Beganovic dominates Madrid F2 feature

Dino Beganovic was in a league of his own in Madrid, leading every lap to win Sunday’s FIA Formula 2 Feature Race. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver converted pole into a 7.3s victory over Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne, while Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata followed up his Sprint Race success with another podium in third.

It was a great start from pole for Beganovic, while Dunne retained P2 ahead of Rafael Câmara, despite locking up into Turn 1. Behind them, Nikola Tsolov, who was the lead driver to start on the hard compound tire, was sitting in fifth but coming under pressure from Roman Bilinski.

The safety car was signaled with Kush Maini in the barrier at Turn 18 after a collision with Cian Shields. The AIX Racing driver was given a 10-second time penalty for his part in the incident. Racing resumed on lap 7 with Trident bringing Laurens van Hoepen into the pit lane from P8. Mari Boya and Van Amersfoort Racing duo Nico Varrone and Rafael Villagómez also came in for their mandatory stop.

Noel León then got past Bilinski for P6 at Turn 1, while Gabriele Minì dived to the inside of teammate Oliver Goethe for ninth at Turn 13. The Italian attempted the same move on Miyata on lap 10 but ran too deep, allowing the Hitech driver to retain eighth.

At the end of the next lap, León was the first of the front runners to come into the pit lane. He put on the hard tire and lost out to Boya, who was flying on the softs, at the exit. The Mexican driver then went side-by-side with John Bennett through the banked La Monumental turn but kept the position.

Câmara was next to come in and changed to the hard tire, but Boya was flying on the softs and overtook the Invicta Racing driver at Turn 13. Stenshorne and Tsolov were in from P4 and P5 on lap 14, and while the Rodin driver stayed ahead, the Bulgarian lost out to Boya, although he was able to fire up his soft tires to overcut Câmara.

Oliver Goethe was next to pit from P8 and came out right in front of Boya and Tsolov, just as they were fighting for position. As they went three-wide into Turn 5, the Campos driver ran off track, but as he filtered out, he lost the place to Câmara. Boya then made his way past the MP driver at La Monumental, with Câmara now sizing up a move on Goethe.

The two went side by side through Turn 1 at the start of lap 18 but Goethe wound up in the barrier at the exit of Turn 2. This brought out the safety car while Câmara was given a 10-second time penalty. At the same time, Bennett pulled over to the side of the road with an issue with the marshals also having to clear his car.

This stoppage allowed the drivers who had not pitted to come in for their mandatory stop, with Beganovic, Dunne, Miyata, Emerson Fittipaldi, Joshua Duerksen and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak all gaining an advantage and making up the top six positions ahead of Stenshorne. Racing resumed on lap 22 of 32 as Beganovic started to pull away from Dunne. Minì made a move past Stenshorne for seventh, once again at his favored Turn 15.

Câmara was keen to get a move on and went past Boya with the help of DRS into Turn 5, while Tsolov followed him through on the next lap. The race was now running to time and with just under seven minutes, Dunne brought the gap to Beganovic down to one second, but the Swede responded with the fastest lap to extend the lead to 2.2s.

Further behind them, Fittipaldi was holding on to P4 as Duerksen put him under pressure. The Paraguayan tried a move at Turn 15, but the AIX driver held on. Tsolov then lost P10 to Bilinski, with the DAMS driver using the DRS to get ahead into Turn 5.

Duerksen’s pressure on Fittipaldi finally told with Invicta making a neat move on the brakes into Turn 13. Tsolov’s day was going from bad to worse as he lost more places to Boya, León, van Hoepen and Sebastian Montoya all overtaking him on the penultimate lap.

But out in front, Beganovic was in supreme form, winning for the first time this season. Dunne was second ahead of Miyata, with Duerksen in P4. Fittipaldi held on to fifth ahead of Inthraphuvasak, Minì and Stenshorne. Câmara’s penalty dropped him to P10 with Bilinski in ninth.

America's Colton Herta once again sat out the race, as the Hitech driver continued to suffer ill-effects from his heavy crash in qualifying on Friday.

“Winners in Madrid, it feels amazing,” said Beganovic. “From pole position, a great weekend, very good pace. I want to thank the team for the amazing car all weekend, especially the bounce back from Monza. Super happy with this and now we look forward to Baku.”

Tsolov continues to lead the way in the drvers' championship on 177 points, with Câmara seven points behind in second. Minì is third on 153 points, with Dunne on 139 in fourth and León fifth on 119.

Next up for F2 is a trip to Baku for Round 12 of the season from Sept. 24-26.

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