Nikola Tsolov ran out victorious for the fourth time from six Formula 2 rounds this season, this time in the feature race in Austria. The Bulgarian driver led the way early on and at the end after the pit stop cycle concluded. The Campos driver was joined by the MP Motorsport duo of Gabriele Minì and alternate-strategy runner Oliver Goethe on the podium. Feeder Series heard the thoughts of the top three in the post-race press conference. 

By Cliona Sheerin

Tsolov enjoyed the best start of the frontrunners and led the way until the pit stop cycle. After some squabbling to get back to the front of the field, he regained control of the race, maintaining a comfortable gap and grip in his tyres in the warm temperatures until the chequered flag. 

“It was quite exciting,” Tsolov said in the post-race press conference. “I had a good start in the launch. I think my reaction time was quite good, so I managed to get Alex on the line. And then I felt like I was under pressure going into T3, so I defended. My intention was not to overtake Noel at that point, but I guess he got afraid that I’ll hit him because I did brake late, but I think I was under control. And then he left some gap, so I just went for it and I came out first out of Turn 3.”

Polesitter Noel León got a decent getaway at the start, but it was his teammate Tsolov from third who made the biggest gains. He took advantage of the slow-starting Alex Dunne to jump up to second behind his teammate before the first corner, with the Irishman slipping into fourth behind Minì following an overtake at Turn 1.

Tsolov then set his sights on his teammate in front, lining up a move along the long straight heading down to Turn 3. There he made the lunge for the lead, a move that sent his teammate over the kerb and onto the Turn 3 runoff area. That left him vulnerable to Minì behind, and the two ran side by side until Turn 6, where León used the inside line to maintain second place.

Further behind, a three-car incident brought out an opening-lap safety car. Joshua Dürksen was again involved in the thick of the action as he went three-wide with Rafael Villagómez and Sebastián Montoya at Turn 2. Dürksen, who was on the outside of the trio, moved to his right but had an overlap with the Van Amersfoort Racing car beside and behind him. The trio made contact, and Villagómez and Montoya skidded  into the gravel and out of the race. The incident was reviewed by race control, who deemed that no further investigation with the drivers involved was necessary.

The safety car ended after four laps, with Tsolov maintaining a sufficient lead over teammate León. At the end of the following lap, the pitstop window opened, and León was first to make the switch from the supersoft to soft tyres. Dunne pitted the next time around, overcutting León and coming out in front. Next came race leader Tsolov, who, despite a delay on the front right, emerged in the net lead.

Minì and Câmara made their mandatory stops at the end of lap nine, and they too benefitted from the overcut. Câmara briefly jumped ahead of León, while Minì found himself ahead of Tsolov as the first of the drivers to have pitted. That only lasted until Turn 3, however, as Tsolov regained the position. Minì tried to cut back in front, but without the DRS he couldn’t manage the move and then lost out to Dunne, who swooped around the outside of Turn 4. 

Dunne then turned his attention to getting around Tsolov, trying to breach the Bulgarian driver’s defences. The move eventually came on lap 13, with Dunne diving down the inside at Turn 3. The two made contact on the exit of the corner and Tsolov lost the right-side endplate of his front wing as a result. No matter for the Campos driver, who stayed within the wheeltracks of Dunne as they caught up to the drivers yet to pit.

At the halfway point of the race, Dunne, Tsolov, Minì and Câmara were line astern on the primary race strategy. Oliver Goethe held the overall race lead with a four-second gap to Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in second as Laurens van Hoepen sat a further three seconds back in third. 

On lap 24, Tsolov pulled closer than ever to the back of Dunne as the Irishman ran deep into Turn 4. Another wide moment at the final corner from the Rodin driver then gave Tsolov the opportunity to get down the inside at Turn 1. 

“On my side, I felt [it was] easier to manage the tyre when I was behind Alex, using DRS,” Tsolov told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “I was able to push much less throughout the corners and then gain so much lap time on the straight, so I found it beneficial on my side to just wait there and do really competitive lap times because Alex was pushing a lot to keep the pace up and I was just cruising around behind him to do the same lap times.

“I think that’s where I managed to do the race well because then for the end, I had a lot more tyre saved. And we saw that Alex had a big drop, so that’s why I didn’t want to fight too much with him again for the race lead. It didn’t really make much sense at that moment.”

