Dino Beganovic delivered an absolute masterclass on the streets of Baku, securing back-to-back victories in the FIA Formula 2 sprint race with DAMS Lucas Oil. It was a stunning run from the Swede, who mastered the chaos of the Azerbaijani circuit to take his second consecutive Baku sprint win.
Behind the winner, Laurens van Hoepen brought his TRIDENT machine home in second place, while Alexander Dunne put on an incredible charge for Rodin Motorsport. Dunne carved through the field, gaining seven positions to claim the final step of the podium in third.
The drama started instantly when polesitter Nikola Tsolov covered off van Hoepen into Turn 1, allowing Beganovic to slip past the Dutchman for second at the opening corner. Chaos immediately struck behind them as Rafael Câmara locked up and slammed into the back of Mari Boya at Turn 2, putting the Spaniard hard into the wall and out of the race. This triggered an early Safety Car to recover the PREMA Racing car, and Câmara was later slapped with a 10-second time penalty for causing the crash.
Racing resumed on Lap 4 with drivers lunging everywhere. Alexander Dunne made a brilliant, opportunistic dive to the inside of Kush Maini and Noel León at Turn 3 to grab two positions at once. Up front, Beganovic used the slipstream to snatch the lead from Tsolov into the first corner on Lap 6. As the race unfolded, Câmara ran deep at Turn 16 on Lap 8 and skimmed his plank along the exit kerb, dropping behind Dunne and falling under pressure from Sebastián Montoya.
Torsions snapped on Lap 10 when Tsolov suffered an oversteer moment at Turn 16, handing second to van Hoepen and letting Dunne breathe right down the rear wing of the Campos driver. Stenshorne also carved his way forward, passing León for seventh on Lap 12 before devouring Tsolov down the main straight later in the race. With Tsolov reporting his rear tyres were completely gone, Dunne easily sliced through at Turn 1 on Lap 13, and Câmara compounded the misery for the Bulgarian by grabbing fourth on the run to Turn 4.
A late-race twist arrived on Lap 18 when Joshua Duerksen found the barriers at Turn 1, beaching his machine and forcing a second Safety Car deployment. That gave Câmara the chance to dive into the pits to serve his time penalty and switch to Supersoft tyres, dropping all the way down to 18th and handing the final point back to Montoya. When the green flag waved for a one-lap sprint to the checkered flag on Lap 20, Beganovic nailed his restart while his teammate Roman Bilinski made an aggressive lunge on Maini at Turn 5 to take sixth.
Nobody had an answer for Beganovic as he crossed the line to seal consecutive Baku sprint victories. Van Hoepen and Dunne rounded out the podium, followed by Stenshorne in fourth, Tsolov in fifth, and Bilinski in sixth. Montoya and Maini rounded out the points-paying positions in seventh and eighth.
"Victory in the Sprint here in Baku. It's very good to get back-to-back wins even if it's a Sprint Race. Good race overall, had a good start, got past Nikola and I think our pace was very strong. Looking forward to the race later today and tomorrow as well," said Dino Beganovic.
In the Drivers' Championship, Tsolov leads the way on 181 points, with Câmara sitting second on 170. Gabriele Minì holds third with 153 points, Dunne jumps to 146 in fourth, and León rounds out the top five with 119 points. Over in the Teams' Standings, Campos Racing commands the top spot with 300 points, ahead of Invicta Racing on 260 and Rodin Motorsport with 221. MP Motorsport sits fourth on 190 points, and ART Grand Prix holds fifth with 160.
The action in Baku is far from over, with the first Feature Race scheduled for 14:00 local time, where Dunne will line up on an all-Rodin Motorsport front row.
