Dino Beganovic claimed victory at the first Formula 2 Feature race in Madrid. Alexander Dunne finished second, and Ritomo Miyata completed the podium. Before the race, Colton Herta and Hitech announced the driver’s withdrawal from the race.
Clean start from Beganovic
At the lights out, Dino Beganovic had a strong launch into Turn 1 and led the grid. Behind him, Rafael Câmara tried to put pressure on Alexander Dunne, but the Alpine Academy driver defended his second position.
Further back, Nikola Tsolov was chasing Martinius Stenshorne for fourth. Behind, Roman Bilinski put the championship leader under pressure, too. However, all action got interrupted after Kush Maini crashed and the safety car was called. Cian Shields received a penalty after making contact with Maini, which resulted in the incident.
The Feature race restarted on lap 7, and Beganovic managed to defend from Dunne, who stayed within touching distance. Behind, Noel León overtook Bilinski for sixth as Gabriele Mini made a move on Oliver Goethe for ninth.
Beganovic’s absolute control
As drivers started to pit around lap 13, Noel León and John Bennett went wheel to wheel on La Monumental. The Campos Racing driver defended P15 as Laurens van Hoepen joined the fight. Meanwhile, Câmara was called into the pits, as was Tsolov.
As it stood on lap 14, Tsolov was now in front of Câmara. At the front, Beganovic was still running on the hards and leading the race. On lap 17, Câmara overtook Tsolov, and they had slight contact. The Invicta Racing driver took off and started chasing Goethe and Mari Boya in front.
On an aggressive move, Câmara made contact with Goethe, and the MP Motorsport driver ended up against the wall, which triggered the second safety car. Câmara received a 10-second penalty for the collision.
The race restarted on lap 21 without further incidents. Beganovic kept a comfortable lead throughout the entirety of the Feature race. Further back, Câmara moved up to ninth after overtaking Mari Boya, who lost two more positions to Tsolov and Bilinski.
Ultimately, Beganovic drove a spectacular race and comfortably claimed victory ahead of Dunne and Ritomo Miyata. Meanwhile, with two minutes remaining, Tsolov fell to P14, and Joshua Dürksen overtook Emerson Fittipaldi for fourth.
