Formula 2 report: Nikola Tsolov snatches victory from Rafael Camara in Monaco

Camara did brilliantly to resist early pressure from Tsolov and back up the pack to prevent his rivals from stealing a march in the pitstop phase. However, several drivers then encountered issues getting the super-soft tyres up to temperature, and this is where his race came undone.

Out of the pits, Camara was so slow it looked like his crew hadn’t bolted a wheel on properly. But it turned out he was just struggling to get the tyres in the window—and when Tsolov arrived alongside at turn one, he locked up and ran straight off. 

With just a handful of laps to go, the young Bulgarian inherited the lead from a late-pitting Kush Maini and held on to take victory, his first in a feature race since the opening round in Australia. After the checkered flag, he said it felt like redemption after a few tough weekends. 

Tsolov said: "In Miami, I felt like I was going to be strong in the wet on Sunday because it's usually my strength, but unfortunately, I couldn't even try it. Then in Canada, it was just a messy weekend. 

“I think we had so much pace there, and it was just a big missed opportunity, but I'm glad to see we're fighting for the feature race wins every weekend, so for me, that's important, and we can build on consistency from now on because, to be honest, that was my goal coming into this weekend. I wasn't really necessarily aiming for the win.”

Sunday’s feature race was a slow burner, but it was well worth the wait. While Camara survived some wheelspin to retain the lead into T1, he looked under pressure from Tsolov for much of the race. Championship leader Gabriele Mini also kept P3 off the line, defending vs. Dino Beganovic, as everyone filed through.

Oliver Goethe was then squeezed against the barrier by Ritomo Miyata, sending him into the pits for an early stop. He was soon joined by Sebastian Montoya and Laurens van Hoepen, as the soft-tyre runners all pitted at the first opportunity—putting them out of sync. 

At the front, Camara and Tsolov were joined by Alex Dunne, Beganovic, and Mini, making it an all-Formula 1 junior front five. With Dunne starting to back everyone up from P3, Mini pulled the pin, pitting down into P16.

A slow stop effectively dropped him into the lower end of the top ten, as he lost places to Roman Bilinski, Noel Leon, and a charging Montoya. 

Early stoppers were rewarded with a “warm-up advantage” as late stoppers struggled. Martinius Stenshrone fought his way up to P5, Goethe pressured van Hoepen, and Tsolov snatched the win. Thanks to Camara's incident, Miyata was able to pit under the VSC and hold onto P6, but Tsolov was the biggest beneficiary, closing the gap at the top of the standings to just one point. 

The Monaco sprint had an entirely different dynamic to the feature race. Pole sitter Noel Leon led comfortably off the line, Dunne ran scruffily across the inside of Saine-Devote, and Bilinski did very well not to run into anyone after suffering a lockup. 

The race then settled into a rhythm, but it wasn’t without incident. Goethe clashed with Miyata at the hairpin, dropping him to the back of the field. As drivers began to manage tyres, many struggled to get the anchors out at T1. Bilinksi ran across to block Mini taking P2, and van Hoepen helped himself to two places, earning a 10-second penalty. 

From then onwards, Alex Brundle quipped that we were watching a “rolling qualifying session.” He wasn’t far wrong; the likes of Tsolov took major liberties backing into P11 to make room for a hot lap and gain a point for the fastest time.

Later on, Mari Boya overtook van Hoepen at Mirabeau and came home P14, Miyata grabbed P11 from Inthraphuvasak, but it was Leon who coasted home for back-to-back sprint victories. 

Leon explained: “Yeah, for me the main thing was to get a good start. I know Roman was going to attack me at the beginning so the first two laps were important to create the gap and build the temperature into the tyres nicely because it was very warm.

“So degradation was a bit… and yeah after that I didn't want to risk it for a fastest lap,” he added. “Just stay on the pace and the whole race went like that, and the car felt pretty good. At the end, I was a bit worried about lapped cars because I started to catch them but luckily everybody got out of the way and I have the race win.” (Quotes by Formula 2).