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Gabriele Minì described his recovery in the Spa-Francorchamps Feature Race as one of the best performances of his career after converting a difficult weekend and a first-lap incident into fifth place.
The MP Motorsport driver started from 14th and immediately found himself in trouble. A collision with Roman Bilinski at the first corner earned Minì a five-second time penalty and left him at the back of the field after he stalled. He was eventually able to restart the car following a switch-off and switch-on procedure, while a Safety Car helped him close the gap.
“To be honest, it was the messiest race ever,” Minì said. “I did a mega start, and then I got pushed on the grass, and I could not stop the car because I was on the grass with one tyre.”
Minì’s race changed after he stopped for Medium tyres. Soon after the pit stop, the Red Flags were shown following Laurens van Hoepen’s crash. The interruption allowed Minì to gain positions on drivers who still had to complete their mandatory stops after the restart.
That strategic swing put the Italian into the fight with the front runners. He crossed the line in sixth, but post-race penalties promoted him to fifth. The result also followed a series of aggressive but controlled overtakes as he worked his way forward.
“I then kept on overtaking and overtaking, and the overtakes were clean, very on the edge, I almost went off a few times,” he said. “But still, a very good one, very happy.”
The chaotic race is also covered in Rafa Câmara’s Spa Feature Race victory, which underlined how strongly the Safety Car, Red Flag and penalties shaped the final order.
Minì admitted that fourth place was within reach, with Alexander Dunne’s penalty ultimately not enough to move him further forward by more than a few tenths. Still, the ten points represented valuable damage limitation. Câmara won, Nikola Tsolov finished third and Dunne fourth, all three having started ahead of Minì.
“We were quite struggling a bit,” Minì said. “So it is what it is, but we still go home again with ten points.” He acknowledged losing ground in the championship but felt the weekend could have been worse.
Round 9 in Budapest is next. Minì is resisting predictions, instead focusing on extracting the maximum from the weekend. Despite describing his previous F2 experience there as trickier, he heads to the Hungaroring with confidence from his Spa recovery.
“The only thing you can do is to give your best and work as best as you can, and then you’ll see where you are after,” he added.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.