The British driver produced a masterful Sunday performance to claim fourth place at the finish line thanks to his outstanding management of the softest tyre compound. Meanwhile, the “Bulgarian Lion” was the revelation of the weekend on his category debut, running in podium positions until the final lap of Saturday’s race and scoring points again on Sunday
It was a positive FIA Formula 2 meeting for Campos Racing at the Lusail International Circuit, host of the penultimate round of the current season. Both Red Bull Junior Team drivers, Arvid Lindblad and Nikola Tsolov, secured an excellent haul of points in Qatar. Lindblad delivered an outstanding drive on Sunday, showing tyre management worthy of a seasoned veteran and fully capitalising on the strategy defined alongside the Campos Racing engineers. Tsolov, on his first appearance in the category, came within touching distance of a podium finish on Saturday, running third until the very last lap. A bittersweet ending—but the Bulgarian redeemed himself with a display of pure talent on Sunday.
In Friday’s free practice, where drivers began cleaning the sand off the asphalt amid temperatures approaching 40ºC, both Lindblad and Tsolov completed twenty laps each, setting best times of 1m39.929s and 1m40.087s respectively. Later in the evening came qualifying. Lindblad broke into the top ten on his first set of tyres, while Tsolov initially placed 15th. However, in the closing stages it was the Bulgarian who made the biggest leap, climbing to seventh thanks to a 1m36.764s lap. Lindblad, unable to find extra time in the final run, finished with a best of 1m37.317s, placing him 17th and setting up a challenging weekend on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
Saturday’s sprint race, held at dusk with track temperatures around 27ºC, required careful management of the hard compound over the 23 laps. With the top ten reversed, Tsolov lined up fourth. When the lights went out, he handled the tricky F2 clutch to perfection and climbed to third, slotting in behind Joshua Dürksen and Richard Verschoor. Lindblad also gained places on the opening lap, finishing it in 14th. Tsolov kept close to Verschoor in the early laps while holding off Rafael Villagómez behind him. Mid-race, with Verschoor pulling away after overtaking Dürksen, Tsolov remained a solid third right on the Paraguayan’s tail. On lap 14 the safety car was deployed, prompting several drivers—including Lindblad—to pit for soft tyres in an attempt to gain late positions. The race resumed three laps later, only for another safety car to appear four laps from the end after Cian Shields spun. The final result would therefore be decided by a one-lap sprint. At the restart, Tsolov could not prevent Villagómez from catching the slipstream and attacking on the inside. After running side by side through several corners, Tsolov ran slightly wide, losing several positions and taking the chequered flag in tenth. Nonetheless, the “Bulgarian Lion” had already announced his potential. Lindblad, after his pit stop, finished 18th.
Sunday brought the longer feature race, with slightly higher but steadily dropping temperatures and 32 laps ahead. Tsolov, like most front-running drivers, opted for soft tyres, while Lindblad chose the hard compound for the alternate strategy. When the lights went out, Tsolov gained another position—this time at the expense of Sebastián Montoya—and moved up to sixth. Lindblad, despite being on the less competitive tyre early on, recovered three positions on the opening lap. Knowing the race would be decided in the long run, Tsolov avoided over-pushing his tyres before pitting on lap seven. As the soft-tyre runners boxed, Lindblad climbed the order and by lap nine was up to second, six seconds behind Dino Beganovic and with a comfortable buffer to those behind. His goal was to extend his stint as much as possible, maintaining strong pace while waiting for a potential late safety car. The plan unfolded perfectly when Oliver Goethe stopped on track on lap 15, triggering the safety car. While the remaining drivers who had not pitted stayed out, Lindblad and Campos Racing made the bold call to pit for soft tyres despite more than twelve laps remaining. Would it work? The answer was yes. While others dropped back after their pit stops, Lindblad maintained excellent pace throughout the stint and crossed the finish line in fourth, narrowly missing the podium. Tsolov, despite receiving a five-second “unsafe release” penalty due to congestion in the pit lane, secured seventh place at the flag.
After the thirteenth round of the season, Lindblad strengthens his hold on sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship with 121 points, while Tsolov opens his account with six points courtesy of Sunday’s result. In the Teams’ standings, Campos Racing remains third with 239 points, significantly closing the gap to second place.
Everything now comes down to next weekend, with the final two races of the season at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing Driver in FIA Formula 2): “It wasn’t a great weekend overall until Sunday, as we faced a few problems earlier on, but I’m really grateful to the team for helping turn things around. I’m very happy with the recovery we managed. When the Safety Car came out, I honestly wasn’t sure how things would unfold, but the team made a great strategic call. I focused on managing the tyres as best as I could, and I think we did a really solid job on that front. I’m pleased with the final result and very thankful for all the hard work the team put in throughout the weekend. Now I’m looking forward to finishing the season strongly in Abu Dhabi.”
Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing Driver in FIA Formula 2): “It was a very positive weekend overall, especially considering it was my first time both with the car and at this circuit. Free Practice was quite tough at the beginning — I had a lot to learn and didn’t really know what to expect from the package — but heading into qualifying with the soft tyre I immediately felt more comfortable. The car was more in the window, and even though everything was still quite new, I managed to put together strong sectors and hooked up a good final lap to secure P7. That was exactly the kind of top-ten result I was aiming for. The Sprint Race was another big learning step. Procedures and the race start were new to me, but I was happy with how I handled them. I managed to fight into podium places early on and stayed there for most of the race. Unfortunately, I overheated the brakes a bit during the Safety Car, so on the final restart they weren’t working properly and that cost me a better result. Still, running in the top positions gave me a lot of confidence heading into Sunday. In the Feature Race I had a strong launch from seventh and felt good straight away. The soft tyres degraded quickly, but we reacted with an early stop and the hard-tyre stint was really strong. Our pace was consistent throughout, and the pit stop itself was excellent — the second fastest overall. Taking everything into account, especially the fact that we struggled with the car at the start of the weekend, there were a huge amount of positives to take. I learned a lot, gained valuable experience, and now I’m really looking forward to Abu Dhabi to apply everything and keep improving.”
