F2: Nikola Tsolov achieved another victory
From pole position in the Saturday sprint of Formula 2, Gabriele Mini, the leader in the youth series, started, and of course, his task was to earn as many points as possible. Simply put, to bring the race to victory, but he was unable to do so.
Although he started excellently, fending off an attack from Ritomo Miyata, who began the race from the front row, Nikola Zlob was even better off the line, moving from 6th to 3rd position in the opening corners.
Miyata began to lose positions, overtaken by Rafael Villagomez and Joshua Dürksen, but the further development of events was hindered by a collision between the cars of John Bennett and Sebastian Montoya. The son of the former Formula 1 driver, who started from 14th position, lost control of his Dallara on the exit of the last corner, and Bennett crashed into him from behind. Both retired immediately.
The safety car was deployed and remained on the track for five laps while the marshals evacuated the damaged vehicles and cleared the track, as a significant amount of gravel and dust had spilled onto the asphalt at the last corner during the incident. Meanwhile, the peloton, following the safety car, passed through the pit lane.
The restart went off without incident, with Zlob already beginning to pressure Villagomez, Dino Beganovic overtook Alex Dunn and moved up to 9th position, while Tasanapol Intafuwasak passed Roman Bilinski and was running in 7th.
On lap 8, Zlob made a brilliant overtaking move on the outside of the Stowe corner, climbed to 2nd position, and began to chase the leader. The MP Motorsport team immediately warned Gabriele Mini over the radio that he was being pursued by the Bulgarian driver Campos, his main rival in the title fight for the youth series, and urged him to push harder.
Meanwhile, the stewards announced their decision, issuing Martinus Stenshorn a 10-second penalty for pushing Rafael Kamara off the track at the start.
Beganovic, a student of the Ferrari Racing Academy competing in F2 for the French team DAMS, was pressuring Bilinski, who had already been overtaken by Intafuwasak. But ahead of this pair was Miyata, who was letting one competitor after another pass, so Beganovic's Polish teammate attacked on lap 13 and overtook the Japanese driver. The same was done by Dino and Alex Dunn on the next lap.
With six laps to go, Mini continued to lead, but Zlob was right behind him, although he had not yet attempted an attack. Unlike Kush Maini, who executed a successful maneuver against Dürksen and moved up to 4th position.
On lap 16, Zlob decided it was time to take decisive action, accelerated sharply, and nearly matched Mini's car in the Stowe corner, but the Italian fended off the attack. A lap later, Nikola tried again, but it was unsuccessful once more.
Dino Beganovic, who had overtaken his teammate Roman Bilinski by lap 19, caught up with Dürksen and passed him, although the Paraguayan driver from Invicta Racing resisted until the end, after which he complained over the radio that his rival had pushed him off the track.
On the penultimate lap, Zlob attacked Mini again, but the latter positioned his car excellently on the track, and it seemed he would manage to hold onto the lead. However, on the final lap, Gabriele made a mistake, locked up the brakes, and, of course, it cost him dearly: on the next straight, Nikola overtook him and secured a very important victory.
The race unfolded quite dramatically, with the battle continuing literally until the last corners, but Nikola showed both skill and determination, as well as a will to win, thus stepping onto the top podium for the second consecutive time.
Gabriele Mini finished second, with Villagomez closing in on him, and it seemed that the Italian had to work hard to maintain this position, as he had completely exhausted his last set of tires while fending off Zlob's attacks.
Now Zlob and Mini have an equal number of points – 116 each, but in terms of wins, Nikola surpasses Gabriele, allowing him to take the lead in the series.
On Sunday, in the main race of the weekend, Rafael Kamara will start from pole position, while Zlob, his teammate, will begin from 5th, and Mini from 10th, promising an equally interesting battle on the track as in the sprint. All three have something to fight for and something to lose, so each will fight with full force, of that there is no doubt.
Driver
Team
Time
Difference
Laps
1. N.Zlob
Campos Racing
41'04.635
-
21
2. G.Mini
MP Motorsport
41'05.926
1.291
21
3. R.Villagomez
Van Amersfoort Racing
41'06.333
1.698
21
4. K.Maini
ART Grand Prix
41'07.647
3.012
21
5. T.Intafuwasak
ART Grand Prix
41'11.328
6.693
21
6. D.Beganovic
DAMS Lucas Oil
41'13.465
8.830
21
7. R.Bilinski
DAMS Lucas Oil
41'14.539
9.904
21
8. D.Dürksen
Invicta Racing
41'15.434
10.799
21
9. A.Dunn
Rodin Motorsport
41'16.262
11.627
21
10. R.Kamara
Invicta Racing
41'17.194
12.559
21
11. R.Miyata
Hitech
41'23.381
18.746
21
12. N.Leon
Campos Racing
41'24.276
19.641
21
13. M.Boya
Prema Racing
41'28.040
23.405
21
14. L.van Hoopen
Trident
41'28.280
23.645
21
15. K.Herta
Hitech
41'28.559
23.924
21
16. O.Göte
MP Motorsport
41'30.517
25.882
21
17. E.Fittipaldi
AIX Racing
41'32.508
27.873
21
18. N.Varrone
Van Amersfoort Racing
41'33.194
28.559
21
19. K.Shields
AIX Racing
42'14.310
1'09.675
21
20. M.Stenshorn
Rodin Motorsport
43'30.147
2'25.512
21
– S.Montoya
Prema Racing
–
Retirement
01
– D.Bennett
Trident
–
Retirement
01
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