Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov delivered what was an imposing and opportunistic drive to win the Formula 2 feature race in Melbourne on Sunday, securing both his maiden victory in the championship and achieving a milestone as the first driver from Bulgaria to win in the series. Feeder Series spoke to Tsolov, second-placed Rafael Câmara and third-placed Laurens van Hoepen after the race about how they navigated differing strategies and safety car restarts during the 33-lap race.

By August Bamford

Tsolov capitalised on early chaos and executed a decisive restart move late in the race to take control – and he never looked back. Starting fifth, the Campos driver avoided the opening-lap trouble that shuffled the order and inherited the lead after a dramatic collision between the two Rodin Motorsport teammates. 

Later on in the race, an alternative strategy briefly put Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nicolás Varrone at the front, but Tsolov wasted no time reclaiming the race lead from his fellow rookie driver. Diving up the inside immediately after the safety car restart, the Red Bull junior cleared Varrone before DRS could come into play and quickly established the gap he needed. By the final lap, the Bulgarian had established enough breathing room to withstand a late push from Câmara, crossing the line with a nearly two-second advantage to seal a landmark maiden F2 win.

“I wasn’t too worried about the alternative strategy people, and in fact I understood about Varrone. I just didn’t think he was coming out [of the pits],” Tsolov told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “It was quite late and I was a bit surprised he still was able to stay in front. I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding in the safety car situation and it cost us a little bit of time. But ultimately we were able to get him straight away on the restart, which, for me, was the most important part, and I think that’s what got me the win.”

Polesitter Dino Beganovic of DAMS was lined up on the front row for the race, with the two Rodin cars of Martinius Stenshorne and Alex Dunne directly behind him and poised to challenge. Dunne launched strongly but locked up heavily into the opening corner, allowing Stenshorne to seize the lead while Beganovic dropped from pole to fifth with a compromised start.

Behind them, the fast-starting Tsolov slotted into third as the field negotiated the opening sector, while further back, Oliver Goethe and Noel León made contact at Turn 4 and both ran wide. 

Moments later, the race’s first major turning point arrived. After Stenshorne successfully defended a challenge from Dunne at Turn 11 on lap two, the Irishman made another attempt on his teammate at Turn 1 on lap three, but the move ended in disaster.

Heading toward the braking zone, Dunne moved to attack and got ahead but cut across the front of Stenshorne’s car just before braking. The two cars came together as they approached the corner, eliminating both Rodin machines from the race and ending what had been shaping up to be a potential one-two for the team. Dunne received a 10-second time penalty converted to a five-place grid penalty for the next F2 feature race for the contact, as well as two penalty points.

The collision brought out the safety car and elevated Tsolov into the race lead ahead of Câmara and Beganovic. The Bulgarian controlled the restart when racing resumed on lap six. Most drivers had opted for supersoft tyres, but Varrone and Cian Shields elected to begin on the softer compound and run longer as part of an alternative strategy. 

Beganovic pitted from third on lap eight, but stopping earlier than his direct rivals proved costly. The Ferrari junior was forced to fight his way back through to his original position after falling behind Goethe and Van Hoepen. He ultimately passed both on their outlaps, the latter with a clean dive up the inside into Turn 9.

Beganovic caught and passed Câmara for second at the same spot on lap 14, but just as he was settling into a rhythm, everything unravelled. The Swede suddenly slowed on lap 16, pulling off at Turn 10 with a reliability issue and ending a race that had once looked full of promise. The incident triggered a virtual safety car, which was converted to a full safety car just before the start of lap 19.

The neutralisation created an opening for the drivers on alternative strategies to get a pit stop with less time loss. Varrone pitted under the safety car and still emerged as the race leader, but the gamble ultimately sabotaged itself when he was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

When the race restarted on lap 22, Tsolov wasted no time, diving to the inside at Turn 3 and reclaiming the lead from Varrone. Câmara tried to follow through but had to wait several laps before finally completing the move for second place at Turn 11 on lap 27. By this point, however, Tsolov had already built a comfortable margin, which grew to nearly three seconds with five laps remaining.

The Brazilian pushed hard in the closing stages and reduced the deficit slightly, but it was too little, too late. Tsolov crossed the line to take victory by 1.669 seconds – an intelligent drive that gave Campos their second feature race win of the day across F2 and F3. 

Still, reigning F3 champion Câmara impressed by climbing from sixth to second in what he called a ‘good, nice and calm race’ to deliver the podium many expected from him.

Behind them, Van Hoepen snatched third place with a bold move around the outside of Varrone at Turn 9 on lap 29. That move helped secure a long-awaited podium for Trident, their first in F2 since the 2024 Baku round and a sign of a major turnaround for the team after a difficult 2025 season in which they scored just two points. He also scored another point by setting the fastest lap among the top 10 finishers on lap 26.

“Because of the first safety car, we could extend our option stint, which [was] nice to do because we had less stress for the second stint. It all went to plan, and we executed a good pit stop,” he said. “I got good encouragement from the engineers in the pit wall and they just kept me calm, saying, ‘You’re on the quicker tire’, and from that point we just waited for a good moment to overtake. It was just managing the tires and hoping that the option would click at some point, which it did.”

MP Motorsport’s Goethe enjoyed a strong afternoon, climbing from eighth to fourth after weathering the early contact with León. Fifth place went to Ritomo Miyata, who was running lap times comparable to the leaders in the closing stages of the race, while Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak finished sixth to cap off a strong opening weekend with ART Grand Prix.

Seventh place went to Colton Herta, the second Hitech in the top 10. After a weekend that started with an accident in practice, the American rookie turned things around in the feature race to score his first F2 points, an encouraging result for the Cadillac-backed IndyCar race winner. After his heroic rise to sixth yesterday, Gabriele Minì produced another strong recovery drive to finish eighth from the back of the field.

Sebastián Montoya held on to a points finish, crossing the line seventh and ultimately finishing ninth after receiving a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The final point went to sprint race winner Joshua Dürksen, whose race featured plenty of drama. The Paraguayan driver experienced anti-stall off the line and received a five-second penalty for moving before the starting signal – even though the movement held him back rather than launching him forward.

On heavily used supersoft tyres, Varrone sank through the field in the final five laps and crossed the line 11th, with the penalty for speeding in the pit lane dropping him to 17th in the end.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency