Pole Position, that would be great.”