Rafa Camara took a vital victory for his championship fight in the Formula 2 Feature Race in Baku, besting Nikola Tsolov and Alex Dunne to the top step of the podium.
Martinius Stenshorne lined up on pole for the second race, with his teammate in second. Both Rodin drivers were eager to recreate the results from the Feature Race 1. However, the new Championship leader, Camara, started third and hoped to take the lead into Turn 1.
Stenshorne made a clean move off the line as the lights went out, holding his lead into the first corner. Dunne wasn’t as fast off the line, and the Alpine junior found Camara’s Invicta alongside him, challenging for second into the opening corners.
Dunne held second as a Safety Car was brought out after John Bennett’s TRIDENT got stuck by Turn 1.
Early Safety Car restart
The field went green on Lap 3, with Stenshorne leading the field into Turn 1. Once again the Rodin driver had a clean getaway, while Camara and Dunne went wheel to wheel into the first corner.
The Invicta driver made a move around the outside of the Alpine Junior but locked up as he swept around. He kept his car on the road but found himself under pressure from Noel Leon. Camara stayed focused and held on to third, letting Dunne hold on to second.
Further down the order, Gabriele Mini made a strong opening run, gaining three places in the first few laps. The Alpine junior sat just 21 points behind the championship leader in fourth, with every position making a difference in the title fight.
On Lap 7, Ritomo Miyata’s Hitech was stopped on the road. Initially, it was a Yellow Flag, but Dunne came into the pits assuming that a full Safety Car would be called. The Rodin driver was the only front-runner to dive into the pits, and as he was midway through the stop, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed.
Dunne left the pits in 16th, the gains marginal from the stop.
A tight pit stop battle
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak hit the pit wall, falling through the order as the ART driver stopped on the road. As a yellow flag was brought out, a slew of drivers once again came into the pits, with Stenshorne and Mini making the call. However, the advantage was minimal once again, as no full Safety Car was called.
On Lap 11, after running longer, Camara and Tsolov pitted. Both drivers showed that a longer first stint seemed the best strategy, with the Invicta driver coming out of the pits in the net lead and Tsolov in net fifth.
Dunne and Camara went side by side down the straight, with the Alpine junior having more speed on his fresher tyres and taking the lead from his championship rival.
However, Dunne’s challenge was under threat as he was noted for crossing the line at the pit entry. The same issue that earned Tsolov a 5-second penalty in Feature Race 1. On lap 14, Dunne received his penalty.
Further down the field, Mini lost out in the pit stop cycle, dropping back to 15th, then fighting his way back to 13th.
Dunne broke the DRS to Camara on Lap 17, but it wasn’t the consistent lead the Irishman needed to mitigate his penalty. Camara managed to keep relatively close.
Tsolov was also within the penalty range of Dunne, with just 3.6 seconds separating him from the race leader, putting him in line for a potential podium.
Fighting in the top 3
On Lap 21, Tsolov used his DRS to look down the inside of Stenshorne into Turn 1, but couldn’t make the move stick. However, on the next lap, he had the same opportunity and made it stick. Tsolov moved into the vital podium position.
Camara knew Tsolov was closing in on his Invicta, and the Brazilian driver pushed hard to close the gap to Dunne once again. On Lap 25, Camara cut the gap to just 0.6 seconds to the Alpine Junior out front and used DRS to stay ahead of Tsolov.
Tsolov clipped the wall on lap 28, but he didn’t pick up any damage to his Campos car. He continued pushing, and on Lap 29, the Bulgarian driver finally broke into the DRS range of Camara in second.
With the final lap underway, Dunne held onto the lead, with Camara slipping out of DRS range Camara putting him at risk of a late move from Tsolov. Luckily for Camara, Tsolov was just too far back from the Invicta, leaving Camara in the net lead.
Dunne took the chequered flag, but his penalty slipped back to third, with Camara and Dunne taking the first and second steps on the podium.
Stenshorne crossed the line fourth, with Laurens Van Hoepen rounding out the top five. Mari Boya and Dino Beganovic came sixth and seventh, with Noel Leon in eighth. Mini ended his climb in ninth, up from 16th, with Roman Bilinski closing out the points scorers in the second Feature Race.
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