Racing driver Joshua Dürksen has won the F2 Sprint race in Azerbaijan today, claiming a famous first win for both himself and for Paraguay, building on his earlier success of winning the first F2 points and podium finishes for a Paraguayan driver earlier this season at Imola in Italy – all in his first season of competition in Formula 2.
Driving for AIX Racing, Dürksen started in 4th place on the grid. By the end of lap 7 he had worked his way up to 2nd place, and was finally able to make his passing move to take the lead on the first corner of lap 13 – where he would remain until the chequered flag some 8 laps later.
After building up a substantial lead, the pack of cars was brought back together under a safety car on lap 15, but Dürksen expertly navigated the rolling restart to ensure that nobody else was able to overtake him.
Speaking on the team radio after crossing the finish line in first place, Dürksen was euphoric: “Thank you all, we finally did it!” He later posted on social media: “For you all, for you, Paraguay! Let them say we can’t do it, we know that it’s a lie, we are strong, we conquer or die”.
Speaking at the press conference after the race, Dürksen was asked how he felt.
“It’s just crazy. I mean, I’m still not processing everything because at the start of the season, I was not expecting to already have three podiums during the year. I was expecting in this half of the season to start scoring some points, being just in the top ten because I know the jump from FRECA to F2 is really big. The drivers we have here is of course really top class.”
“So I knew it was going to be really difficult to be fighting for the wins. I am just extremely happy that I could manage to get it now in my rookie season. Especially because it’s my first time here. After Free Practice, I though Baku will be tricky, but luckily the track improved so I was feeling more confident.”
“Be thankful to God, to my team, to my sponsor, for everybody’s hard work to make this happen. And yeah, just an incredible feeling.”
The sprint race is one of two races being held on the famously tricky street circuit around Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, with the long-form race happening tomorrow (Sunday 15th September). In this race, Dürksen will start from 7th position on the grid, and is hopeful of a good result despite the challenging conditions.
“Starting P7 tomorrow it will be a bit more tricky because we’ll have more cars around me, but I still think I could manage this. I will have to do some extra work to overtake the guys before the tyres drop and then I will have a have a clean run. But yeah, for sure I think it’s possible again, but of course the task will be a bit more difficult tomorrow.”
Dürksen holds both Paraguayan and German citizenship, but is immensely proud of his Paraguayan heritage and even has the Paraguayan flag as the focal point of his helmet design, and proudly waves the Paraguayan flag when he gets onto the podium for finishing in the top three of a race.
Since making his debut in the professional tiers of world motorsport at just 15 years old, the 20 year old has competed in 168 races in competitions ranging from regional Formula 4 championships to now competing in the worldwide Formula 2 championship – just one step below racing in world motorsport’s top tier, Formula 1.
Over those 168 races, Dürksen has finished on the podium 33 times, whilst his latest win in Baku is the 12th of his career so far. He has also set the fasted lap in a race 10 times, and qualified on pole position 6 times.
Unlike Formula 1, the cars in Formula 2 all use the same chassis, engine, and tyre supplier, which serves the purpose of removing most of the differentiation between the cars themselves, and therefore giving drivers a more equal chance to compete with each other and demonstrate their driving skills.
Still just 20 years old, Paraguay’s newest national hero Joshua Dürksen has an excellent chance of being Paraguay’s first Formula 1 driver in the coming years.
Vamosna Joshua!
