Kush Maini takes F2 Sprint Race victory in Catalunya

Written by Liam Ploetner

Image Credit: Formula 2

ART driver Kush Maini earned his first F2 Sprint Race victory in over a year in Catalunya, beating MP Motorsport's Gabriele Minì by almost seven seconds to take the win.

Starting on pole for the Sprint Race was Campos’ Noel León, who looked to make it a hat-trick of consecutive Sprint Race victories after wins in Canada and Monaco. Kush Maini of ART lined up alongside him on the front row. 

The rest of the top 10 featured Hitech’s Colton Herta in third, Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR)’s Nicolás Varrone, Campos’ Nikola Tsolov, VAR’s Rafael Villagómez, MP’s Gabriele Minì, Rodin’s Alex Dunne, Invicta’s Rafael Câmara and ART’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. 

The top eight drivers would score points, with an extra point for the driver inside the top 10 who sets the fastest lap.

When the 26-lap race got underway, it was Maini who got the better start on the front row, taking the lead from León. Tsolov moved up to third, with Herta fourth, Minì fifth and Villagómez sixth, followed by Câmara, a fast-starting DAMS in Dino Beganovic, Dunne and Varrone.

Invicta’s Joshua Dürksen had a collision with Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne at turn 11, which ended his odds of a points finish, as the latter hit the back wheel of the former. Maini pulled a second on León, who was now under pressure from teammate Tsolov.

Minì moved around the outside of Herta at the start of the second sector to move up to fourth. Inthraphuvasak attempted a move on Varrone into the turn 10 hairpin, but was unable to pass the VAR driver.

At the start of lap three, Tsolov made his move and passed León for second. The following lap, Minì closed up to the latter, but was unable to get ahead as of yet. The rest of the pack down to 21st placed Cian Shields of AIX.

Dunne picked up front-wing damage, which dropped him back slightly from the top eight cars, but was still in DRS.

Maini by now was three and a half seconds ahead of Tsolov after four laps. Later that lap, Stenshorne received a 10 second time penalty for the collision with Dürksen.

On lap six, Minì pulled off a move on León around the outside of turn one, which gave him a crucial point in the championship race. Meanwhile, Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen, eighth in the standings, oversteered off the track at the final corner, dropping him to last.

Tsolov and Minì were not able to close on Maini for a few laps, while Dunne was now outside of a second of Beganovic, owing to his front-wing damage. He was now under pressure from Varrone for ninth. Herta was pressuring León for fourth, but was struggling to clear him as quickly as Tsolov and Minì.

Minì and Tsolov both set times inside the 1:30s, the only two to do so on the track, which meant for the first time, they both closed on Maini. The question on people’s lips was if Maini used the pace of his tyres too quickly while leading. Tsolov and Minì gained another four tenths on lap nine, with the duo setting identical times.

Now the gap was 3.6 seconds between the ART and the Campos. Minì was a further second back from Tsolov, who was setting a solid pace.

Dunne was able to keep a distance from Varrone of around nine tenths, but was still over a second behind Beganovic. Villagómez had also dropped back from Herta, and was under pressure from both Câmara and Beganovic.

Dürksen made up his first place on track, passing Shields for 20th on lap 11. On the same lap, Minì gained on both Tsolov and Maini, who were now setting near-identical laps.

At the midway point, Maini led Tsolov, Minì, León, Herta, Villagómez, Câmara, Beganovic, Dunne and Varrone. Once again, Tsolov and Maini were setting a similar pace, with Minì now losing time to the duo by a second.

Villagómez had been hanging onto sixth for some time by the end of lap 13, but looked to be struggling to hold on for much longer. Up the road, Herta finally passed León for fourth around the outside, while Câmara still couldn’t pass Villagómez. 

Due to the slow pace of the VAR, a pack of cars down to Trident’s John Bennett in 16th was now behind the VAR. Villagómez and Câmara went side-by-side into turn one on lap 15, but Câmara went off-track and couldn’t move ahead.

Villagómez was now under investigation for track limits, having gone over track limits too many times. At this stage, the pack behind Villagómez was 6.6 seconds behind León in fifth. On lap 16, the news came through that the VAR driver was given a five-second time penalty for track limits violations. 

Villagómez’s race then got worse, as Câmara finally cleared him on lap 17 at turn one. Now Beganovic and Dunne were sizing up a move on him. Dunne had a large lockup into turn five with his front left tyre. Whether it would affect him or not was yet to be seen.

DAMS’ Roman Bilinski, down in 19th, was the next to get a penalty for track limits. A lap after Câmara overtook Villagómez, Beganovic went through at turn one as well. Now it was Dunne’s turn to attempt to pass Villagómez, who was running in the 1:34s, the only driver to be so slow. 

Meanwhile, at the front, the top four were now running very similar times. Dunne cleared Villagómez, while Inthraphuvasak and Varrone duelled for 10th.

AIX’s Cian Shields had pitted a few laps prior, and was now setting a rapid pace, albeit some 30 seconds behind van Hoepen.

With seven laps to go, Maini was almost five seconds ahead of Tsolov, who was less than a second clear of Tsolov and Minì. Herta was a further three seconds back, as was León. Then, the large gap between León and Câmara was still at around six seconds. Beganovic was two and a half seconds behind Câmara, while Dunne had pulled two seconds on Villagómez and was two seconds back from Beganovic.

Bilinski got another five-second time penalty. Inthraphuvasak passed Villagómez on lap 21, while Prema’s Sebastián Montoya tried to pass Varrone for 11th, but lost a place to Stenshorne.

Herta was now closing on Tsolov and Minì, who continued their duel for what would be the championship lead. Whoever finished higher of the duo would lead the championship coming into the Feature Race on Sunday. 

On lap 23 of 26, Herta was now within a second of Tsolov and Minì. Minì needed to pass Tsolov, who was struggling with his pace. Tsolov hit Minì, and suffered some front-wing damage. Minì remained ahead, and Herta was now pressuring Tsolov for third, pulling off an aggressive move into turn eight. 

Tsolov was now under pressure from his teammate León for fourth, and Herta now was set for his first podium. He now was closing on Minì with two laps to go. Maini now led by eight seconds, dominating for ART. 

Tsolov’s damage lost him even more time than he was already losing, which invited further pressure by León and Câmara, who closed a 6.6 second gap to now be less than a second.

On the last lap, Herta and León made respective moves on Minì and Tsolov, with neither being close enough to pull off the overtake. Their final chance would be into the turn 10 hairpin. León had an oversteer moment, but Herta went off-track in an ‘unacceptable’ mistake at turn six trying to catch Minì due to a lockup, and promoted Tsolov back to the podium, helping León remain ahead of Câmara.

Maini took a brilliant Sprint Race victory, his first since Monaco’s Sprint last year. The rest of the podium was the two championship challengers Minì and Tsolov. After that was León, Herta, who will be ruing the error which cost him a maiden F2 podium, Câmara, Beganovic and Dunne.