Beganovic wins Madrid F2 feature race as points leaders stumble

Photo: Dino Beganovic Racing

DAMS’ Dino Beganovic secured his first feature race win in Formula 2, storming to a dominant lights-to-flag victory around the new Madring circuit.

The Ferrari junior was in a class of his own, managing two safety car restarts to win by over seven seconds from Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne. Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata rounded off an impressive weekend by adding a third place to his sprint race win.

Championship leaders Nikola Tsolov and Rafael Camara missed out on an opportunity to score strongly, as Tsolov’s tyres fell away and Camara incurred a 10-second penalty for despatching Oliver Goethe into the wall.

Beganovic converted pole into the race lead at Turn 1, quickly pulling out a gap over Dunne, who had held off Camara despite locking up into the first corner. Losing momentum, Camara squeezed Martinius Stenshorne in the second Rodin car to the outside. Campos Racing’s Tsolov had been the only one of the front runners to start on the hard tyre and was struggling for grip as he tried to resist DAMS’ Roman Bilinski.

The safety car made its first appearance after just one lap with Kush Maini in the wall at Turn 18 after contact with AIX Racing’s Cian Shields, who earned himself a 10-second penalty for the move.

As racing got back underway on lap seven, Beganovic had Dunne on his gearbox, with Camara dropping back by a second, as the drivers weaved to get their tyres up to temperature.

Noel Leon passed Bilinski for sixth, while Gabriele Mini  came out on top of an intra-MP Motorsport battle for eighth. Mini seemed to be the only driver able to find an overtaking spot, making a spectacular dive to the inside of Miyata for eighth although he was unable tohold on to it as the Hitech man swept back past.

Prema’s Mari Boya had pitted as soon as the window opened and was now flying on the soft tyres. Camara was in from third at the end of lap 12, re-emerging in 12th as Bilinski, who had followed him in, lost out to the charging Boya, who swept past Camara into Turn 13

Stenshorne and Tsolov made their stops a lap later with the Red Bull junior rejoining ahead of his championship rival Camara but immediately becoming Boya’s next victim as the Aston Martin-backed driver closed on Stenshorne, the leading car to have pitted.

Behind them, the championship leaders were locked in battle, the hard-shod Camara pushing Tsolov, now on softs. However, Boya’s was now struggling for grip himself, allowing Tsolov and Camara to close back up as the trio caught Goethe exiting the pits.

Tsolov attempted to pass both Boya and Goethe into Turn 5 but cut the corner and had to cede the positions, but in doing so  and in the process of giving the places back, lost out to Camara who forced his way through the tiny gap between the Campos car and the wall.

The drama didn’t stop though as Camara attempted an opportunistic move on Goethe around the outside of Turn 1. The pair made contact, forcing the German  into the outside barriers. Camara continued but would be handed a ten-second time penalty as a result.

The resulting safety car allowed the top six to take a cheap pit stop, emerging back in front of the early stoppers, with Beganovic ahead of Dunne and Miyata, followed by Fittipaldi, Durksen and Inthraphuvasak.

With 11 laps remaining, racing resumed and Camara and Tsolov were quick to demote Boya in successive laps.

The race switched to a timed format with two minutes remaining when trouble struck Tsolov, the Bulgarian’s tyres giving up the fight, dropping him back down the field over the remaining laps. He finished 18th and last of the classified finishers.

Out front Beganovic remained untroubled, cruising to his first win of the season ahead of Dunne who claimed crucial points to keep his championship hopes alive.

Miyata took his second podium of the weekend followed by Duerksen who finally found a way past Fittipaldi late in the race.

After crashing out in practice and missing qualifying, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak brought home eight points for ART Grand Prix , ahead of Mini, Stenshorne and Bilinski.

Camara managed to pull out a big enough gap over Boya in the closing stages to overcome his penalty and salvage a single point for tenth. That might prove crucial come the end of the season.

Race results (31 laps)

Fastest lap: Dunne, 1m45.267s

Championship standings
1 Tsolov 177   2 Camara 170   3 Mini 153   4 Dunne 139   5 Leon 119   6 Beganovic 106   7 Duerksen 90   8 Maini 88   9 Van Hoepen 72  10 Inthraphuvasak 71