Dino Beganovic won his first Formula 2 race in Baku on Saturday, taking victory in the sprint race ahead of Hitech teammate Luke Browning and Alex Dunne. After the race, Feeder Series spoke to Beganovic about his restart tactics at the post-race press conference.

By Martin Lloyd

The sprint was another chaotic event that followed a stop-start qualifying session on Friday. Rafael Villagómez started on pole alongside Beganovic in second, and the Swede was able to take the lead off the line. He would not relinquish it before the chequered flag.

One of the key aspects of his victory was his strategy of waiting until the last possible moment to bring the field back to full speed after the race’s two safety car periods. After the race, the Ferrari junior spoke to Feeder Series about his tactics at the post-race press conference.

“You have the very long straight and the proper last corner is T16,” Beganovic said. “To make a surprise move there, giving the guy behind you a tow is very optimistic, so in the end it’s statistics. [I did] what has worked before – and obviously discussing with the team and also getting some advice from the guys in there in the F1 paddock, from Ferrari.

“It’s a mix of surprise effect and also statistics, what has worked and what would work in simulation as well. I think it was well executed today.”

Villagómez was swallowed off the line by the rest of the field after a poor start. He was then pitched out of the race at the first corner in a collision with Martinius Stenshorne and Pepe Martí. While Villagómez and Martí were forced to retire and the safety car was deployed, Stenshorne was able to continue. 

There were two more collisions further down the field at Turn 2. Oliver Goethe made an ambitious move for 13th on the inside of John Bennett with Roman Staněk on the Briton’s outside. There was not enough room for all three drivers, and Goethe hit the wall and had to retire from the race. 

Just behind them, Laurens van Hoepen locked up into the same corner and tagged Ritomo Miyata, who in turn hit Arvid Lindblad. The Campos Racing driver was unable to continue. The stewards took no further action on the first two opening-lap incidents but handed Van Hoepen a 10-second post-race time penalty for causing the collision with Miyata and Lindblad.

The race restarted on lap five, with Beganovic waiting until the last moment before the start-finish straight to pull away from the pack. The tactic seemed to work, as he already had three quarters of a second in hand over Sebastián Montoya in second.

Stenshorne in third kept Montoya honest and put in an impressive move at Turn 3 to take second place on lap seven. The Norwegian was beginning to close the four-second gap that Beganovic had built when he suffered a technical issue on lap eight and had to retire from the race. This promoted Montoya to second and Browning to third. 

It was a cruel blow for Stenshorne, who had already impressed on his F2 debut by qualifying seventh, the team’s joint-best result this season, for tomorrow’s feature race. The McLaren junior pulled over between Turns 15 and 16, with race control deploying first the virtual safety car and then the full safety car to remove his stricken Trident machine.

The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 12 of 21, just as spots of rain began to appear on the circuit. The track became slightly slippery, but with the rain being extremely light, no driver was tempted to pit for wet tyres. 

Beganovic again waited until just before the start-finish line to pull away on the safety car restart he again retained the lead from Montoya in second. Alex Dunne sat fourth, and he quickly made a daring move on Browning to take third place at Turn 3. The Irishman had Montoya next in his sights but locked up at Turn 1 on lap 15, creating a huge flat-spot on his front-left tyre. 

Dunne ran wide into the run-off area, and he rejoined behind Browning, who passed on the inside. The Rodin Motorsport driver was noted for rejoining unsafely.

Gabriele Minì passed a struggling Dunne for fourth place on the following lap before the McLaren junior reclaimed the position on lap 18 at Turn 3. On the same lap, Browning passed Minì’s Prema teammate Montoya for second place at Turn 1 as both cars began to struggle. 

On the following lap, Montoya suffered a mechanical issue and became the second driver to fall out of the points-paying positions with a technical fault. As he slowed and eventually limped home in 15th place, Dunne was promoted to third place, claiming a podium that had seemed unlikely when he locked up on lap 15.

Dunne eventually finished 7.309s behind Beganovic, who dealt with a complex race and built large gaps after both safety car periods to take an impressive maiden victory. It was also the first win for a Swedish driver in the second tier since Marcus Ericsson won the 2013 Nürburgring feature race in GP2.

“It was all very much under control at all times after lap one,” Beganovic said in the post-race press conference. “Then we just settled into our pace, tried to manage the tyres a bit, and be ready for a safety car because you never know here in Baku. 

“I think all the restarts were spot on. It was a very good race from inside the car, also good communication with my engineer and also great to have Luke doing the 1-2 for the team.”

Browning finished 6.281s behind his teammate, completing Hitech’s first 1-2 since Nikita Mazepin led Luca Ghiotto home in the Mugello feature race in 2020. Dunne was just 1.028s behind Browning in third, a strong effort from a driver who said in the press conference that his front-left tyre was ‘down to the canvas’.

Title contenders Jak Crawford, Leonardo Fornaroli and Richard Verschoor all passed Minì in the closing stages to finish fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. The Alpine junior was just 0.078s behind Verschoor, who overtook him for sixth on the line. Victor Martins scored the final point for ART Grand Prix.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency