Dino Beganovic takes dominant win from Pole in F2 Feature Race
Amidst chaos, yellow flags, and safety cars, it was Dino Beganovic who reigned victorious in a pole-to-win finish at the Madring. Trailing 7-seconds behind it was Alex Dunne who finished in second, and Ritomo Miyata in third to round out the podium.
How it happened
To start off the 32-lap Feature Race it was a steady charge into Turn 1 with Pole Sitter Beganovic maintaining his position.
Into Lap 2, the field held steady whilst race leader Beganovic began to extended his lead to the rest of the field. However, it was not long before Alpine-backed Dunne found charging pace, closing the gap to the DAMS livery in front to just under half a second.
Lap 3 began with a yellow flag as ART driver Kush Maini found the wall on the exit of Turn 18 after a collision with Cian Shields. Whilst he avoided any harm, it added yet another unfortunate event to his unfavourable weekend.
A safety car was bought out in Lap 4, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak retreating to the pits for a tyre change.
In Lap 6 it was announced that the safety car would be ending and as Lap 7 rolled around the track was back green and the race was on once again.
It was a strong restart from Beganovic, but Dunne was quick to react. However, as the lap went on, Beganovic began to pull away from the Alpine livery behind him. Meanwhile, it was Rafael Camara in third who found additional pace, quickly gaining on Dunne.
In Lap 8, Gabriele Mini made a strong attacking move on his MP Motorsport teammate Oliver Goethe gaining a position and moving up to ninth.
In Lap 14 it was Spanish driver Mari Boya with an impressive move on both Camara and Nikola Tsolov, an impressive string of moves in addition to what has been a strong home race for the Aston Martin Junior.
As the halfway mark approached, championship rivals Tsolov and Camara where in a close battle for P12, but it was the Red Bull Junior who remained in front. Meanwhile, race leader Beganovic continued to stretch his lead to over 2-seconds.
In Lap 18 it was a shift in positions in the midfield with Boya and Goethe gaining positions on both Camara and Tsolov.
Toward the end of Lap 18, an overestimated and aggressive move from Camara saw Goethe contact the wall, and another yellow flag was called in response.
Into Lap 19, a second safety car was called for the race. Simultaneously, John Bennett also contacted the wall on the exit of Turn 11 marking the end of his race.
Camara was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident with Goethe, impacting what could be valuable points for his championship campaign.
With just 10 laps to go we were back racing, with Beganovic once again having a strong restart.
Into Lap 23, it was wheel-to-wheel for Emerson Fittipaldi and Joshua Durksen for fourth, with the INVICTA driver within half a second.
After switching to a timed race, with just 4 minutes to go (+1 lap), the fierce battle continued for Fittipaldi and Durksen. Meanwhile, Roman Bilinski found himself within 0.3 seconds of Tsolov in front. With just under 2 minutes remaining, Bilinski made the move on Tsolov, advancing to tenth.
With a dominant lead of 7 seconds, Beganovic claimed victory marking his first Feature Race win in Formula 2. He was followed by Dunne in second, and Miyata in third claiming his second podium for the weekend.
What’s next
The Formula 2 championship season will continue in Baku, Azerbaijan from the 24-26 of September with Tsolov leading the championship with 177 points, seven points ahead of Camara.
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