As Formula 1 was gearing up for the 17th race of the season in Baku, another motorsport series' title battle took an unexpected twist.
Campos Racing are battling hard for the teams' championship in F2, but a disastrous qualifying meant that their two drivers, Pepe Marti and drivers' championship challenger Isack Hadjar, started right at the back of the grid for Sunday's feature race at the Baku City Circuit.
For Red Bull junior driver Marti, this led to a terrifying incident, as the Spaniard crashed into a stalled Kush Maini at the start of the race, an impact that threw his car into the air. Thankfully, all drivers were okay following the scary incident.
Maini's car failed to get off the line, with German driver Oliver Goethe smashing into the back of the Invicta Racing car. Marti then followed, unable to react in time to get out of the way of the crashed vehicles, sending his car airborne.
F2 championship battle wide open
The three-car collision led to debris being strewn all over the track, resulting in a red flag and a hefty delay to proceedings.
Once the race got back underway, it was Richard Verschoor that managed to take victory and propel himself up the championship standings with just two events left on the calendar.
Campos Racing's disastrous weekend hampered their title prospects on both fronts, with Invicta Racing now 35.5 points ahead of them, and Hadjar being overtaken in the drivers' championship by McLaren junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto after a point-less weekend.
After the huge accident, F2's official social media accounts praised the improved safety measures in the sport as all three drivers walked away unscathed from what was a very scary incident.