How F2's championship challenge reached boiling point - and what to expect of the finale
Formula 2 wrapped up its massive Baku weekend with an enthralling Feature Race 2, as the top three fought hard for the podium. Fittingly, they finished in the same order as their positions in the standings after Baku's weekend.
Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne won the race on track, but was demoted to third after receiving a time penalty for a pit lane entry infringement. The Irishman attempted to enter the pits on Lap 6, with a yellow flag out for the stopped Hitech of Ritomo Miyata. His front-right tyre sat over the line denoting the entry to the pits, resulting in this penalty.
As a result, Invicta’s Rafael Câmara inherited the victory, with Nikola Tsolov rebounding from a wretched Friday to finish runner-up on Saturday. He made up nine places, displaying excellent determination in a bid to stay in the championship battle.
Yet, even as the top three sprayed champagne on the podium after their contrasting weekends, the final stages of Feature Race 2 emerged as a prime example of how much each of them wanted to lead and win the championship.
Dunne reportedly clipped the wall during his race, even locking up at Turn 15 on the penultimate lap. Tsolov had a similar moment at Turn 11, briefly clipping the wall as he aimed for the best possible exit from the Castle section.
Câmara, on the other hand, pushed furiously in a bid to keep up with race leader Dunne, and shape for an overtake all through the race. His main quest was to ensure Tsolov behind did not get past, and take victory outright.
The pace the three drivers set on the final lap highlighted their desires. Dunne held the quickest final lap of the trio, at a 1:56.952, while Câmara, sitting in the turbulent air of the Irishman’s Rodin, set his best lap at a 1:57.320. Tsolov, on the other hand, set a 1:57.119, closing in on the leading pair ahead.
“I was just trying to keep up,” Câmara said, on tailing Dunne all through the race. The Invicta man had already expressed his appreciation for the Rodin driver during the post-race interviews.
“It was just really difficult, so every time I was getting very close, for me it was just tricky to follow (Dunne ahead),” Câmara said, speaking on the gap at the front that ebbed and flowed. “With the tyres, at one point there wasn't really much to save.”
Câmara’s stint had been built on better tyre life compared to his contenders. The Brazilian pitted four laps after Dunne for a fresh set of soft tyres, the harder of the two for the weekend, emerging in the lead of the race. Despite being overtaken by the Irishman, he stayed in proximity.
Then came a crucial message from his race engineer. “If we can easily stick with him, I am happy where we are. If you have the pace, go for it.” The radio message came through even as Dunne had been picked up by the stewards for his aforementioned pit lane entry infringement.
His race engineer’s words held some weight. The Rodin Motorsport car had been a potent force all weekend, taking both poles and a 1-2 in the previous day’s Feature Race. Dunne had also made up seven places in the sprint, overtaking at will on his way to the podium.
Moreover, had the race finished as it did, with Dunne winning and Câmara second, the Brazilian would still have kept the lead to the Rodin driver atop the standings by four points. As such, Câmara wasn’t forced to make the overtake, unlike the previous day’s Feature Race when he had to work harder for his fourth-position finish.
One mistake on the streets of Baku could mean a clash with the barriers that weren’t too far away, and an entire haul of 25 crucial points vanishing at Baku, and leaving Câmara in a tricky position in his quest for the championship.
Even if he was finding it difficult to make the race-winning overtake, the Invicta man may not have needed to. A five-second penalty for Dunne’s front-right tyre being just over the white line at the pit entry, meant he had to stay within five seconds of the Rodin man, and claim the points.
Dunne was then instructed to “Put it out of your head” on Lap 16, and see if he was able to open up a gap to his pair of championship contenders. The Irishman immediately opened up the gap, briefly stretching to 1.2 seconds as he attempted to catch out Câmara by his sudden burst of pace.
The Brazilian, though, benefitted from the slipstream of his rival ahead, and managed to crucially keep himself within the one-second gap to benefit from the DRS ahead. The characteristics of the Baku street circuit allowed Câmara to stay within touching distance, even if he fell out of the DRS range ahead.
“Okay, he’s been told about the penalty, I think he’s gonna go flat out now. Let’s try and stick with him,” came the crucial radio message from Câmara’s race engineer.
While Câmara and Dunne may have imagined a smoother ride to victory, they had to constantly keep looking in their mirrors. A resurgent Tsolov had emerged from the pits in fifth, and after making an overtake on Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen, was closing in on the leading pair. He soon set his eyes on Dunne’s teammate Martinius Stenshorne, running in third at the time.
The Bulgarian driver was coming off a torrid Friday outing, arguably his lowest point of the season so far. A pit lane infringement and a safety car eventually saw Tsolov fall well down the order, before being in the multi-car incident at Turn 3.
He’d seen the comfortable championship lead he held since Silverstone vanish, as Câmara eventually claimed fourth on the line. But as Tsolov said, “I just want to be this guy that always comes back no matter what happens.”
Tsolov had gotten himself into a flow, closing the gap to Stenshorne ahead to less than two seconds, and then comfortably underneath his rear wing. “He (Stenshorne) will probably try to stop us for Dunne. But let’s try to go ahead,” Tsolov’s race engineer mentioned.
Team orders aren’t a common sight in F2, with every driver ultimately fighting for their own racing future in the championship. As such, Stenshorne attempted to defend his position, taking the inside line into Turn 1. But the writing was on the wall.
Onto Lap 22, Tsolov pulled off another of his traditional moves around the outside, taking the podium positions after starting 11th on the grid. As it turned out, Stenshorne’s pace fell away as the race went on. He soon dropped well out of the five-second window from race leader Dunne.
Tsolov was then informed by his race engineer of the gap to Dunne ahead. “Gap to Dunne 4.1, it would be nice if you can finish ahead of him.” This marked a crucial moment for the Bulgarian for his Feature Race 2 hopes.
Tsolov quickly found his rhythm around Baku, closing down the gap to the leading pair. “ I really got into this sort of tunnel, so I wasn't realising what was going on; I didn't really follow which place I was in,” Tsolov responded, speaking to DIVEBOMB on his final laps of the race.
The Campos man also benefitted from having younger tyres compared to race leader Dunne, and began to steadily close down the gap. What stood at just under four seconds was halved, with the top three only separated by under two seconds, as the race headed into its final laps.
Dunne radioed to his race engineer and reiterated his desire to continue pushing, in a bid to open up the gap. “I will continue to give it everything,” he said. Yet, Dunne was putting it all on the line, in a bid to open up the gap he wanted.
“I was flat out,” the Rodin driver said. “In the last five laps, I hit the wall three or four times in a couple of places. “I was just flat out trying to make up for the penalty and try and get the most out of it,” he expressed, speaking on his approach to the end of the race.
This was the only option for Dunne to better his finishing position. With Tsolov also closing in rapidly, the Rodin man faced the prospect of ending up third on the road, which became a certainty soon.
The Campos man remained in such a trance that he was caught out by brushing the barrier into Turn 11 in the closing stages of the race. “I heard a really loud noise when I hit it (the barrier at Turn 11), and I was just hoping nothing was broken. It scared me a little bit,” Tsolov expressed, speaking to DIVEBOMB on his approach during the closing stages of the race.
For any driver, it can certainly be a moment that brings an end to their race. But for Tsolov, he was fortunate to get away with no damage. “That was the point where I was like, well, it put me back to reality,” Tsolov said.
With the Bulgarian looming large in the mirrors, though, Câmara’s race engineer changed his approach, asking the Brazilian to look for a move that took him into the race lead outright. “An attack would be defence to Tsolov behind,” was the radio message.
Tsolov was then immediately given the hurry-up by his team. “Let’s try to take him (Câmara) before he takes Dunne,” with Campos sensing a race victory on the cards as the Invicta driver ahead wasn’t able to get past for the lead.
