Rafa Camara holds off Tsolov charge to win Barcelona F2 Feature Race
Rafa Camara converted a demanding, strategy-led Barcelona-Catalunya Feature Race into a breakthrough Formula 2 victory, resisting a late charge from Nikola Tsolov as Alex Dunne completed the podium.
The Invicta driver had started from pole but was forced to win the race the hard way after a slow launch handed Dunne the early lead. What followed was a contest shaped by tyre offsets, pit timing and late-race grip, with Camara recovering from a slow stop and slicing back through the field before taking control.
Dunne leads after Camara’s slow start
Camara arrived at the front of the grid looking to rebound from a difficult Monaco weekend, but his getaway immediately put him under pressure. Dunne swept into the lead at Turn 1, while Gabriele Mini lost ground after being trapped behind the slow-starting pole-sitter.
Ollie Goethe’s race ended almost before it began. After stalling on the grid, he failed to get out of the pit lane and stopped trackside, triggering the Safety Car. Dunne controlled the Lap 4 restart cleanly, with Camara tucked within half a second and Rafael Villagomez briefly holding third before Mini reclaimed the final podium place with a committed move through the opening corners.
Barcelona’s tyre demands quickly became central to the race. Villagomez reported fading soft tyres by Lap 8, while the timing of the mandatory stops began to define the leading battle. For more on how the weekend’s F2 action had already been shaped by strategy and execution, see our report as Kush Maini dominated the Barcelona F2 Sprint.
Camara goes long, then attacks
Dunne stopped first among the leaders and emerged ahead of Villagomez, while Mini also pitted and remained close. Camara stayed out, with Invicta attempting to build enough of an advantage to offset the later stop. The call was extended until Lap 22, but a slow front-left change cost him time and dropped him behind both Dunne and Mini.
Once his tyres were up to temperature, however, Camara’s pace transformed the race. He passed Dino Beganovic, dispatched Villagomez, closed rapidly on Mini and then used DRS to breeze past the Alpine junior on the start-finish straight. Dunne was next, and by Lap 29 the Invicta was on his gearbox. Camara moved inside on the main straight and reclaimed the lead decisively.
Tsolov’s late surge reshapes the podium
Tsolov, who had started on hard tyres, came alive late on softer rubber. He climbed to fourth by Lap 31, passed Mini at Turn 10 on Lap 33, then attacked Dunne with the same conviction two laps later. Dunne resisted firmly through the opening sequence, but Tsolov ultimately secured second.
Camara took the chequered flag for an important first F2 win, ahead of Tsolov and Dunne. Mini finished fourth, with Laurens Van Hoepen fifth. Beganovic, John Bennett, Noel Leon, Kush Maini and Roman Bilinski completed the points, while Tsolov moved into the championship lead just ahead of Mini.
Simone Scanu
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.