Nikola Tsolov won a barnstorming Formula 2 sprint race at the Miami International Autodrome on Saturday morning. In a three-way fight to the finish, the Campos Racing driver beat out Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen, who challenged him until the final corner, and Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne. 

By Martin Lloyd

The series’ first race in North America brought one of the most entertaining battles for the lead in recent years. For much of the 23-lap race, Tsolov was leading and focused on fending off Van Hoepen, while Dunne made a late charge to threaten the pair. After a last-lap move from the Dutchman, it seemed that Tsolov had lost the win, only for him to reclaim the lead and the subsequent victory at the final braking zone of the race.

“It was obviously quite intense, the whole race,” Tsolov said in the post-race press conference. “I was trying to create a gap and maybe take him out of my DRS, but it was just too difficult. I think the DRS was really powerful today. Then as soon as I got overtaken on the last lap, I almost believed it was impossible to take him back. Obviously I stayed close through the tight section and then coming into the last corner, the last braking [zone], it was all to play for. 

“[I] broke late on my line and I think I stayed patient. Both of us were quite respectful, never really took way too big risks and stayed on line. So it was really exciting, intense, probably the [most fun] race I’ve ever done.”

Tsolov and Van Hoepen started on the front row in the same order that they finished, but the race was far from simple. The pair started directly in front of Oliver Goethe, who got a poor start and immediately slipped behind Joshua Dürksen, Nicolás Varrone, Dunne and Gabriele Minì.

The leading quartet were locked together for the first half of the race in a DRS train. Each pressured the other, while Dürksen momentarily moved up to second on lap five at Turn 17 before being re-passed approaching the same corner by Van Hoepen on the following lap. 

By lap 10, the order had re-stabilised, with Tsolov leading Van Hoepen, Dürksen and Varrone. The top two switched again at Turn 17 on lap 13 before Tsolov took back first place at the same, now-traditional overtaking spot on lap 15. Dunne was keeping a watching brief, staying over a second behind Varrone but never completely losing touch.

In the latter stages of the race, the Irishman closed in on the two South American drivers battling in front of him. He passed Varrone at Turn 17 on lap 15 before making a failed lunge on Dürksen at Turn 1 on lap 18. This resulted in a large lock-up, seemingly throttling his chances of moving into the podium places given the high potential for resultant flat-spots on his medium tyres. But the Rodin driver continued to push forward and eventually made the move at Turn 17 on lap 19, before setting off after the two leaders. 

All the while, Van Hoepen used the DRS to slip past Tsolov on lap 13 before Tsolov returned the favour two laps later. From there, they seemed to be saving their final moves for the end of the race – until, an instruction from Trident to Van Hoepen to ‘go’, broadcast on lap 21, seemed to end this stalemate.

At this point, Van Hoepen began to make attacks on Tsolov, starting with a move down the inside at Turn 17 on that lap. He couldn’t quite make the move stick and had to regroup before making another attempt, this time on the outside of the same corner on lap 22. That was also rebuffed by the Bulgarian, leaving him with one lap left to attempt a move for his first F2 victory.

That move was made up the inside into Turn 11, at the braking zone that concludes the first DRS zone. Despite a lock-up, Van Hoepen was able to hold onto the position and moved into the lead. There would be one final opportunity for Tsolov to reclaim the lead into Turn 17, however. Would Van Hoepen force him to the inside or the outside? Dunne was also lurking and had the potential to usurp the pair of them if they ran wide. 

Tsolov attempted the pass around the outside of Turn 17, with Van Hoepen aggressively defending to the inside. At first, it seemed Tsolov’s attempt wouldn’t be successful, but Van Hoepen dipped two wheels onto the inside kerb and struggled to slow down his car. Tsolov tiptoed around his outside, Dunne stuck his nose up the inside, and they entered the sweeping left-hander at Turn 18 three-wide – but it was Tsolov who had the fastest route to the finish line after Turn 19 to win his second consecutive F2 race by a margin of just 0.170s.  

“You go into that last corner,” Van Hoepen told Feeder Series, “and think ‘okay, I should brake on my marks, don’t lock up, don’t go straight into him or something like that, especially when he just came in front of me before the braking. 

“So those are all things you take into consideration, but I think we’ve done a good job to not touch each other and just keep respectful through the last corner there.” 

In recent years, embarrassing or seemingly avoidable incidents have often earned F2 drivers relentless taunting, but exceptional racecraft, such as what was on display in today’s sprint race, rarely receives equivalent levels of praise. In their battle for the lead, Tsolov, Van Hoepen and eventually Dunne all defended ferociously and attacked opportunistically, never straying over the line into recklessness. The absence of safety car interventions was a testament to the high quality of driving on show at a circuit where none of the drivers had yet raced.

Varrone passed Dürksen at Turn 17 on lap 21 to take fourth. For Van Amersfoort Racing’s Varrone, this was an impressive result in only his second race weekend in single-seaters since 2020, while for Dürksen it will feel like an opportunity missed for at least a second consecutive sprint race podium. Dunne’s teammate Martinius Stenshorne was sixth, ahead of Minì and Dino Beganovic, who rounded out the top eight. Tsolov’s Campos teammate Noel León finished ninth and also earned a point for setting the fastest lap with a 1:41.932 on lap 11.

Colton Herta finished 15th in his first F2 race at home, one place ahead of Miami-born Colombian driver Sebastián Montoya. Feature race polesitter Kush Maini stalled at the start of the formation lap and eventually retired from 19th place. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency