Nikola Tsolov and Campos Racing complete heroic comeback to second place in Baku
Against all odds. That is how Campos Racing and its drivers Nikola Tsolov and Noel León negotiated FIA Formula 2’s visit to the Baku City Circuit, venue for what is, provisionally, the antepenultimate stage of the championship. When everything seemed to be going against them, the determination, hard work and effort of the entire Alzira-based outfit proved crucial in making the most of a challenging Azerbaijan Grand Prix. On the one hand, Nikola Tsolov remains firmly in title contention, while Noel León also continues to occupy a position of honour in the standings. On the other, Campos Racing retains the lead in the Teams’ Championship, with its rivals’ opportunities to close the gap becoming increasingly limited.
Thursday’s Free Practice session appeared to get off to a promising start for Tsolov, with the Red Bull Junior Team member setting the third-fastest time with a 1m56.821s lap. León, meanwhile, posted a personal best of 1m58.805s while exploring the limits of the track without making a mistake, a factor that could prove crucial with two qualifying sessions scheduled for later that afternoon.
The first session, which got underway later than originally scheduled due to inspections concerning the condition of a patch of asphalt at one of the corners, proved extremely challenging. The drivers headed onto the track with heavily fuelled cars for the two sessions. On his first attempt, León stopped the clock at 1m55.517s, putting him third and just one tenth of a second off pole position. At that stage, Tsolov was eighth with a 1m55.957s lap. Despite their efforts to improve those times, neither driver could better their respective benchmarks. León therefore remained third, while Tsolov finished tenth, securing pole position for the Sprint Race thanks to the reversed top-10 grid.
There was no time to relax before Q2. León immediately moved into the leading positions with a 1m54.477s lap. Tsolov was just two tenths slower, stopping the clock at 1m54.685s. As in the opening session, neither driver was able to improve during the closing stages, leaving León sixth and Tsolov eighth on the overall qualifying classification.
Friday began with the 21-lap Sprint Race scheduled for early morning, meaning track temperatures were considerably lower than on the previous day. With Tsolov on pole and León eighth on the reversed grid, the lights went out and the Bulgarian held the lead, while León gained one position to move up to seventh. However, the Safety Car was deployed after the opening lap following an incident. Racing resumed on lap four, with Tsolov leading Dino Beganovic and Laurens Van Hoepen, but the decisive factor of DRS soon swung the balance in favour of the Bulgarian’s pursuers. Beganovic was the first to get past, while Van Hoepen followed suit on lap 10 after Tsolov suffered a significant correction on corner exit that left him with no chance to defend.
To make matters even more difficult, both Campos Racing drivers began to experience rear-tyre issues, causing their pace to drop. A car going off track in the closing stages prompted a second Safety Car period, which ended with just one lap remaining. This proved costly for León, as Ritomo Miyata forced him against the wall, leaving both drivers out of the race. Tsolov held on to the finish to take fifth place and salvage some valuable points.
The first of Baku’s two feature races took place later that afternoon. Most drivers opted to start on the super-soft tyre before switching to the soft compound, and the two Campos Racing drivers followed the same strategy. León maintained third place at the start, while Tsolov made an intelligent getaway and gained two positions within the opening lap. With the leading group closely matched, the aim was to extend the opening stint as much as possible. However, Tsolov was the first of the front-runners to pit, stopping on lap six in an attempt to undercut the drivers ahead. Unfortunately, fortune was not on his side. On the way into the pit lane, he clipped the white line and was handed a five-second penalty by the stewards. Then, once in the pit box, an issue with the left-rear wheel gun delayed the tyre change, costing him a significant number of positions. León pitted one lap later, and fortunately for the Mexican everything proceeded normally.
A car stopped on track and triggered a Safety Car period on lap eight, which ended four laps later. However, the decisive incident came at the restart, when a chain reaction in the middle of the field eliminated as many as seven cars, including Tsolov, who could do nothing to avoid the incident after another car hit him from behind. With the track blocked, the red flags were shown for around half an hour before the race resumed behind the Safety Car. At the rolling restart, León was seventh, although several drivers had yet to make their mandatory pit stop. In the end, the race was brought to a conclusion on time rather than by the scheduled number of laps, with Campos Racing’s Mexican driver taking the chequered flag in fifth place. To compound matters, Tsolov’s retirement meant that his five-second penalty was converted into a three-place grid drop for Saturday’s race.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, the drivers, engineers and mechanics worked tirelessly to prepare the best possible package for the second feature race, a 29-lap encounter scheduled for Saturday morning. Would there be an opportunity for redemption and for all that hard work to finally be rewarded?
From a strategic point of view, there were no changes. Once again, most drivers opted for the super-soft compound in the opening stages, and the two Campos Racing representatives followed the same strategy. León made a superb start to pass Kush Maini and Mari Boya, immediately moving into the leading group. Tsolov faced a much more difficult task in the midfield and was unable to gain any positions. The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the opening lap, with racing resuming on lap three. Tsolov immediately took advantage of the restart to move ahead of Miyata. Further up the field, León also began putting Rafael Câmara under pressure while performing an important team role.
The first major strategic move of the race came on lap six, when Miyata stopped on track and, moments before the Virtual Safety Car was deployed, several drivers, including Alex Dunne from second place, pitted. A second VSC period followed just two laps later, prompting Martinius Stenshorne and León to make their stops. Tsolov remained on track, as did Câmara and Van Hoepen. The Bulgarian waited until lap 10 to pit, but the strategy proved to be the right one: thanks to the overcut, Tsolov rejoined the race in fifth place.
With blistering pace, Tsolov passed Van Hoepen at the end of the straight to move into fourth on lap 12. León was seventh at that stage, although he moved up to sixth by passing Maini. With clean air ahead and the changes made to the car since Friday clearly paying dividends, Tsolov even set the fastest lap of the race to secure the additional championship point. His next target was Stenshorne, and he steadily erased the Norwegian’s 3.5-second advantage. By lap 19, Tsolov was right behind him and completed the pass under braking for Turn 1. Câmara was now the next target, but second place was also within reach after Dunne was handed a five-second penalty for crossing the white line at pit-lane entry during his stop.
Tsolov was now just three seconds from the lead and effectively running second. As the race entered its final sprint, the Bulgarian closed right up to Câmara and crossed the finish line less than one second behind the Brazilian, while Dunne, who had finished first on the road, dropped behind after his penalty was applied. León finished the race in eighth.
Tsolov now sits second in the Drivers’ Championship with 200 points, just seven behind Câmara. León is sixth with 133 points. In the Teams’ Championship, Campos Racing retains the lead with 333 points, 36 clear of its nearest-rival.
The next round is scheduled to take place at the Lusail International Circuit on 28 and 29 November and is expected to be the penultimate round of the season. However, due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, all details surrounding the final two events, both Qatar and the following weekend’s meeting at Yas Marina Circuit, remain subject to confirmation.
Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing Driver in FIA Formula 2): “I’m really pleased with today’s result, but even more proud of what we achieved as a team. We’ve had a few tough rounds recently, and we were struggling for pace this weekend, but we never gave up. For me, the step forward we made today feels like more than a win. Coming from 11th on the grid to finish P2 shows how we’ve managed to overcome a lot of difficult moments together. The strategy worked out brilliantly. I initially thought staying out during the VSC periods might cost us time, but our pace on the Supersofts in the first stint was really strong. When the team told me over the radio that we were virtually P5, I realized we were right in the fight and just built on it from there. We had fantastic pace at the end to catch the leaders and secure P2. It’s a huge reward for all the hard work everyone in the team has put in.”
