Dino Beganovic roared to an electric maiden Feature Race victory in Formula 2 around Madrid, after showing a dominant performance throughout the whole weekend.
The F2 grid only had a single Free Practice session to prepare to take on the Madring. After that, they were thrown into qualifying, which was disrupted by three Red Flags, and the Sprint Race, which was marked by chaos on the grid. The inaugural round has already featured a slew of surprises, and the Feature Race was next in line for the chaos.
Before the race started, Hitech announced that Colton Herta would not take part in the Feature Race. The ex-IndyCar driver fell ill over the weekend and had already had to skip the Sprint. Unfortunately, this weekend had not been short of terrible for Herta, after a significant crash in qualifying and having to withdraw from both races due to feeling ‘unwell’.
As Herta was set to start P12, the starting grid shifted, and the drivers behind him jumped up one position.
The calm before the storm
Beganovic had a strong launch off the line as the pole sitter kept the lead into the first corner. Behind him, Dunne suffered a small lock-up into the first corner but still managed to have a solid start. The Swede continued to build a nice gap to the cars behind before DRS was enabled.
Roman Bilinski lurked behind Tsolov as he waited for the championship contender to make a mistake. The grid all remained unscattered for a calm race start.
The calm did not last long, as the yellow flags came out on Lap 2. Kush Maini found the wall at Turn 18 after contact with Cian Shields threw him into the barriers.
The end of Lap 6 saw the Safety Car be brought in, and the pack were ready to go once again. Beganovic led the field into the first corner and continued to build his gap to Dunne behind. After he reported that he was happy to stay on the soft tyre for longer, the race leader quickly built a 1.2-second gap to the Irishman.
Safety Car in and bold moves emerge
Immediately after the Safety Car went in, Mari Boya, Rafael Villagomez, and Laurens Van Hoepen headed into the pits for a tyre change. Meanwhile, Shields was hit with a 10-second penalty for the collision that took Maini out of the race.
Further down the order, Gabriele Mini pulled a superb move down the inside of his teammate Ollie Goethe as he overtook him for ninth place. With Noel Leon between Bilinski and Tsolov, the championship leader could move up the pack without pressure from behind.
Mini made a bold move on Ritomo Miyata, but Miyata immediately snatched his position back. Stenshorne put the pressure on Camara as he closed in on the Invicta driver. Further behind, Boya looked rapid as he moved up through the field.
John Bennett lunged down the outside of Leon, the two going wheel-to-wheel into Turn 13. The battle would continue with Leon on top.
Tsolov made his way out of the pit lane as he met Boya on track but was not quick enough to take the position from him. The top two championship contenders were close as Camara was half a second away from Tsolov in 12th, both fighting their way through the field after their respective pit stops.
Camara determined to push past
Tension heated up as the halfway point of the Feature closed in. DAMS’ decision on when to pit Beganovic would be crucial to how the race leader finished at the Madring.
On Lap 18, Tsolov tried to go around the outside of both Goethe and Boya, but the bold move took him too wide off the track. The Campos driver tried to let only Goethe back through, but Boya snuck past. Camara seized the opportunity to push through as he went side by side with Tsolov.
Camara was a bit too determined to make up positions as he aggressively tried to go past Goethe on the narrow track. The MP driver suffered from Camara’s opportunistic move, as Camara ultimately pushed him into the wall and ended his race. The Invicta driver was hit with a 10-second penalty for the collision. Further back, Bennett had stopped on the side of the track.
The Safety Car was quickly deployed as the field geared up for yet another race start. With only 10 laps to go, Beganovic had another great start, eager to once again build up a gap to the pack behind. Despite his penalty, Camara remained determined to push further ahead, and another slew of bold moves moved him up the field.
Time trickled down as the chequered flag neared
The full 10 laps would not be completed because the race directors opted for a timed race to the end. With 8 minutes on the clock, the drivers would go all out with the remaining time.
The top three remained unchanged, as Beganovic had built a strong gap to Dunne, who in turn had created a solid gap to Miyata behind.
Durksen was eager to make a move on Fittipaldi, but the AIX driver showed strong defensive skills as he tried to prevent the Invicta from snatching fourth. Meanwhile, Bilinski and Tsolov continued their battle, with Bilinski going for a bold move to get ahead of Tsolov and into the top 10 positions this time around.
As time trickled away, a final lap remained to secure their positions. When the drivers took the chequered flag, Beganovic had built a 7.3-second gap to Dunne behind.
Beganovic roared across the finish line with lightning speed as he secured his maiden Feature Race victory in Formula 2. The DAMS driver had been flawless all weekend, and the Feature Race win became the cherry on top. He was joined on the podium by Dunne and Miyata.
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