Formula 2: Gabriele Mini achieved his debut victory

      With less and less time left before the start of the Formula 2 race on Sunday, the press service of the youth series stated about half an hour before the expected start time of the warm-up lap: it is raining in Miami! In several morning photos from the paddock of the youth series, it was clear that it was indeed very wet there. According to the results of Friday's qualifying, Kush Maini, the Indian driver for ART, who is already in his fourth season in F2, was set to start from pole position, having seen it all, so he had no shortage of experience. Next to him, from the first two rows, were also very fast guys – Rafael Camara, Martinus Stenshorn, and Gabriele Minì. At the same time, Camara, a Brazilian racing for Invicta Racing, was in third place in the championship standings, and he had something to fight for. By the time of the start, the intensity of the rain had noticeably decreased, and although low clouds of a rather ominous appearance hung over the racetrack, the actual weather allowed the race to take place. In any case, the participants were preparing for a challenging race. Just before the start, technical problems arose with the car of Polish driver Roman Bilinski, who left the cockpit, and the blue Dallara of the DAMS team was pushed behind the track barriers by the marshals. The teams informed their drivers that the rain should not resume for the next 45 minutes, and it was also announced that the cars would head out for the warm-up lap behind the safety car. During this lap, the stewards unexpectedly announced that Stenshorn received a Stop&Go penalty for some violation of the starting procedure, which immediately dashed the Norwegian's hopes for a good result. However, this circumstance somewhat eased the task for Gabriele Minì, as it would be easier for him to deal with the competitors starting from the front row. In the replay, it was visible that one of the mechanics from Rodin Motorsport left the starting grid too late, which is considered a serious violation of the rules. Since it turned out that the grip was quite normal, the start was given from a standstill. Maini acted impeccably and led the race, while Camara immediately lost a position, but Joshua Dürksen managed to break into fourth place. In the starting chaos, the car of Nikola Tsolov, the winner of yesterday's sprint, was hit by one of the competitors, spun around, ended up off the track, and stalled. Yellow flags appeared, and the safety car was deployed again. Judging by the video replay of the start, Tsolov's car was hit by Tasanapol Inthraphuwasak when the Bulgarian driver from Campos was avoiding the poorly starting Laurence van Hoepen. Inthraphuwasak, a Thai driver for ART, received a 10-second penalty – he was deemed responsible for the incident that knocked the championship leader out of the race. To jump ahead, it should be noted that he served this penalty incorrectly, for which he was given another ten seconds. The next two laps were driven behind the safety car, and then a restart was given. Stenshorn turned into the pits to serve his penalty, but yellow flags appeared on the track again – this time due to Oliver Goethe's exit in the last corner of the track. It seemed he overdid it, lost control on the wet and slippery asphalt, his orange car from MP Motorsport first hit the guardrail on the left side of the track, then ended up on the shoulder and crashed into the tire barrier. It seemed that this time there would be no safety car, but the asphalt was littered with debris, so a virtual safety car (VSC) was introduced to allow the marshals to clean up the track. On the 7th lap, the battle resumed, and the two Invicta drivers, Dürksen and Camara, continued their interesting duel for second position. Meanwhile, Dino Beganovich made a great overtaking move on the outside line, pushed Minì aside, and moved into fourth place. This was yet another confirmation that racing in such conditions is quite possible, although visibility becomes inevitably complicated due to the dense spray trail raised by the cars' wheels. The first ten laps were behind, and once again yellow flags appeared – Alex Dunn's car stopped on the shoulder in the 17th corner. Over the radio, he informed the Rodin team that it was his fault – he locked up the wheels while braking, and the engine stalled. The safety car was deployed. Several drivers, including Maini and Camara, went to the pit stop to change tires, but Rafael managed to return to the track earlier – now he was in fourth place, while the Indian driver was behind him. Temporarily, Dürksen took the lead in the race, with Colton Herta, who started 14th, in second place behind him. Another restart was given, but on the same lap, yellow flags had to be displayed again due to a collision of several cars in the 17th corner. One of those cars was driven by Stenshorn, who had not had any luck since the very beginning of the day, and now his race was definitively over. The safety car was deployed again. A few more drivers turned into the pits, including Herta. Nico Varone, another participant in the incident that led to Stenshorn's retirement, fell back to the last position. At the restart, Dino Beganovich attacked Camara, but he defended well – it was clear that both were struggling to keep their cars on the track. The rain tires on the Brazilian's car were already quite worn out, and the team asked Rafael to drive on the wettest parts of the track to slow down further degradation. The next victim of the difficult weather conditions was Scottish driver Keen Shields – he couldn't keep his car on the track and retired. The safety car was deployed again, and British driver John Bennett from Trident decided to take a risk: he turned into the pits and returned on slicks. His car was almost immediately spun around, and he immediately shouted over the radio to the team that they needed to urgently switch back to rain tires, otherwise, an accident was inevitable. And that was done. Of course, he returned to the track in last place. The top five at the restart looked like this: Camara led, Beganovich was second, followed by Minì, Noel Leon, and Maini. There was less and less time left until the finish – it seemed that the drivers would not be able to complete the entire distance, and the race would end when the time limit expired. Sebastian Montoya overtook Herta in the battle for 9th position, and Colton was not going to give up, with several contacts occurring between the cars, and the front wing of the American's Dallara was even damaged. In the last minute of the race, we witnessed a beautiful battle for victory involving three drivers: Beganovich, Camara, and Minì. No one wanted to give way, their cars went off the track, light contacts occurred between them, and several times the drivers changed positions, but in the end, Gabriele Minì emerged ahead! Dino Beganovich started the last lap in second place, and Camara was third. They crossed the finish line in that order. By the way, for the Italian driver of MP Motorsport, this is his first victory in Formula 2 – last season he finished third a couple of times, but today in Miami he climbed to the top of the podium. Moreover, since he scored points in all three already held races and won today, this allowed him to move up to second place in the championship standings. But the leader remains Nikola Tsolov, who retired from the race in the very first seconds, so his lead was reduced to just one point. The battle at the next stage of the season will be even more interesting – in two weeks, for the first time in history, Formula 2 will begin its tour in Canada. Results are being prepared...