Tsolov triumphs in thrilling finish to F2’s first Miami race

Photo: Red Bull

Nikola Tsolov won Formula 2’s debut sprint race in Miami in a thrilling three-car battle on the final lap.

The Red Bull junior, who extends his championship lead with a second successive victory following his triumph in the season-opening feature race in Melbourne, had a race-long duel with Laurens van Hoepen that was joined by a late-charging Alex Dunne.

Campos Racing driver Tsolov kept the lead at the start from reversed-grid pole position ahead of his fellow front row starter van Hoepen, with Joshua Duerksen gaining third as Oliver Goethe slipped back to the bottom of the top 10 over the opening lap.

Tsolov had to defend against Trident driver van Hoepen down the long back straight on the second and third laps. Invicta Racing’s Duerksen was all over the back of van Hoepen as well, and took second place away on lap five, only for van Hoepen to take the place back just one lap later.

Having appeared to have his lead under control without pulling away, Tsolov skipped across the inside of the chicane on lap 11, and van Hoepen would take the lead for the first time down the back straight a couple of laps later. Behind, Nico Varrone was challenging Duerksen for third, allowing the top two to break away.

Just a couple of laps later, van Hoepen appeared to let Tsolov back into the lead in Turn 17. He briefly got ahead once more after the pair ran side-by-side through Turn 10, only for Tsolov to finish the lap back in front.

After climbing from seventh to fifth at the start and then biding his time during the middle of the race, Dunne came back into the picture in the closing stages after clearing Varrone. He sent it down the inside of Duerksen into the first corner with six laps to go only to lock-up and run deep, forcing him to defend from Varrone once more before finally getting by Duerksen for good into Turn 17 a lap later.

Van Hoepen meanwhile made a dive to the inside of Tsolov in Turn 17 with two laps remaining, only for Tsolov to get back ahead on the exit.

Arriving onto the final lap, van Hoepen made his move already into Turn 11, where he locked up and went deep but managed to remain ahead of Tsolov, something that allowed Dunne to catch them both heading onto the long back straight for the last time.

Charging into the braking zone for Turn 17, van Hoepen defended the inside line but Tsolov managed to drive around his outside. With both running wide on exit, Dunne briefly managed to make it three-wide on the inside on exit, but it was Tsolov who emerged ahead to take the win by 0.17 seconds over van Hoepen, with Dunne finishing just over a second back in third.

Varrone beat Duerksen to finish fourth, with Martinius Stenshorne, Gabriele Mini and Dino Beganovic rounding out the top eight.

Race results (23 laps)