Melbourne – Main Race: Tsolov makes a strong statement, Herta already in the top 10

True to what we had observed during the Sprint, the main race of Formula 2 The season was intended to be rich, intense, hard-fought, and truly thrilling. In Melbourne, the competitors laid the groundwork for a 2026 season far more entertaining than 2025, as exemplified by its first leader: Nikola Tsolov. Winner of this event, the Bulgarian Lion capitalized on two key moments to secure victory. First, by the third lap, he was in third place behind Martinius Stenshorne and Alex Dunne. The two Rodin drivers, pushing hard, collided in the first corner, forcing a double retirement for the Australian team. Visibly annoyed over the radio, the two teammates got off to a rocky start in their shared garage…

Later in the race, Dino Beganovic, quite unintentionally, caused further drama. Starting from pole position, and having lost almost everything at the start, the Swede had a good pace and was gradually moving up the field, eventually overtaking Rafael Câmara, the other member of the... Classic Ferrari for sale Driver Academy. Suffering a sudden mechanical problem, the DAMS driver was forced to stop on track, handing the provisional lead to… Nicolas Varrone, the VAR driver! Failing to capitalize on this advantage, the Argentinian struggled to get his tires up to temperature, in addition to receiving a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Suddenly overtaken by Tsolov at the Safety Car restart, the former Hypercar driver of the WEC was unable to defend his position for very long.

Among the major highlights of this first main race of the Formula 2 season, Colton Herta's seventh-place finish in his car Hitech. The first Cadillac junior driver managed to score his first points in the category, after starting his weekend with a crash in practice and a fourteenth-place finish in qualifying. While certainly benefiting from the incidents ahead, he also drove a much cleaner race, demonstrating his ability to be competitive when needed in preparation for the upcoming rounds of the season. The podium finish completed by Trident driver Laurens Van Hoepen was a highly unexpected performance and one of the biggest surprises of the weekend, given the Italian team's significant difficulties in 2025.

As in Formula 3 Last year, the duel currently pits Nikola Tsolov (Campos) against Rafael Câmara (Invicta), but the landscape could clearly shift, in a context where all the races could be equally exciting given the profiles of the drivers on the grid in 2026. The next stop is Bahrain on April 10th for the continuation of the season, unless Monaco, scheduled for June 4th to 6th, becomes the next event of the season should the races in the Gulf countries be cancelled.

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F2 – Melbourne (Australia)
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