Beganovic dominates Baku sprint race for first F2 win

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dino Beganovic claimed a dominant first Formula 2 win in the Baku sprint race as Luke Browning completed a Hitech GP one-two.

Ferrari junior Beganovic took the lead from second on the reversed grid when the lights went out, followed by Sebastian Montoya who started quickly from third.

Polesitter Rafael Villagomez was slower away and attacked by both Martinius Stenshorne and Pepe Marti into Turn 1. Three into one didn’t go and they made contact; Stenshorne on the inside was able to continue in third but Villagomez and Marti were forced to retire.

There was further contact in Turn 2, with Oliver Goethe squeezed to the inside by John Bennett and spinning around into retirement. Arvid Lindblad was also tagged around by Ritomo Miyata as they tried to avoid the incident ahead, but he managed to continue.

Beganovic quickly pulled away after a safety car restart, with Montoya falling into the clutches of Stenshorne. The Trident-run debutant snatched second place down the inside of Turn 3 on the third lap of the restart, only to suddenly slow a lap later.

With Stenshorne forced to park up, the safety car eliminated Beganovic’s advantage of over four seconds, but he would have little trouble building that up when the race resumed once more, even with rain starting to fall.

Behind, Alex Dunne passed Browning for third in Turn 3 on the restart, only to have a big lock-up into Turn 1 a couple of laps later. The McLaren junior managed to stay out of the barriers and get back on track, but did lose out to Browning in the process, with Gabriele Mini also slipstreaming past at the end of the lap.

Browning went on to pass Montoya for second with three laps to go, but couldn’t make inroads into his team-mate’s advantage with Beganovic ultimately sealing the win by 6.2s.

Montoya would slow out of third place and fall through the field with a couple of laps to go, with Dunne in position to inherit a podium place having got back in front of Mini. Jak Crawford had also just overtaken Mini and picked up fourth.

Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli was having a quiet race until he passed the fading Mini on the last lap around the outside of Turn 3, touching the wall on exit in the process of securing fifth. Richard Verschoor also got ahead of Mini just as they took the chequered flag.

Race results (21 laps)