A bumper round of Formula 2 action in Baku provided plenty of taking points, the additional race and resulting points on offer causing a shake-up in the championship standings. Feeder Series analyses four things we learned from the action. 

By Cliona Sheerin

Kush Maini topped the times in practice before Rodin Motorsport took both pole positions in the double qualifying session, with Alex Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne locking out the front rows of both feature races. Dino Beganovic scored his second successive victory in the sprint, while Dunne converted his pole into his first win of the season in feature race one. Rafael Câmara then took the honours in the second feature race to pull out a slim seven-point championship lead over Nikola Tsolov. 

• Pre-weekend roundtable: Miyata, Fittipaldi on why F2’s ‘very challenging’ street tracks suit them
• Qualifying report and quotes: Rodin score double 1-2 to sweep Baku qualifying as Dunne, Stenshorne take pole
• Sprint race report and quotes: Beganovic takes back-to-back F2 sprint wins in Baku despite feeling unwell
• Feature race 1 report and quotes: Dunne converts pole into first win of 2026 in first Baku feature race
• Feature race 2 report and quotes: Câmara extends F2 points lead with Baku feature race win over Tsolov and Dunne

1. Câmara topples Tsolov in the standings

The championship lead has changed hands for the first time since Silverstone, with Rafael Câmara taking over at the top from Nikola Tsolov. 

The pair were separated by seven points following the previous round at the Madring, and Tsolov was first to get points on the board in Friday’s sprint race. However, it was not the haul he would have anticipated having started from pole. After he lost the lead to eventual winner Dino Beganovic shortly after the safety car restart, a costly mistake at Turn 17 set the wheels in motion for Tsolov to tumble down to a fifth-place finish. 

Meanwhile, Câmara made contact with the rear of Mari Boya on the opening lap, an incident for which he was deemed wholly responsible. He was handed a 10-second time penalty, which he served when the safety car came out for the second time to recover his Invicta teammate Joshua Dürksen. Now at the rear of the pack, Câmara could do nothing to avoid the chaos that unfolded in front of him at Turn 1 on the final lap, and he limped to the line in 15th. 

Tsolov was involved in an incident himself in the first feature race. A slow pit stop dropped the Campos Racing driver way down the order, and he was caught up in the lap 12 melee at Turn 3 that triggered a red flag. To add insult to injury, Tsolov had been landed with a five-second time penalty earlier in the contest for crossing the pit entry line when he came in for his stop. As a result of his retirement, he could not serve the penalty during the race, and it carried over into the second feature race of the weekend as a grid drop.

On the other hand, the feature races were where Câmara made the difference. A solid fourth place in feature race one, secured after a drag race with Noel León over the line, moved him into the championship lead by a single point. Câmara started Saturday’s feature from third, and a well-timed pit stop put him in prime position for victory behind Alex Dunne, who had yet to serve a five-second time penalty of his own.

By this time, Tsolov had recovered from his starting position of 11th to third, closing in fast on Dunne and Câmara ahead. Câmara, stuck between attack and defence, kept his cool to hold off Tsolov and benefit from Dunne’s penalty to take his third feature race win of his rookie season.

With Câmara scoring 37 points and Tsolov 23 over the round, the gap at the top of the standings is still seven points, albeit now in favour of the Brazilian. They sit on 207 and 200 points respectively heading into the dying stages of the season. While details regarding the remaining rounds and how many points will be on offer are yet to be confirmed, one thing is for certain: F2 is in for a finale for the ages, with another storyline from the weekend set to thicken the plot.

2. Rodin and Dunne rocket up the order

And that other storyline stars none other than Rodin Motorsport and Alex Dunne, whose performances made headlines across all three days in Baku.

The round got off to a dream start for the Surrey-based team as they swept Thursday’s qualifying sessions. Dunne claimed his first pole of the season in the first of the two 20-minute sessions, with teammate Martinius Stenshorne completing the front row. Stenshorne followed that up with a maiden pole of his own in the second session as Dunne backed him up in second. 

Rodin’s pace was apparent from the first race of the weekend, as Dunne made up seven spots on his way to third place in the sprint race, with Stenshorne crossing the line just behind in fourth. But they dominated the feature race, Dunne in particular untouchable as he finished more than four seconds ahead of his stablemate on his way to his first victory of the year. He looked for all the world to follow that up with another victory in Saturday’s feature race, until a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at pit exit – Tsolov’s offence in the previous race – cost him 10 valuable championship points as he fell from first to third.

