Austria

Nikola Tsolov mastered a strategy-defined Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring to win for Campos Racing, heading home championship leader Gabriele Minì and a charging Oliver Goethe in a 40-lap Spielberg thriller that hinged entirely on tyres and timing.

The race split into two strategies from the off. Tsolov, Minì, Alexander Dunne and Rafael Câmara — the championship's leading lights — pitted early (Tsolov ceding the lead to Minì around lap 8) and dropped into the pack, while long-runners Goethe and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak ran up front on older rubber, yet to stop. For lap after lap the contenders ran nose-to-tail in the midfield, trading blows: Dunne picked off Tsolov, then Tsolov fought back to retake the place on lap 25.

A Virtual Safety Car for Mari Boya, who pulled off the road between Turns 3 and 4, briefly bunched the field. When the long-runners finally took their mandatory stops, Tsolov re-inherited the race lead from Minì, with Dunne and Câmara next up.

The drive of the day belonged to Goethe. He pitted on lap 30 with his tyres finished, bolted on Supersofts and lit up the timing screens — a 1:18.384 nearly a second quicker than the leader — carving through the order: past John Bennett, past Joshua Duerksen, then rounding both Câmara and Dunne at Turn 4 to climb all the way to the podium. Behind him Câmara and Dunne scrapped hard, even making contact, while Inthraphuvasak mounted his own Supersoft recovery into the top five.

Tsolov took the flag 3.9s clear of Minì, with Goethe completing the podium. Câmara held off Inthraphuvasak for fourth, and Martinius Stenshorne passed Rodin teammate Dunne on the final lap for sixth, with Noel León, Laurens van Hoepen and Joshua Duerksen completing the points. In the championship Minì still leads on 90 points from Tsolov (81), Dunne (72) and Câmara (70). Formula 2 heads to Silverstone next.