The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy student was tackling the Baku street circuit for the first time, winning the Sprint Race on Saturday followed up by a third place in today’s Feature Race.

On his first visit to Azerbaijan for round 12 of the Formula 2 championship, Sweden’s Dino Beganovic was one of the stars on the very demanding Baku track. The 21 year old drove brilliantly to win the Sprint Race, before putting in another outstanding performance to finish third in today’s Feature Race. The win is the culmination of the progress made in this his first season in the category.

Satisfaction. “Obviously, I’m very, very happy to have taken my first win,” commented Dino. “It was down to a good start after which I controlled the race without making any mistakes in what was a tricky race. It wasn’t easy but I maintained concentration throughout the restarts. I’m happy because this is down to all the hard work we’ve put in as a team and I’d say our race pace spoke for itself. My goal in the Feature Race was to score as many points as possible and finishing on the podium rounds off a great weekend and demonstrates we are back where we want to be.” Thanks to this strong showing, Beganovic has moved up to eighth in the standings on 96 points. There’s a long break in the calendar now until racing resumes with the last two rounds on consecutive weekends, starting at Qatar’s Losail circuit on 29 November, followed by the season finale at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.

Sprint Race. Beganovic qualified ninth, the reverse grid thus putting him on the front row alongside Rafael Villagomez. When the lights went out, Dino got a great start to lead after turn 1. The Safety Car was required immediately for three laps during which Beganovic focused on the best strategy for the all-important restart. The long 2.2 kilometre straight means that the leader is in danger of attack from those behind who have the benefit of slipstreaming, but Dino defended well to keep the lead. On lap 9, the Safety Car returned and once again, the Swede managed the restart really well. After a few more laps, he built up a comfortable enough lead to go all the way to the chequered flag. 

Feature Race. Starting in the midfield in Baku is always risky with the first corner traditionally the scene of much chaos, with a high collision risk. Starting from ninth, Dino managed to thread his way through to gain one position. A Safety Car on lap 5 saw all the drivers take the opportunity to make the obligatory pit stop. As the race resumed, Beganovic was seventh and went on a charge that took him past Pepe Marti and Gabriele Mini to take fourth place. When championship leader, Leonardo Fornaroli was later given a 10 second penalty, that promoted Dino to third, thus seeing him make his second appearance on the Baku podium in the space of two days.