Nikola Tsolov took a surprising victory around the streets of Monaco after forcing Rafa Camara into a mistake, which put him into the wall in the Formula 2 Feature Race.
Tsolov was in a title fight in his F3 campaign against Camara and returned to challenge the Brazilian in their rookie F2 seasons. Both drivers came into 2026 intent on repeating the previous season’s performance, and in the opening round, the two went head-to-head.
However, early in this season, Tsolov has had mixed results. Though he took two victories ahead of Monaco, he’d been out of the points in every other race. Struggling to settle into a consistent result, Tsolov told Motorsport Week and media that the victory in Monaco felt like ‘redemption’.
“It’s great. I felt like it was kind of a redemption for me, just because I’ve had a few tough weekends in Miami. I felt like I was going to be strong in the wet on Sunday because it’s usually my strength.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t even try it, and then in Canada it was just a messy weekend. I think we had so much pace there, and it was just a big missed opportunity. I’m glad to see we’re fighting for the future race wins every weekend.
“So, for me, that’s important, and we can build on consistency from now on, because to be honest, that was my goal coming into this weekend. I wasn’t really necessarily aiming for the win.”
Challenging Camara
The race wasn’t always swinging in Tsolov’s favour. For the majority of the Feature Race, Camara had a healthy lead. However, getting tyres up to temperature was vital around Monaco. In the first slew of drivers coming out of the pit lane, it was clear that cold tyres would be a problem.
Tsolov spoke about the difficulties. He said, “I mean, I felt the tyres dying on the soft, so I could barely get around the hairpin, and I lost the thing one second in sector one in that lap, suddenly out of nowhere.”
“So then we wanted to stay out a little bit longer, but I let my engineer know that I’m gonna lose a lot of time, so I boxed in that lap, and yeah, the pit stop wasn’t necessarily fast if I have to be, and then the outlap was just really difficult.
“I’m glad I managed to bring the tyres in by the second push, and then I caught the next cars that were coming out of the pit on super soft.
Drivers were sliding around the track, nearing the unforgiving walls. and dropping through the order quickly. Unfortunately, this is the fate that befell Camara as he exited the pits; the gap between him and Tsolov disappeared.
With the Bulgarian driver closing in, the Invicta driver kept pushing until he was under pressure into the first corner, and Camara ran off the track and ended his race.
Making the move for the lead
When asked about the incident with Camara, Tsolov said the track felt ‘slippery’.
“I think it was just really slippery, so I had the advantage in that lap and managed to get through Alex, and then I arrived at Rafa, and I knew he was on cold tyres. So I found him very vulnerable. I just kind of knew I was gonna get through him at some point.
Tsolov knew coming into the lap behind Camara that overtaking would be possible, even with the difficulties that come around Monaco. However, by remaining level-headed and applying pressure to Camara, he forced the Brazilian into a mistake.
“I knew coming on the left side of the main straight was a little bit risky, so I just kind of knew maybe he won’t be able to see me.” He said.
“I broke a bit early, and I felt he broke even earlier. Then I released the brakes to brake later, but he released them even more. I thought, well, he was on cold tyres, he must go off, so then it was just really tight on the entry of T1. So, I just tried to survive. To be honest, it was really close.
“I thought I was going out as well, but I’m just glad I managed to get through, and then we’re just managing, I think my life was a little bit easier after that, and also in clean air. I think I had a lot more pace than when I was behind Rafa.”
The result moved Tsolov into second in the championship standings. Just one point away from Gabriele Mini in first. With a long season ahead, he needs to find consistency to help him challenge for the title.
READ MORE: Leonardo Fornaroli set for McLaren F1 debut in Barcelona
Discussion about this post