Rafael Câmara took the second Baku F2 Feature Race victory after on-the-road winner Alexander Dunne received a five-second penalty, while Nikola Tsolov recovered from P11 to complete a podium made up of the championship’s top three.
Only 21 points separated the three title contenders heading into the last race of the Azerbaijan weekend. Câmara entered the Feature Race leading Tsolov by one point, with Dunne eight points away from the lead.
With the lead at stake, Dunne lined up with first-time pole-sitter Stenshorne, with Câmara in third and Mari Boya completing the second row. Tsolov faced a bigger challenge after a three-place grid penalty left him all the way down in P11.
Stenshorne got a great start off the line, managing to retain the lead ahead of Dunne and Câmara. However, the race was quickly neutralised after John Bennett was involved in a Turn 1 collision that brought out the Safety Car, ending his race for the fourth time in the last five races.
At the restart, Câmara immediately began putting pressure on Dunne. With DRS enabled, the battle intensified before being neutralized again on Lap 6.
With Ritomo Miyata stopped on track, Dunne, Maini, Beganovic, Montoya and Bilinski managed to make their pit stops before the first Virtual Safety Car was declared.
A second Virtual Safety Car followed shortly after when Inthraphuvasak stopped on the circuit. Stenshorne headed into the pits along with Noel León and Boya, rejoining ahead of Dunne before losing out to the Rodin driver on cold tyres.
Câmara made his mandatory stop on Lap 10 and initially retained the advantage, but Dunne rapidly closed the gap and took the effective race lead. Tsolov also emerged as one of the biggest gainers from the pit-stop phase, climbing from P11 into the top five as he began his charge towards the podium.
However, Dunne’s advantage was soon compromised as he was handed a five-second time penalty for crossing the line at pit entry. His initial attempt to push and create the necessary gap seemed plausible as he initially broke the Brazilian’s DRS.
Not far back, Tsolov closed the gap to Stenshorne and completed his move into the podium places on Lap 22.
The championship contender trio were facing off at the front. Câmara managed to get back into DRS range of Dunne while Tsolov began closing in on the leaders, leaving less than 2 seconds between the three.
Dunne continued pushing, but with Câmara still in DRS range and Tsolov closing onto the Brazilian, the order remained poised to change after the chequered flag.
Dunne saw the chequered flag first, but his five-second penalty dropped him behind both of his championship rivals. Câmara inherited the top step of the podium while Tsolov was promoted to second and Dunne classified third, putting the championship’s top three on the podium.
Câmara leaves the weekend leading the standings with 207 points, seven ahead of Tsolov, while Dunne sits third with 189. The championship battle will continue in Lusail circuit on November 27th.
Image: Getty Images via Formula Motorsport Limited
