DAMS’ Dino Beganovic said he “got a bit lucky” to finish second in the Hungary Sprint Race on Saturday.

After a difficult Sprint race start, where he dropped back a place, Beganovic benefited from the contact between Montoya and Tsolov to reach the podium behind Gabriele Mini, who closed the gap to championship leader, Nikola Tsolov, with victory.

Thanks to the reversing of the top 10 for the Sprint Race, the Swedish driver sat in third on the Hungaroring Sprint starting grid before he was overtaken by Nikola Tsolov at lights out.

Reflecting on the race, Beganovic said that the car felt “difficult off the line” and explained that they “sort of had the pace but always struggled to make an attack.”

Instant regret ?@DinoBeganovic4 has a personal message for the camera operator ?#F2 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/w22m2JDWUk

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 25, 2026

After Sprint pole-sitter Montoya was taken out by the Campos car of Tsolov with less than 10 laps to go, Beganovic finished the sprint with an almost 4 second gap to the race winner.

Beganovic said that “We got a bit lucky today… but we will take that and look forward to tomorrow.”

The Sprint provided some crucial learning laps for the DAMS team, helping them to evolve for the Feature race tomorrow. “We have some things to improve but it’s important that those are clear.”

Despite a tricky start, Beganovic seemed in high spirits for the race tomorrow, confident that the team can make the necessary improvements to improve the competitiveness of his car.

With temperatures set to reach thirty degrees at the Hungaroring, the Feature Race will be challenging for all the drivers and tyre management will play a crucial part at the end of the 37 laps.

The Ferrari Academy driver said tyre management was okay out on track on Saturday and is optimistic ahead of Sunday’s Feature Race.

He said: “It’s all about patience in the race, first part of the race, listening to engineers saying 20 laps to go. You still need to be patient and wait for those ten, eight laps to go to start pushing the tyres. So it was fine. I think tomorrow will be a bit easier as well. So I think we can have a good race tomorrow.”

He’ll start Sunday’s race from seventh, instead of eighth where he qualified, because Tsolov has been handed a five-place grid penalty for the collision with Montoya.

Your top three in the Budapest Sprint Race ?

? @MiniGabriele
? @DinoBeganovic4
? Laurens van Hoepen #F2 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/42Xn3ST9Oh

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 25, 2026

Image Credit – Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty