A really strategic feature race for Formula 2, who also had his troublemakers. In the end, the top 2 stayed unchanged with Dino Beganovic leading from start to finish. The championship leaders faced a storm.
Only 21 cars took part in the feature race as Colton Herta, just like the sprint race, declared forfeit as he was feeling unwell. Different strategies were adopted, especially for the championship leader Nikola Tsolov who started on hard tyres when the others around him were on soft tyres. Dino Beganovic kept his first position as he had a better start than Alexander Dunne. Gabriele Minì went up three positions at the start. Rafael Câmara was really close behind Dunne and started to attack on lap 2.
Beginning of the issues
Kush Maini kept his form this weekend as he found himself into the wall again after a contact with Cian Shields, bringing the safety car. Tasanapol Inthrapuvasak pitted for soft on lap 4, so it was not counted as the mandatory stop and stalled when trying to go out. Dino Beganovic re-start before the last turn but Alexander Dunne remained really close behind him. Laurens Van Hoepen was the first one to pit, but Boya, Villagomez and Varrone followed him, all before the re-start.
Cian Shields took a 10-seconds penalty for his contact with Maini. Beganovic attacked and put Dunne out of the DRS zone. Noel León overtook Billinski and Miyata tried to do the same. Minì overtook his teammate Goethe for P9. The Italian tried to do the same on Miyata but locked his tyres, giving the space to the Japanese to overtake him again.
Crucial timing for the pitstops
Noel León was the first one to pit, but had an issue with a tyre and was stuck for a bit longer. Mari Boya remained in front. Rafael Câmara pitted and went out in front of Boya, but overtook him at the end of the lap. With fresher tyres, Tsolov struggled to keep his position on track but Câmara was too far to attack him. Oliver Goethe pitted and went out in front of Boya. Nikola Tsolov tried to overtake both of them but locked his tyres and lost three positions. Goethe and Câmara went wheel-to-wheel but the Brazilian put the German into the wall, creating a safety car. John Bennett found himself in the wall under the safety car.
Rafael Câmara took a 10-seconds penalty for his move on Goethe. Dino Beganovic made a really early re-start again. Gabriele Minì overtook Martinius Stenshorne for P7. Mari Boya lost three positions to Câmara, Tsolov and Billinski. Durksen was really close to Fittipaldi for multiple laps but didn’t find a way to overtake him. Roman Billinski overtook Tsolov for P10. With two laps remaining, Durksen finally managed to overtake Fittipaldi. Nikola Tsolov really struggled on his tyres and lost a lot of track position, giving an advantage to Câmara, still with his penalty. León took a 5-seconds penalty for track limit. Dino Beganovic wins with a 7.3 seconds margin, in front of Alexander Dunne and Ritomo Miyata.