Formula 2: Nikola Tsolov achieved his third consecutive victory.
In the Sunday Formula 2 race, the main event of the weekend at Silverstone, surprises began even before the start. Martinus Stenshorn did not make it to the starting grid; his Dallara from the Rodin Motorsport team broke down on the way, stopping around Turn 9, leaving his 17th position vacant.
Starting from pole was Rafael Camara, a Brazilian student of the Ferrari Racing Academy, racing for Invicta Racing, with Alex Dunn also starting from the front row, while the car of yesterday's sprint winner and new leader of the personal standings, Nikola Tsolov, was in 5th position.
Camara's start was frankly poor, while Tsolov, a Campos driver, immediately surged into second place, with Kush Maini leading after starting third.
Maini quickly set a fast pace, trying to create a gap from the formidable opponent, and by the third lap, he was over two seconds ahead of Tsolov. Nikola, in turn, was about one and a half seconds ahead of Alex Dunn, while Camara was running fourth. By the fifth lap, he began asking his team to conduct a pit stop as soon as possible, to which he received a response that it would be logical, but until that moment, he needed to maintain a normal pace.
However, Maini and Tsolov also received instructions from their teams to head to the pit lane, and after getting fresh tires, they returned to the track in the same order, except that Nikola was now in 14th place, closely behind the Indian driver from ART. Naturally, he immediately moved to decisive actions, and Maini had to fend off his attack.
At this stage of the race, Rafael Villagomez was leading, followed by Joshua Durksen, while Gabriele Mini, who had led the personal standings until yesterday, held third position.
As mandatory pit stops continued, by the 10th lap, Maini and Tsolov were already in 9th and 10th positions, with the top eight yet to pit.
On the 13th lap, Argentine debutant in the youth series Nico Varone overtook the more experienced Ritomo Miyata, but this was only a battle for 15th place. The Japanese driver was already being caught by Sebastian Montoya, who was having a tough weekend and clearly wanted to change his luck.
On the 15th lap, Maini caught up with Kin Shields, who was running eighth, and passed him. Now Tsolov had to do the same, and he calmly overtook the Briton on the next lap, but the pink Dallara of the Indian driver was already nearly two seconds ahead again.
On the 17th lap, Montoya suddenly slowed down and pulled off to the side, slowly returning to the pits. Over the radio, he managed to warn his Prema team about a rear suspension failure.
Now Miyata was being attacked by Dino Beganovic, a DAMS driver, who, like Camara, is studying at the Ferrari Academy, followed closely by Colton Herta – in a distant 18th position.
By the 20th lap, Tsolov caught up with Maini and began to press quite aggressively, while Kush defended resolutely. More than once, Nikola matched the Indian's car, the duel lasted several corners, with neither wanting to yield, but the Bulgarian driver was still slightly faster. On the 21st lap, he completed the maneuver, executing a superb overtake in the fast Maggotts-Becketts sequence.
The situation between Miyata and Beganovic was equally intense, but in this pair, the Japanese driver acted more aggressively and decisively, not allowing his opponent to overtake even at the cost of locking up the brakes, after which the tires on his car were already in poor condition. However, the same could be said for Beganovic's tires, but he ultimately managed to overtake Miyata.
With five laps to go, Tsolov was in the top five, having pulled away from Maini by over three seconds. As the pit stops continued, Nikola soon moved up to third place and then took the lead in the race. By this time, the nearest real competitor, namely Kush Maini, was already five seconds behind, so little could prevent Tsolov from bringing the race to victory.
Meanwhile, deep in the pack, battles for positions continued, particularly Nico Varone was trying to attack Tasanapol Intarafuvasak to earn at least one point for 10th place, but it all ended with a broken front wing as there was contact between the cars.
In the final laps, Nikola Tsolov continued to maintain a good pace, with no one bothering him to lead comfortably, and he crossed the finish line first, over three seconds ahead of Rafael Villagomez, who, after a late pit stop on fresher tires, managed to overtake Maini. The Indian ART driver took third place.
Thus, Tsolov, a participant in the Red Bull youth program, achieved his third consecutive victory and sixth since the start of the season, and since Mini finished only sixth, the Bulgarian Campos driver leads the championship with a 17-point advantage.
Driver
Team
Time
Gap
Laps
1. N.Tsolov
Campos Racing
51'22.101
-
0-
2. R.Villagomez
Van Amersfoort Racing
51'25.334
3.233
29
3. K.Maini
ART Grand Prix
51'29.982
7.881
29
4. A.Dunn
Rodin Motorsport
51'30.602
8.501
29
5. R.Camara
Invicta Racing
51'31.133
9.032
29
6. G.Mini
MP Motorsport
51'37.401
15.300
29
7. N.Leon
Campos Racing
51'37.759
15.658
29
8. R.Bilinski
DAMS Lucas Oil
51'39.321
17.220
29
9. J.Durksen
Invicta Racing
51'39.533
17.432
29
10. T.Intarafuvasak
ART Grand Prix
51'49.154
27.053
29
11. D.Bennett
Trident
51'51.239
29.138
29
12. D.Beganovic
DAMS Lucas Oil
51'53.387
31.286
29
13. N.Varone
Van Amersfoort Racing
51'54.834
32.733
29
14. R.Miyata
Hitech
51'55.444
33.343
29
15. M.Boya
Prema Racing
51'55.568
33.467
29
16. C.Herta
Hitech
51'55.855
33.754
29
17. L.van Hoopen
Trident
51'57.370
35.269
29
18. O.Göte
MP Motorsport
51'57.532
35.431
29
19. K.Shields
AIX Racing
52'05.222
43.121
29
20. E.Fittipaldi
AIX Racing
52'06.646
44.545
29
-. S.Montoya
Prema Racing
29'16.731
DNF
16
-. M.Stenshorn
Rodin Motorsport
-
Did not start
00
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