Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov wins thrilling F2 Sprint Race at Miami

After the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix, the F2 calendar was reorganised to avoid a three-month hiatus. For the first time ever, the championship races in North America, at Miami this weekend and Montreal in three weeks’ time.

As usual, the F2 Sprint grid was decided by reversing the Top 10 from Friday’s Qualifying, meaning Red Bull junior and Campos driver Nikola Tsolov lined up at the front of the order next to Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen.

Proceedings were slightly late to get underway on Saturday, with a ten-minute delay to the Formation Lap. Then, Feature Race polesitter Kush Maini, starting in P10, failed to get going in his ART, and was wheeled back to start from the pit lane.

When we did get underway, the start was feisty, but clean. Tsolov and Van Hoepen stayed at the front, but Oliver Goethe, who started in P3 fell back all the way out the points to P10 in the opening lap.

A four-way battle for the lead ensued after the opening four laps, with Alpine academy driver Alex Dunne lurking in P5, behind Nico Varrone and Joshua Durksen, respectively. Invicta's Durksen then made his move for P2, making a daring lunge on Van Hoepen at Turn 17 on Lap Five, but a poor exit onto the back straight on the next lap saw the Dutchman regain his place.

A big slide from Tsolov into Turn 16 looked like giving Van Hoepen a shot at P1, but the Trident driver stayed behind yet again by Lap 10. On Lap 13, Van Hoepen finally got the job done, taking P1 down the straight.

Clear of the rest of the field, Tsolov and Van Hoepen continued their fight for the lead, wary of the huge DRS advantage down the straights, as P1 yo-yoed between them with seven laps to go. Durksen fell back, while a charging Dunne took the final podium place, despite having a sniff at the battle for the lead.

Tsolov and Van Hoepen's fight went all the way to the end - the pair exchanged P1 on the final lap, before Campos' Tsolov retook the lead on the final straight, to become the first F2 winner in the US.

After just 45 minutes of practice, qualifying was completed on Friday. Ferrari academy driver Rafa Camara looked the most likely to secure Pole after the first flying runs, but it was ART’s Kush Maini that secured top spot, ahead of the Brazilian and Martinius Stenshorne. The Alpine junior will start on the front row on Sunday’s Feature Race.

However, for home favourite, Colton Herta, it was a difficult qualifying session - the Cadillac-backed Hitech driver made a number of mistakes throughout and will line up on the grid in P14 tomorrow.