Nikola Tsolov has put himself back at the forefront of Formula 2 championship contention with victory in the Monaco feature race. The Campos Racing driver capitalised on a mistake from polesitter Rafael Câmara to come out victorious ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne and DAMS driver Dino Beganovic. Feeder Series spoke to the race winner about the contest in the post-race press conference.

By Cliona Sheerin

During an uneventful first stint on the soft tyres, Tsolov stayed close to Câmara in front, waiting for his moment to pounce on a track known for its scarce overtaking opportunities. That moment eventually came in the pit stop cycle, as struggles to get tyres up to temperature plagued the majority of the field and eventually cost Câmara the victory. 

“I felt the tyres dying on the softs so I could barely get around the hairpin and I lost one second in sector one on that [in] lap suddenly out of nowhere,” Tsolov said in the post-race press conference. “We wanted to stay out a little bit longer, but I let my engineer know that I’m going to lose a lot of time, so I boxed on that lap. The pit stop wasn’t necessarily fast, if I have to be honest, and then the out lap was just really difficult. 

“I’m glad I managed to bring the tyres in by the second push, and then I caught the next cars that were coming out of the pits on supersofts. It was just really slippery, so I had the advantage on that lap and managed to get through Alex. And then I arrived to Rafa and I knew he was on cold tyres, so I felt [he was] very vulnerable, so I just knew I was going to get through at some point.” 

Despite some wheelspin in the second phase of the start and Tsolov’s angling his Campos in the polesitter’s direction, Câmara led the field out of Turn 1. Tsolov and Dunne remained as they were in second and third ahead of Beganovic and Minì, who both overtook the slow-starting Stenshorne before the first corner.

Contact further back between Oliver Goethe’s left-front tyre and Ritomo Miyata’s sidepod left the German with a broken steering arm for the remainder of the race, while Laurens van Hoepen sustained front wing damage following contact with Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. 

The frontrunners all opted to start the race on the softs, which they would take the majority of the way into the race before making the switch to the supersofts. Until then, Câmara was instructed by his team over the radio to keep the pack tight together so as not to allow any large gaps into which his competitors could emerge after their pit stops. Tsolov remained close behind throughout, setting fastest laps and keeping pace with the Brazilian driver. 

Meanwhile, the supersoft runners made their mandatory stop after the required six laps had passed, with Fittipaldi and Sebastián Montoya coming out as the leaders of that strategy after the first pit stops. 

Championship leader Minì was the first of the frontrunners to change tyres on lap 25, but a slow stop saw him tumble down the order and get stuck behind the drivers who had already pitted for softs. Roman Bilinski, who had been running a net eighth, came into the pits on the next lap in an attempt to undercut Noel León ahead, but with the tyres taking longer than expected to get up to temperature, it was to no avail. The DAMS driver stayed behind yesterday’s race winner when he followed in switching to the supersoft tyres on lap 27. 

All the drivers struggled for grip when they re-emerged from the pit lane, none more so than race leader Câmara. After Beganovic and Tsolov pitted on laps 28 and 32 respectively, it was the Invicta Racing’s driver’s turn to change tyres on lap 33. He was serviced smoothly by his mechanics and emerged well clear of Tsolov, who had to overtake Dunne on an outlap as well. But the seven-second advantage Câmara held over the Bulgarian faded fast on the outlap, and by the time they crossed the line to start lap 35, Tsolov was shaping up for a move.

Câmara, powerless on cold tyres, forced Tsolov to the left-hand side of the track in defence. The Brazilian’s tyres, however, were still not up to temperature, and when he hit the brakes he locked the front-left and went straight on at Sainte Dévote. Tsolov seized the opportunity and manoeuvred around the Invicta, which came to a stop in the run-off area. Having started from pole and held a net first place ever since, Câmara ended his day unceremoniously while fighting for the net lead. 

The subsequent virtual safety to recover Câmara’s stricken Invicta benefitted Ritomo Miyata, who had entered the pits just before the intervention was called on lap 36. He came out ahead of Beganovic in a net podium position, but cold tyres again meant the Swede was able to breeze past on the run to the Nouvelle Chicane. 

Out front, Kush Maini left it until the penultimate lap of the race to make his mandatory switch to the supersoft tyres, and he came out in third place mere car lengths ahead of Beganovic. The ART driver tried his best to hold on despite the tyre temperature deficit, but in doing so, he locked up heading into the Nouvelle Chicane. Beganovic also took the shortcut through the chicane, but led the way out of the turn and claimed the final step on the podium. 

Up ahead, Tsolov had pulled out a nine-second advantage over Dunne in clear air, and that was how they crossed the line after 42 laps. It was his second consecutive year of winning on Sunday in Monaco after he did so in F3 last year, and he set the fastest lap of the race on lap 37 to take an additional 26th point from the day. 

“The deg[radation] wasn’t too bad, but it shifted from yesterday,” Tsolov told Feeder Series post-race. “I didn’t really have any clue because I was doing push, cool, push and I had 15-second slower laps yesterday, actually. So it was quite extreme, but I felt more front deg today than rear, so I think that’s quite different to what we were expecting.”

Beganovic’s last-lap move sealed his second feature race podium of the season, albeit 26.471s behind Tsolov. Maini achieved a season-best finish of fourth as he held on ahead of Martinius Stenshorne, who overtook Miyata into the final corner. 

Fittipaldi and Montoya proved the value of the alternate strategy with their seventh- and eighth-place finishes. León and Bilinski continued their battle throughout the remainder of the race and finished line astern in the final points-paying positions.

Minì finished outside the points in 11th but maintains his championship lead by a single point ahead of Tsolov in second place on 62 points heading into Barcelona next weekend. 

Câmara’s retirement cost him major ground on his title rivals as he slips from second position in the standings before the weekend to seventh on 39 points, behind the Rodin pair of Stenshorne and Dunne in third and fourth on 48 each, yesterday’s winner León in fifth on 45, and today’s third-placed driver Beganovic in sixth on 43. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency