“I was quite happy where I was” - How Tsolov bettered his tally in F2's Silverstone sprint

Credit: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool

Campos’ Nikola Tsolov has scored five Formula 2 wins in 2026. Yet, even he would have been quite surprised at how the sprint in Silverstone played into his hands. 

“I didn't expect it for that to happen. I would be just happy with a P2 at that point,” he remarked, largely satisfied with what he had done over the course of the sprint. 

Sprint races in F2 are, more often than not, won from the front of the grid. No F2 sprint in 2026 had been won from outside the top three, with the shorter races and the drivers starting on the harder tyres leaving fewer opportunities to overtake. 

Tsolov has been among the quicker drivers in the sprint races in 2026, though. The Bulgarian has come off the back of two excellent comeback drives in Barcelona and Austria, rising from sixth to second in the former, before recovering from a Lap 1 spin in the latter to finish eighth. 

More often than not, such drives can be defining over the course of a F2 season. Even if the sprints tend to pay out less points over the course of the season, they have been the defining factor between the leading duo of Tsolov and Gabriele Minì, and the likes of pole-sitter Rafa Câmara and Alex Dunne, who start the British Feature Race from the front of the field. 

As evidenced over the course of the season, Tsolov has scored a total of 28 points across sprints in 2026, while Minì’s tally in the Saturday races comes up to 39 points. In contrast, Câmara, who sits third in the standings, has only scored seven points in all sprints in 2026, while Dunne has notched up 18 over the course of his season. 

Credit: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool

The Red Bull junior has been a fierce fighter in the Feature Races, but his haul through the sprints is what has been key to his margin in the standings, and the aspect of maximising his points haul so far. For Tsolov, the Saturday sprint was about more than just scoring points, as the team looked to assess the setup changes made after the qualifying session. 

“Today was important to maximise and, honestly, more so important to learn about the car and the changes we did, whether it works or not,” Tsolov expressed.  

But it could have all gone wrong for him, even before the five red lights went out. He was slow to get away from sixth on the formation lap.    

“I was close to stalling on the formation lap, so then we were in a bit of a discussion what to do for the race start,” Tsolov would recollect, on the actions that could have undone it all.  

As the five red lights went off, Tsolov nailed the start, making light work of those ahead to sit third after the opening sequence of corners. He would get close to the pit wall, though, in a bid to find space and move ahead. 

As has been the case with sprints in 2026, the starts have always been defining for the winners. Losing positions off the line leaves a driver on the backfoot, and can them chasing the pace, instead of focusing on building up their own races. 

Prime examples could be the likes of Invicta’s Joshua Dürksen and ART’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, both starting ahead of the Bulgarian on the road. Having lost positions off the line, the Invicta man would only leave with the final point, while the latter managed to climb up to fifth, although he ran several seconds off the lead on the day. 

“It does change quite a lot,” Tsolov expressed when asked by DIVEBOMB about the impact of a good start on his race. “You're in a good mood already on lap one which is very important and you get a good momentum, you just build confidence throughout the race,” he continued. 

For Tsolov, the good start only opened up more opportunities to potentially think of another big result, and close down front-running contender Minì. Gaining third into Village corner by moving past Ritomo Miyata on the outside was a crucial move, putting him within striking distance of his closest driver in the championship. 

“I was quite happy with where I was,” Tsolov remarked, on sitting in third after the first lap. He would be on track for what was six points, and yet another strong result to add to his campaign. 

After a lengthy safety car period for four laps, the Campos man would make his way past Rafael Villagómez, now sitting second on the road after surging past around the outside into Stowe. 

Second place and eight points would have been a strong haul of points to take home. Even Tsolov, who had pulled off some excellent moves on the day to climb four places, would have called himself happier to have left with this score. 

However, Minì would be only a second ahead, and as the race went on, it would be clear that Tsolov had a good chance of challenging the MP Motorsport racer for victory. A driver who he has plenty of respect for, the two would do battle, as Minì fended off several attempts and resisted Tsolov’s advances to make an overtake. 

While the gap stabilised within the one-second mark, the biggest shift in this battle would come on Lap 16, when Tsolov attempted an overtake around the outside of the same Stowe corner once again. The two race leaders nearly made contact on the exit of the corner, with barely a paper’s width separating Minì’s left rear tyre from Tsolov’s front right tyre.    

“He doesn't crack very easily under pressure,” Tsolov responded, on Minì’s robust defence. “That made my life more difficult.”

Even if the outcome wasn’t what Tsolov was aiming for, it was a moment that saw the Bulgarian driver serve a reminder to his closest rival, that he had firmly put himself in the fight for the win. Making himself large in the mirrors of his rival, Tsolov attempted another late move up the inside on Lap 17, but to no avail. 

“He was driving very well in terms of where to push and where not to, so I had to adjust a little bit and see where I can get close,” Tsolov responded, on how he had to change the way he was driving over the course of the sprint, to get his rival. 

The next big moment in the battle would fall on the penultimate lap, with Tsolov once again attempting a move around the outside of Stowe corner, once again defied by Minì’s stern defence to the inside of the track. 

Yet, this would actually work out better in Tsolov’s favour, as he switched towards the outside of the Vale chicane, and his presence in the mirrors put Minì slightly off line through the chicane, kicking off the sequence of moves that undid the Italian’s quest for victory. 

“I just pushed a bit more in Turn 1 and Turn 2, and I just ran a bit too quickly into the corners,” Minì replied, as he pondered over the crucial error that cost him victory. 

Minì’s lock-up into Turn 3 played right into Tsolov’s hands, as he pulled off yet another signature overtake around the outside into Brooklands corner this time around, putting himself onto the top step of the podium for the fifth time in 2026. 

However, as much as it came easily, the risk was quite large to take, even for Tsolov, who had been making moves at will and leaving his championship rival uncomfortable all race. 

“There's not a big gap in points from P2 to P1. It’s just two points, and when you know your other rivals (Câmara and Dunne) were out of the points, there was no reason to risk it that much,” he reflected. 

“He was doing everything right up until that point, but obviously, when I got the opportunity, I took it, and for me, that's more important,” Tsolov reiterated. 

Taking the opportunity that comes to hand has been a vital part of Tsolov’s charge now. Be it in Miami, when Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen’s last-lap wide moment set up Tsolov’s victory run, or in Monaco, when pole-sitter Câmara had his race-ending lock-up at Turn 1. 

It’s no surprise he sits atop the championship standings, level on points with Minì but higher due to more wins across the season. “I feel like I'm improving day to day and race by race,” Tsolov would reflect on his season so far. “I think the work we are doing is working.” 

For a fact, Tsolov’s approach has definitely paid off in F2 this season. A mix of strong sprint race drives coupled with Feature Race pace has seen him recover even from poor qualifying positions, leaving him right at the top of the championship. 

Sitting level on points with Minì, another driver who has driven superbly across sprint and Feature Races in 2026, at the halfway mark, it’s almost a perfect sight of two drivers performing at their highest potential, as they look to chase down the ultimate silverware.