Tsolov broke free from DRS range by the end of the lap, leaving Dunne a sitting duck with Minì ready to pounce behind. Dunne was soon handed a reprieve from the pressure when a mechanical issue struck Mari Boya at Turn 3 on lap 26, which brought out a virtual safety car at the start of the next lap. But when the racing resumed on the following tour, Minì seized second place from his Alpine Academy counterpart at Turn 4, leaving the Italian with a 2.5-second gap to make up to his closest championship rival in front.

Race leader Goethe made the switch to the supersoft tyres at the end of lap 29, finding himself in eighth position after all pit stops were made. Taking advantage of his fresher rubber, he began setting laps that were one second quicker than now-leader Tsolov’s and soon got around yesterday’s sprint winner John Bennett and León

The battle for the final podium position heated up on lap 33, with Câmara and Dunne going wheel to wheel into Turn 3. Câmara went around the outside and looked to have his nose in front, but was forced wide and lost the position once more. On the next lap, the Invicta driver tried around the outside of Turn 4, but nothing doing, and a lap later the two made slight contact on the exit of Turn 6. 

All this battling was only helping the fast-charging Goethe, who was now right on the rear of Dürksen in fifth. Câmara got through on Dunne at Turn 1 on lap 36, as did Goethe on Dürksen when the Paraguayan took to the run-off after being a hair’s breadth away from collecting Dunne in front. While Goethe maintained his position as Dürksen dropped to seventh, Câmara did not, and Dunne was back in front at Turn 3. Goethe then used the advantage of DRS and superior grip to glide past the both of them around the outside of Turn 4 in an impressive overtake for the final place on the podium. 

At the front, though, there was no catching Tsolov, who crossed the line with a comfortable 3.9-second gap over Minì, closing the gap to just two points to his championship rival. 

“It was a lot easier than yesterday,” Minì explained to Feeder Series. “Also the temperatures were a lot lower, so that helped. The DRS and slipstream gain is so much that you can just afford to, as Nikola mentioned, kind of cruise around in the corners and just drive calmly and don’t overstress any axle, whether it’s front or rear. And then, at the end, once again it showed, I tried to attack Nikola at the beginning. I just didn’t manage to because he was also in the DRS, so I just stepped back and tried to use the tyres at the end. He had a tiny bit more, but it was still good enough to finish on the podium.”

Goethe’s third place is his first-ever F2 podium in his second full campaign in the championship. It comes a day after he retired on the opening lap of the sprint race, meaning today’s 40 laps were his first on the circuit in race conditions this year.

“We had to manage the tyres quite a lot,” Goethe told Feeder Series post-race. “Starting on the prime tyre, on the soft tyre you get more clean air, usually less fighting throughout the stint. However, you have to still be able to get a good start and fight in the first few laps to not lose too many positions.

“I feel like I used the tyre quite a lot in the first laps to make some position even though I was on the harder compound. But once everyone pitted, it was just about managing my pace and not destroying the tyres because it’s a long stint. Also not having done the race yesterday, I had to adapt quite a lot, and I’m happy that I was able to make it work.”

Away from the podium, Câmara crossed the line fourth ahead of two more beneficiaries of the alternate strategy in Inthraphuvasak and Martinius Stenshorne, who overtook his teammate Dunne on the final lap. However, the Norwegian driver was deemed to have served his mandatory pit stop under virtual safety car conditions and was handed a 30-second post-race time penalty as a result. Behind Dunne in sixth came León and Van Hoepen, with Dürksen in ninth and Roman Bilinski sealing the final points position in 10th. Stenshorne was the final classified finisher in 19th after his penalty was applied.

After six rounds of the championship, Minì maintains the lead – albeit a much smaller one – over Tsolov in the drivers’ standings, with 108 points to Tsolov’s 106. Câmara and Dunne remain in third and fourth with 82 and 78 points respectively, while León rounds out the top five on 60 championship points. 

In the teams’ standings, Campos still lead the way on 168 points, now 32 points ahead of MP Motorsport, who leapfrog Rodin Motorsport with their feature race double podium. Invicta are 23 points back from Rodin on 105. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency