In the first ever Madrid feature race for Formula 2, it was DAMS Racing’s Dino Beganovic who took a dominant victory on the Spanish streets, ahead of Rodin’s Alex Dunne.
The pair started on the front row and quickly got away from the rest of the pack upon the race start, but an incident for Kush Maini & Cian Shields – which saw Maini pushed into the barriers – caused a safety car on the second lap.
This allowed for the pack to close up as the incident was cleared – and ART driver Tasanopol Inthraphuvasak took a risk under this intervention, changing off the hard tyres to a set of the soft compound tyres, hoping for a later intervention to make a second stop, as this first stop was before the point where drivers could make a mandatory stop.
On lap 7, the race resumed, with Boya, Villagomez, Van Hoepen and Varrone all diving into the pitlane to change their tyres, having all started on the harder compound tyres. This would have been seen as an unusual move, but the sprint race showed sustained pace for the softer compound tyres, thus becoming a good move for some of the field. Other runners however elected to keep their hard tyres from the start, whilst the leading trio of Beganovic, Dunne and Camara all chose to keep their soft tyres on.
Lap 12 saw the mid-pack action start to shake out, with Leon pitting from 6th place – but the early stop from Prema Racing saw Boya get the jump on him. The next lap, Camara followed suit, and once again, his stop left him behind Boya, putting the Spaniard in a very advantageous position. Stenshorne and Tsolov both pit on lap 14, and the Norwegian driver emerged ahead of Boya, unlike the others in the group. Tsolov however did not have the same fortunes, being jumped by Boya and Stenshorne – but from a championship view, he still emerged ahead of Camara, an advantageous position for the Bulgarian.
This mid-pack fight seemed to reach a boiling point on lap 18, with Tsolov making an ambitious move into the chicane – but running wide cost him positions, dropping back behind championship rival Camara. This ultimately put Camara in a position to race Oliver Goethe, which came to a head at Turn 2 the following lap, with Camara’s ambition coming off a bit too strong. The pair went side by side into the corner, and Goethe was nudged into the wall, prompting an immediate safety car.
At the front of the field, this was a lifeline for the drivers who’d yet to make their mandatory stops. Beganovic and Dunne immediately bolted into the pitlane for new rubber, followed by Miyata, Dürksen and Fittipaldi – and ART’s strategic gamble from Inthraphuvasak allowed him to also make his mandatory stop alongside the aforementioned group. This sextet emerged ahead on the road, ahead of the final phase of the race, which was essentially a dash to the end.
Unfortunately in this safety car period, John Bennett’s race came to an end, finding the wall of the Madring circuit in his Trident car. This meant that there were two incidents to clear up simultaneously, and contributed to the race switching from laps to time.
Upon the restart, it was announced that Rafa Camara sustained a 10 second penalty for pushing Goethe into the wall, which would have large championship implications with Tsolov right on his tail. Nonetheless, the Brazilian set about trying to make progress to mitigate the penalty received.
But luck seemed to be on his side, as Tsolov’s pace seemed to fade away rapidly, with each given lap leading to move ground lost. In fact, by the chequered flag, 22 seconds separated the pair, when they were once nose to tail.
Up at the front, Beganovic seemed to take flight upon the restart, breaking away by over seven seconds to mark himself as the Master of the Madring – converting his pole into a dominant performance. Dunne behind him finished a further 6.7 seconds clear of Ritomo Miyata, who claimed a second podium in two races for Hitech, salvaging their weekend after losing their other car of Colton Herta due to illness.
The win for Beganovic marked his first Feature Race victory in Formula 2, and his first win in the series in over a year. His last victory was the 2025 Baku Sprint race, also held on a city circuit. It begs the question of if Beganovic is the master of streets, and can he back this performance up as we go back to Baku in 2 weeks time.
In the championship battle, Rafa Camara held on to 10th place, despite his penalty for the collision with Goethe. It means he closed the gap to Tsolov to just 7 points, an encouraging mark for the Brazilian driver, who brings himself into striking distance for the championship. And with Gabriele Minì coming home in P7, he also closes down the gap to Tsolov to just 24 points, further putting the pressure on the leading duo.
Photo by James Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
