Nikola Tsolov Takes Victory At Spielberg
- therookiereporters
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
A weekend of action, breakthroughs and first-time winners in Spielberg. Here is everything you need to know!
The Track
The track features a high-speed, 4.326 km layout with only 10 corners - 7 right and 3 left - and with the circuit being roughly 75% driven flat out, qualifying proved to be a major contributor throughout the weekend.
Day 1
On Friday the one and only free practice took place, here we saw drivers like Oliver Goethe, Rafa Câmara and Nikola Tsolov being consistent with their quick lap times, even after a short stoppage due to a red flag triggered by Cian Shields.
Throughout the practice session, many drivers seemed to struggle with their cars causing a lot of them to run wide at turns like turn 4 and the final 2 corners turn 9 and turn 10.
At the end the top 10 looked like this:
1. Oliver Goethe
2. Nikola Tsolov
3. Alex Dunne
4. Noel León
5. Rafa Câmara
6. Gabriele Mini
7. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
8. Rafael Villagómez
9. Colton Herta
10. Kush Maini
Between the Formula 2 sessions, The Swedish DAMS Lucas Oil driver, Dino Beganovic was the only current F2 driver to participate in Formula 1's FP1, lining up alongside former F2 drivers Paul Aron, Luke Browning and Jak Crawford.
A few hours later that day came the qualifying session that determined the starting grid for the Sunday feature race. The top 10 from this qualifying session are reversed to form the front for the Saturday sprint race.
The grid was quick to head out and set their first representative lap times, with León going fastest at 1:16.283.
As seen in the practice session, drivers continued to struggle to keep it on track and with five minutes remaining León had reclaimed provisional pole for the Feature Race on Sunday after Câmara briefly led the session.
With just one minute left of the session, León appeared confident that his 1:15.544 lap time would be enough for pole, celebrating with his crew, as the remaining drivers completed their last flying laps.
No other driver seemed to be able to take pole from the Mexican driver and at the end of the session, León could comfortably take P1 for the first time in F2 history.
The top 10:
1. Noel León
2. Alex Dunne
3. Nikola Tsolov
4. Gabriele Mini
5. Rafa Câmara
6. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
7. Oliver Goethe
8. Rafael Villagómez
9. John Bennett
10. Sebastian Montoya
Day 2
On Saturday came the Sprint race and with the top 10 fromt he qualifying session being reversed the top 5 in the starting grid for the sprint:
1. Sebastian Montoya
2. John Bennett
3. Rafael Villagómez
4. Oliver Goethe
5. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
Both PREMA Racing's Sebastian Montoya and Trident's John Bennett were aiming for their maiden Formula 2 victory ahead of the Sprint Race and as the five lights went out at 14:55 BST, Bennett’s chances looked stronger as he took the lead into turn 1.
Their fight for the lead briefly stopped due to a safety car being deployed because of a clash between a few drivers like Tsolov, Câmara and Inthraphuvasak, but already on lap 4 we were racing again.
After laps of fighting for the lead, Montoya could finally take P1 on lap 8, which he defended well and therefore held onto it long into the race.
The race was yet again interrupted, this time due to Herta coming to a stop and triggering a yellow flag for a short time.
Further down the order, Tsolov showed a lot of pace overtaking Mari Boya for P10 and then catching up to his Campos teammate, Noel León and eventually overtaking as well, putting him in P9.
By the final lap, Montoya was still leading but under pressure from Bennett. Into Turn 6, the British driver looked set to take the lead, leaving Montoya now trying to hold onto P2 as Villagómez also closed in.
At the end John Bennet could finally take his maiden win in the F2 Championship, with Sebastian Montoya in P2 and Rafael Villagómez just 0.138 behind in P3.
The top 10:
1. John Bennett
2. Sebastian Montoya
3. Rafael Villagómez
4. Alex Dunne
5. Gabriele Mini
6. Roman Bilinski
7. Kush Maini
8. Nikola Tsolov
9. Rafa Câmara
10. Noel León
Day 3
June 28th marked the final day of Formula 2’s race weekend in Spielberg, with the feature race taking place.
The starting grid, set by Friday's qualifying session, saw León on pole ahead of Dunne starting P2, Tsolov in P3, the championship leader Mini in P4 and Câmara in P5 rounding out the top 5.
Into turn 1 the pole sitter, León was leading his teammate, Tsolov with the two alpine juniors, Dunne and Mini just behind.
A brief yellow flag came out as one of the contenders for yesterday’s sprint race, Montoya went off with Villagómez.
By lap 9 and 10 of the 40 laps feature race, the different strategies came into play as some went for the early stop and others stayed out. Among those who pitted was Tsolov, who had a slow stop, but ended up in front of Dunne who also pitted.
By lap 26, the then race leader, Goethe, still hadn’t pitted and as Boya came to a stop due to a technical failure triggering a virtual safety, Goethe still stayed out, potentially hoping for a safety car.
Finally on Lap 30 of 40, the German driver Goethe comes into the pits to take his mandatory pit stop and comes out in 10th on super soft tyres.
6 laps later, having made the early pit stop, Tsolov was now the race leader and Goethe clearly finding pace in his super soft tyres, were clearing car after car and putting him into 3rd place having started from 7th.
At the end the Red Bull Junior, Tsolov, could take his 4th win in his impressive rookie campaign, finishing roughly for seconds ahead the championship leader, Mini who was followed up by MP Motorsport’s Goethe making this his maiden podium.
The top 10:
1. Nikola Tsolov
2. Gabriele Mini
3. Oliver Goethe
4. Rafa Câmara
5. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
6. Alex Dunne
7. Noel León
8. Laurens van Hoepen
9. Joshua Dürksen
10. Roman Bilinski
Winning the feature race puts Tsolov in an even better position for the championship as he is now only 2 points behind Mini and getting further away from Câmara in third.
Up next is Silverstone, where Formula 2 returns from the 3rd of July till the 5th of July.
Article written by Laura Friis
