Minì wins three-car fight for first F2 victory in Miami Feature Race

Gabriele Minì claimed his maiden FIA Formula 2 victory in an action-paced Miami Feature Race. The MP Motorsport driver took the win by beating DAMS Lucas Oil’s Dino Beganovic and Rafael Câmara of Invicta Racing in a titanic three-car scrap in the closing laps.

After multiple formation laps behind the safety car, the race began with a standing start, and polesitter Kush Maini got a great launch to retain the lead. Wheelspin for second-placed Câmara allowed Martinius Stenshorne to come through for P2, but the Rodin Motorsport and Invicta Racing drivers ran deep at Turn 1, allowing Minì up to third. Câmara rebounded and took third place into Turn 7, with teammate Joshua Duerksen following him through to take fourth.

While Stenshorne ran second, he picked up a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a starting procedure infringement prior to leaving the grid. The safety car was then deployed to recover the Campos Racing car of Nikola Tsolov after contact with ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak at the first corner left the championship leader on the sidelines. The Thai driver was later handed a 10-second time penalty for the incident.

Drivers were instructed to drive through the pitlane, but Maini and Câmara continued down the main straight as everyone else peeled into the pits. Stenshorne emerged from the pitlane in second as the field picked up the safety car. The safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap 3 and racing resumed with Stenshorne in to serve his penalty, promoting the Invictas up to second and third.

Oliver Goethe sustained suspension damage at the restart after a big snap at Turn 18 sent him into the barriers, leaving the MP Motorsport driver out of the race as a result. A virtual safety car was then deployed on lap 5 to recover debris from the incident.

Back to racing conditions on lap 6, Beganovic was on the attack and after a look around the outside of Turn 1, claimed P4 from Minì into Turn 4. The Swede was quickly onto the back of Duerksen and joined the battle for P2, with Câmara slipping back from leader Maini. Alexander Dunne had been closing in on fellow Alpine Academy member Minì, but he ran deep into Turn 17 on lap 9. The Rodin driver tried to rejoin but found the barriers with little grip off the circuit, putting him out of the race and bringing out the safety car again.

That brought the majority into the pitlane for their mandatory stops, though Duerksen remained on circuit and took over the lead of the race, with Colton Herta and John Bennett moving up to second and third by staying out too. A delay getting away for Maini due to traffic passing the ART pit box allowed Câmara to emerge ahead as they rejoined the circuit in fourth and fifth positions.

The safety car was withdrawn, and the race distance was now running to time, with 23 minutes remaining. Duerksen got a great restart to put a buffer between himself and Herta. Beganovic was on the move and rounded Maini at the first corner to move into fifth position. Noel León then made a dive to the inside at Turn 17 to take sixth from Maini, and Minì followed through for seventh.

Behind them, contact between Nico Varrone and Stenshorne left the Norwegian out of the race, bringing out the safety car once more. The Van Amersfoort Racing driver was later handed a 10-second time penalty for the collision. Duerksen was in for his mandatory stop along with Herta and Bennett, promoting Câmara into the race lead ahead of Beganovic and León in the top three.

The safety car was back in with 16 minutes to go. Câmara retained the lead but with close company from his fellow Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member. In the slipstream into Turn 11, Beganovic forced an error from Câmara who ran wide, but the Brazilian was just able to keep the DAMS driver behind. Minì then put a bold dive on León into Turn 16 ahead of the back straight, catching León by surprise to take third just before a virtual safety car was deployed with 12 minutes to run, which was then converted into a full safety car interlude.

Racing resumed with five minutes to go and Câmara led the pack with the top four covered by two seconds. The track was drying rapidly with all drivers sliding around on overheating wet tires, as Beganovic kept the pressure on the Invicta driver ahead. That opened up a chance into Turn 17 with just over a minute to go, but both drivers ran off the circuit. It was the Swede that got back onto track quicker, and he took the lead heading to Turn 19.

Câmara tried an immediate dive back past into Turn 1 but ran off the circuit, and their fighting allowed Minì to join in. The MP driver took second place as the Brazilian rejoined the track. Minì then forced a similar error from Beganovic into Turn 11, and the pair were side-by-side through Turns 13, 14 and 15, with the DAMS cutting across the chicane and emerging ahead. Beganovic then ran wide at Turn 17 and that opened the door for Minì to take the lead going onto the final lap.

Despite the pressure from behind, the Alpine junior kept his cool and took his first F2 victory ahead of Beganovic and Câmara, who rounded out the podium in second and third places respectively. León wound up fourth for Campos ahead of Maini, Ritomo Miyata, Mari Boya, Herta, Sebastián Montoya and Duerksen in 10th.

“First win in F2 and first win in the Feature Race. Very happy with it – it was a chaotic race," said Minì. "The first thing was trying to survive and stay on track, avoid any crashes and mistakes. I didn’t have great pace at the beginning, so I thought I would try staying there.

"In the second stint I had much more pace, started saving at the beginning and then there was a lot of fighting going on at the front, took advantage of it and had a good fight with Dino. With some clean laps, I managed to take the win.”

Tsolov remains a the top of the F2 championship standings but Gabriele Minì surged up to second with his victory, 35 points to 34. Câmara is third, level on points with the Italian, with van Hoepen fourth on 26 points and Miyata fifth with 22.

Next up the series heads to Montreal for the first ever Formula 2 race in Canada around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, May 22-24.

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