Even as Câmara got to within three tenths of a second, though, he simply could not find a way past race leader Dunne. Then came a moment eerily similar to 2025’s Feature Race for Dunne: A lock-up into Turn 15 on the penultimate lap.
Turn 15’s tricky downhill braking zone has caught out drivers more often than not across both Formula One and F2, and brought an end to Dunne’s hopes of scoring points back in 2025. Thankfully, on this day, it was only an indicator of how hard he was pushing. He made the corner unscathed, grateful to have stayed in the race.
But this only highlighted the intensity being upped by the trio contending for the championship, and on this day, the most significant moment in their racing careers. A victory for Dunne, albeit improbable, had the potential to thrust him right into championship contention.
For Câmara, victory had the potential to put him well in the ascendancy and increase his championship lead going into the final stages of the season. In the past four years, any driver leading the standings after Baku’s weekend had gone on to win the title, and this was his chance to capitalise and further his title charge.
In Tsolov’s case, a victory would mark a spectacular turnaround after all the events of Baku’s Friday outing, Madrid, and the difficult run after his Silverstone double. It would have taken him right into the championship lead once again.
Eventually, despite the hairy moments all three drivers experienced, it was status quo. Dunne still led Câmara going into the final lap, with Tsolov now comfortably within DRS range of the Invicta driver.
Even as Dunne kept pushing, his efforts did not convert into the desired result. He came home to win on track, but relinquished his victory to Câmara. Despite being apologetic on the radio, he had every reason to be delighted with third, becoming the only driver to stand on the podium at all three Baku races.
The championship now sits tantalisingly poised after Baku’s weekend: Câmara leads with 207 points to his name, with Tsolov only seven points off after taking the point for the fastest lap, and Dunne sitting third with 189 points.
Yet, had Dunne kept his wheel only millimetres inside the white line, this order had the potential to look all different. The Irishman would have been seven points ahead, with Câmara leading the standings, though the top three would have been separated by only three points.
Even despite the margins being larger, it simply reflected just how intense the bragging rights were at Baku. From Dunne’s rejuvenated weekend to Câmara’s last-lap drag race in Feature Race 1 to take the championship lead, to Tsolov’s resurgent Saturday showing, the trio put on a show to behold - and it sets up an intriguing final stage for F2’s 2026 season.
The events of Baku have left the championship tantalisingly poised - even one mistake can change the outcome of the 2026 F2 season. But after all the intensity of the final laps, the big question returns to the forefront: Where will F2's title be decided?
What will happen to F2’s season finale?
F2’s season finale takes place on the same weekend as Formula One - both championships have historically concluded their seasons in Abu Dhabi. But 2026 has proven different, with conflicts in the Middle East region already ruling out two rounds of both campaigns.
While F1 was able to find a replacement for the Bahrain event at Sepang, F2 opted to head to North America, racing in Miami and Canada to make up for the lost rounds.
With uncertainty surrounding the Qatar and Abu Dhabi events, F2 opted to add another Feature Race to Baku’s weekend, in a bid to play it safe and make up for any uncertainties surrounding its final two weekends.
However, with a decision only expected in October, long after Baku’s weekend comes to an end, F2 heads into a break in limbo.
Imola has reportedly been given the green light to commence preparations for a F1 weekend in December, as reported by the media during the Baku weekend. However, F1 has reported that it is still firm on travelling to Qatar and Abu Dhabi for its final rounds.
Any form of cancellation or uncertainty around the final rounds will not only affect F1, but also F2, with plenty of eyes and excitement surrounding an upcoming finale and champions to be crowned in 2026. F2 would dearly pray Baku did not mark the final round of the season, and that a champion wasn’t crowned retrospectively without a clear final weekend for the championship.
But for now, Câmara, Tsolov and Dunne can sit back and relax, looking back at their respective Baku weekends. When F2 takes to its final showdown, the trio will not be yielding an inch in their quest for the biggest silverware available in 2026!
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