page_title: 2016 Baku GP2 Series round
section_title: Practice and qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Baku GP2 Series round / Report / Practice and qualifying
caption_attribution_description: Antonio Giovinazzi,DTM,Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters,F3 FIA European Championship,FIA Formel 3 Europameisterschaft,Hockenheimring,Jagonya Ayam with Carlin,Motorsport,Siegerehrung
context_page_description: The 2016 Baku GP2 Series round was a pair of motor races held on 18 and 19 June 2016 at the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan as part of the GP2 Series. It was the third round of the 2016 GP2 Series and was run in support of the 2016 European Grand Prix. The first race, a 26-lap feature event, was won by Prema Racing driver Antonio Giovinazzi from pole position. Sergey Sirotkin finished second for ART Grand Prix, and Russian Time driver Raffaele Marciello took third. Giovinazzi won the second event, a 21-lap sprint race, ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly in second and Sirotkin third.
  Giovinazzi made a slow start in the first race and lost the lead to Nobuharu Matsushita. The event was affected by four safety car periods which closed the field up and led to the race being subjected to a time limit. Matsushita lost the first position to Marciello who later fended off attempts by Matsushita to reclaim the lead. Giovinazzi recovered and caught up to Marciello and passed him on the 18th lap. He stayed in the lead for the remainder of the race to clinch his first victory in the GP2 Series. In the second race, Daniël de Jong started from pole position but lost the lead to Matsushita.
context_section_description: One 45-minute practice session on Friday was held before the two races. The session was held on a dirty track with lap times gradually improving over the 45-minute period when the cars cleaned the circuit. Nato set the fastest lap with a time of 1 minute, 55.392 econd, ahead of Giovinazzi in second and Sirotkin third. Gasly, Rowland, Luca Ghiotto (Trident), King, Arthur Pic (Rapax), Marciello, and Sergio Canamasas (Carlin) rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. The session was disrupted when King went onto the turn 15 run-off area and was required to swerve to avoid hitting a van parked at the corner. It prompted the activation of the virtual safety car (VSC) to allow the vehicle to be moved. Two further VSC periods were necessitated late in the session when Marciello and Gustav Malja (Rapax) slid off the track at the same corner, ending their sessions prematurely.
  Friday afternoon's qualifying session ran for 30-minutes. The session determined the starting order for the first race with the drivers' fastest lap times. The driver who won the pole position was awarded four points that went towards the Drivers' and Teams' Championships. No competitor was required to start the races with the tyres they qualified on. Qualifying was postponed until after the second Formula One practice session when race director Charlie Whiting inspected the track at the second and third turns and decided that alterations were required to the kerbs in the area. It came after concerns were raised by Pirelli who reported that several tyres had been cut five cm (50 mm) by several loosened screws. The session was held in cloudy and windy weather conditions. Giovinazzi achieved the first pole position of his GP2 Series career, and the second for Prema Racing, with a time of 1 minute, 51.752 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by ART Grand Prix's Nobuharu Matsushita who had the pole position until Giovinazzi's lap. His teammate Sirotkin qualified third and was the fastest driver early in the session. Marciello took fourth, and Ghiotto was fifth, which was achieved on his second run. Rowland, Kirchhöfer, Gasly, Nato, and Canamasas rounded out the top ten qualifiers. King was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten with the field was completed by Markelov, DAMS teammates Lynn and Latifi.  Mitch Evans (Campos Racing), Pic, Daniël de Jong (MP Motorsport), Jimmy Eriksson (Arden International), Malja, Sean Gelael (Campos Racing), Nabil Jeffri (Arden International) and Philo Paz Armand (Trident). The session was stopped when Armand and de Jong drove onto the turn three escape road; de Jong was unable to continue.
caption: Antonio Giovinazzi (pictured in 2014) won the first pole position of his GP2 Series career and later won both races.
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