Dino Beganovic won in the early hours of this Friday (25) the Sprint Race of the 12th round of the 2026 Formula 2 season, held on the street circuit laid out through the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan. The DAMS driver seized the lead on the sixth lap of the 21-lap race, repelled the advances of his rivals, and took the victory in the first of three races scheduled for the weekend.
The second place went to Laurens van Hoepen, a Trident driver who finished just one second behind Beganovic. The podium also featured Alexander Dunne, who started tenth with Rodin Motorsport and finished third. Martinius Stenshorne, in the other Rodin car, was fourth, followed by Nikola Tsolov, fifth for Campos Racing after starting from pole position.
Roman Bilinski, in the other DAMS car, crossed the line in sixth place, ahead of Sebastian Montoya, seventh with Prema. The points zone was completed by Kush Maini, eighth with ART Grand Prix. Colton Herta, for Hitech, and John Bennett, from Trident, closed the top-10 of the weekend’s short race.
The race featured Safety Car interventions. Right at the first lap, Mari Boya hit the wall with the Prema car after being struck by Rafael Câmara. The Brazilian from Invicta Racing was penalized by ten seconds for the incident. On lap 18, Joshua Durksen, Câmara’s teammate, crashed into the wall and triggered another neutralization of the race in the Azerbaijani capital.
Despite the first-lap incident, Câmara completed the race. After running in the top-five the entire time, trying to build a gap to place himself in the points zone, the Brazilian served the penalty in the pits but ended up losing time in a foreseen confusion ahead during the late restart, finishing only 16th. Emmo Fittipaldi, with an AIX Racing car, also pitted for tires during the race and finished 18th.
The championship standings continue to be led by Tsolov, with 181 points, ahead of Câmara on 170 in second. Gabriele Mini is third with 153, while Dunne sits fourth with 146. León is fifth with 119. Fittipaldi occupies 18th with 28 points.
Also on Friday, starting at 7:15, the first main race of the weekend will take place. The Formula 2 visit to Azerbaijan will be wrapped up on Saturday (26) with another main race, scheduled for 4:00.
