Finlay McSporran
Published: 16:54 25 July 2026
The Alpine backed driver reduces the deficit to just 16 points at the top of the standings.
Race Report
Mini started second for the sprint, and remained there as pole-sitter Sebastian Montoya held the lead on the opening lap.
Championship leader Nikola Tsolov started fourth, but moved up to third at the start, behind his rival Mini to the pressure on.
The Italian, who came into this weekend second in the standings, needed to get passed Montoya if he was to make a real dent in Tsolov’s lead in the standings.
He kept within DRS range during the opening laps, having a look round the outside on lap eight, but there was just no way through.
Until, on lap 17 of 28, he was close enough to get alongside Montoya into the first corner. The Columbian had the inside line, but locked up, allowing Mini to undercut him and take the race lead.
Next in line was Nikola Tsolov. The Bulgarian threatened an overtake on lap 18 with an ambitious lunge, one that would have made Montoya’s father (Juan Pablo) proud. However, he couldn’t get close enough.
That didn’t seem to put him off however, and he sent it once more into turn one on lap 21.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite replicate a Montoya-esque overtake. He certainly broke late enough to get alongside the Prema, but couldn’t slow down in time.
Tsolov crashed into the side of Montoya, triggering a virtual safety car which lasted until lap 23.
That gave Mini five laps to maintain his lead, which he did, bringing the car home for his second win this season.
Dino Beganovic and Laurens Van Hoepen joined him on the podium with second and third respectively.
The driver third in the standings, Rafael Camara, finished fourth in the end. The Brazilian starts tomorrow’s feature race from second on the grid with a great chance to further eat into Tsolov’s lead.
And speaking of Tsolov… the Bulgarian received a post-race penalty for his incident with Montoya. The Redbull junior was handed a five-place grid drop for tomorrow’s race, leaving him 12th on the grid, behind both of his rivals with a lot of work to do.
Sprint race classification:
| Position | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | |
| 2. | Dino Beganovic | Dams | +3.7 |
| 3. | Laurens Van Hoepen | Trident | +4.8 |
| 4. | Rafa Camara | Invicta | +7.0 |
| 5. | Kush Maini | ART | +12.8 |
| 6. | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART | +15.6 |
| 7. | Joshua Duerksen | Invicta | +20.2. |
| 8. | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | +20.8 |
| 9. | Noel Leon | Campos | +21.1 |
| 10. | John Bennett | Trident | +21.2 |
| 11. | Nicolas Varrone | Van Amersfoort | +23.0 |
| 12. | Ollie Goethe | MP Motorsport | +24.4 |
| 13. | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech | +24.9 |
| 14. | Colton Herta | Hitech | +25.7 |
| 15. | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort | +31.4 |
| 16. | Cian Shields | AIX | +33.7 |
| 17. | Mari Boya | Prema | +34.6 |
| 18. | Roman Bilinski | Dams | +38.8 |
| 19. | Alex Dunne | Rodin | +39.1 |
| 20. | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX | +63.7 |
| 21. | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | DNF |
| 22. | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | DNF |
Tags:
Blog GP 
Leave a comment