Although Dunne cut a forlorn figure over the radio and on the podium following the conclusion of the final race of the weekend, closer inspection shows just how important his trio of podium finishes may be for his late championship challenge. He scored 50 points out of a possible 67 to move into third in the standings, 18 points off Câmara. And while 10 got away from him on Saturday, if the pace he showed over the rest of the weekend is any indication of Rodin’s recent improvements, Dunne will be well within title contention for the final races of the championship.

The Baku round also propelled Rodin forward in the teams’ championship. Stenshorne took two fourths and a second to add to Dunne’s triple podium, giving Rodin a combined tally of 87 points to take them within one point of Invicta in second. 

3. Minì loses touch with the leaders

The bell seemed to toll on Gabriele Minì’s championship hopes in Baku as he lost further ground to those ahead and slipped to fourth in the standings. 

The weekend began in a fashion now all too familiar for the Italian. He qualified outside the top 10 in both of Thursday’s sessions and for the third round running, making it five total occasions on which Minì has failed to reach the reverse-grid positions in qualifying. By contrast, Tsolov and Câmara have never missed the top 10, while Dunne has only done so once.

The races themselves were a mixed bag for Minì. A tangle with his teammate on the final lap of the sprint race saw Minì finish where he started in 14th. The MP Motorsport driver then had his best race of the weekend in feature race one, cashing in on a cheap pit stop under safety car to move up the order and eventually finish sixth. The former championship leader recovered enough positions in the second feature to snatch two points, climbing from 16th to ninth over the line.

But on a weekend when Câmara, Tsolov and Dunne all scored at least one podium and the accompanying major points hauls, Minì needed to do more than score just 10 of a possible 67 points. The Alpine junior slipped down to fourth in the standings, 44 points off leader Câmara – a swift decline for the driver who led the championship from round three in Montréal through to round seven in Silverstone.

4. Beganovic continues DAMS’ impressive Baku record

Dino Beganovic scored a crucial double podium this weekend, including his second successive race victory both around the streets of Baku and in this year’s championship.

Beganovic picked up right from where he left off with his dominant display in the Madring feature race to claim top honours in the Baku sprint race. After gaining a place off the line from his starting position of third, he made light work of then–championship leader Tsolov to take the race lead. Beganovic then survived a late safety car restart to score his third overall F2 win, all while feeling unwell on the morning of the sprint.

Regardless of any ailments, Beganovic followed up his victory with another podium, his seventh of the season, with a well-timed safety car intervention helping him move into third from his starting position of eighth. He rounded out his weekend with another points finish, this time a seventh place having started down in 12th.

Beganovic’s win was DAMS’ fourth in total in the Azerbaijani capital, making them the team with the second-most wins in F2 around the circuit behind Prema Racing on five. The 31-point haul also helped the Swede move up to fifth in the drivers’ standings on 137 points.

Results and standings after round 12 at Baku

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Alex Dunne, 1:55.383	Martinius Stenshorne, +0.033s	Noel León, +0.134s
Qualifying 2	Martinius Stenshorne, 1:53.728	Alex Dunne, +0.445s	Rafael Câmara, +0.499s
Sprint race (21 laps)	Dino Beganovic, 45:48.207	Laurens van Hoepen, +1.058s	Alex Dunne, +1.476s
Feature race 1 (23 laps)	Alex Dunne, 1:11:45.095	Martinius Stenshorne, +4.395s	Dino Beganovic, +6.614s
Feature race 2 (29 laps)	Rafael Câmara, 59:57.958	Nikola Tsolov, +0.747s	Alex Dunne, +4.310s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Rafael Câmara, 207	Campos Racing, 333
P2	Nikola Tsolov, 200	Invicta Racing, 297
P3	Alex Dunne, 189	Rodin Motorsport, 296
P4	Gabriele Minì, 163	MP Motorsport, 200
P5	Dino Beganovic, 137	DAMS, 173
P6	Noel León, 133	ART Grand Prix, 161
P7	Martinius Stenshorne, 107	Trident, 128
P8	Joshua Dürksen, 90	Hitech, 96
P9	Kush Maini, 90	Van Amersfoort Racing, 59
P10	Laurens van Hoepen, 90	Prema Racing, 51

Read our takeaways from the previous round here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency