Beganovic controls F2 sprint race in Baku for second win in a row

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic carried on where he left off in Madrid with an assured win in the Formula 2 sprint race in Baku.

The DAMS driver drafted past polesitter Nikola Tsolov as they completed lap five and immediately began to build a gap over his pursuers. A late safety car undid his hard work but he managed the restart for the single lap shoot-out perfectly to take the flag.

Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen initially dropped back to third but grabbed second from the struggling Tsolov when the Campos Racing driver had a brief twitch of oversteer as they headed onto the main straight on lap 10.

The Rodin Motorsport pair of Alex Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne have looked a class apart throughout the weekend and were both charging through the field from the fifth row.

Dunne had pulled off a brilliantly opportunistic move on lap seven to get past both Kush Maini and Noel Leon. After a brief safety car, he was quickly past Prema’s Sebastian Montoya, while a mistake from Rafael Camara allowed him to drive through to fourth.

Tsolov, who was reporting problems with his rear tyres on the radio, had to cede third to Dunne.

Stenshorne was not far behind his team-mate, picking off Montoya and Tsolov on lap 16 to move into the top five when Camara pitted under the late safety car.

As Tsolov struggled to fifth, Camara was having a day he’ll want to quickly forget.

The Invicta Racing driver made contact with Prema’s Mari Boya into Turn 2 on the first lap, ending the Spaniard’s race and earning Camara a 10-second penalty.

Just as he was beginning to build enough of a gap, the safety car removed any hopes of salvaging any points. Invicta brought him in to serve the penalty in the pits, fitting supersoft tyres and sending him back out to try to get into the top 10 and so gain at least the point for fastest lap.

But a Turn 1 coming-together between Ritomo Miyata and Leon, left Camara blocked in the middle of the road with nowhere to go.

A wild restart in the pack, as MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe locked up into Turn 1, collecting his team-mate Gabriele Mini and causing chaos behind, allowed Colton Herta to claim ninth from 21st on the grid.

Formula 3 graduate Hiyu Yamakoshi survived an off-track moment at Turn 1 to finish 17th on his F2 debut with Van Amersfoort Racing

Tsolov extends his championship lead to 11 points ahead of the two feature races, while Dunne’s podium puts him fourth, 35 points back on the Bulgarian but with two front row starts ahead of him.

Race results (21 laps)

Fastest lap: Camara, 1m56.855s