Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Rafael Camara claimed his second win of the Formula 2 season in the Spa-Francorchamps feature race, completing a double double for Invicta Racing at the Belgian track.
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak claimed a maiden F2 podium in second ahead of championship leader Nikola Tsolov.
Having started on pole, Camara found himself conceding the lead to Inthraphuvasak at turn 1 before switching his attention to Tsolov who had leapt up from fourth to third.
Having started sixth Dino Beganovic found himself stationary as the lights went out while his teammate, Roman Bilinski, was spun around by second in the championship Gabriele Mini.
While the Polish driver was able to continue, Beganovic wasn’t so lucky and he joined Oliver Goethe in the list of retirees at the end of lap 1. With the safety car out to recover the stricken DAMS car, Camara looked to reclaim the lead at the restart.
Instead, the Brazilian found himself defending from Tsolov behind who tried to pass on the outside of turn 1 but was shown the gravel and dropped down to fifth.
Now without the Bulgarian behind, Camara was able to close up to the rear of Inthraphuvasak ahead and reclaim his lead into Les Combes on lap 5.
All eyes were on Camara’s teammate Joshua Duerksen though who was fairing better on his medium tyres, comfortably clearing Alex Dunne and Inthraphuvasak before snatching the lead from his teammate on lap 6.
Nico Varrone and Martinius Stenshorne, also on the medium tyres, enjoyed similar fortunes, the pair finding themselves second and third after Camara and all the supersoft tyre runners dived for the pits at the end of lap 6.
Having just pitted, Trident’s Laurens Van Hoepen found himself defending from Tsolov behind having benefited from the Bulgarian’s visit to the gravel. Heading out of turn 6 the Dutchman went too wide onto the kerbs and was sent spinning into the inside barriers in a spectacular accident. With extensive barrier damage racing was stopped and the red flag was flown after just 9 laps.
When racing resumed Durksen led the field on a rolling start as the race switched to a timed format.
Noel Leon found himself benefiting from his Campos teams bold strategic call to pit him twice having started at the back of the grid, claiming the net race lead but the Mexican fell foul to traffic ahead and lost out to Camara and Dunne while trying to dispatch of the AIX of Cian Shields.
The safety car briefly returned to the track with 19 minutes remaining after Emerson Fittipaldi Jr found himself in the gravel at turn 5 having spun after a bold move by Tsolov on the outside of Les Combes.
All the medium runners now decided to pit with Camara taking over the race lead from Dunne, Leon, Inthraphuvasak and Tsolov behind.
Twelve minutes remained when the safety car was withdrawn and Camara immediately began to extend his lead over Dunne. Tsolov was the man making moves, looking to pass Inthraphuvasak early on, cruising down the inside of Les Combes before the Thai driver bullied his way past a lap later.
In the end the Bulgarian didn’t need to find a way past as both Dunne and Leon found themselves slapped with five second penalties for track limit violations.
Up ahead, Camara remained untroubled and was able to cruise home to his second win of the season, continuing on his teammate’s earlier success after the Paraguayan claimed victory in Saturday’s sprint race.
Inthraphuvasak led home Tsolov to round out the podium with Dunne clinging onto fourth ahead of Mini who produced a stunning comeback drive to finish fifth. Rafael Villagomez led Leon with Herta, Miyata and Boya rounding out the top 10.