Nikola Tsolov finished fifth in the main race of the second round of the Formula 3 season in Bahrain. The Bulgarian drove on worn tires, but nevertheless gained three positions compared to his starting position and had the best pace among all pilots in the second half of the race, BTA reports.
Tsolov started from eighth position, and in the first lap he was very cautious. The Bulgarian tried to avoid any possible contact in the dense traffic and this cost him one position at the expense of the German Tim Tramnitz. The two drive for different teams, but are part of the same academy - that of Red Bull.
Gradually, however, the Bulgarian, who won the sprint race on Saturday, began to find his rhythm. First, the Campos Racing driver managed to overtake Spaniard Bruno del Pinto, and then Singaporean driver Christian Ho.
On the 13th lap, Tsolov also overtook Dane Noah Strömsted to break through to sixth place. The Bulgarian's pace continued to be excellent, but he found himself stuck tightly behind Austrian Charlie Wurz. The Bulgarian managed to deal with the Trident driver at the beginning of the 19th lap and moved to fifth place. In the meantime, however, Tim Tramnitz, who in the first half of the race was driving right in front of Tsolov, managed to move forward and even overtake Finn Tuuka Taponen for third position.
However, the gap between the Bulgarian and the Finn was about 1.5 seconds and was too big to close in the few remaining laps. In the last lap, the difference between the two was reduced to only three tenths of a second, but Tsolov did not have time to attack fourth place.
The winner was Brazilian Rafael Camara from Trident. He started from pole position and, with the exception of a few corners in the first lap, led the entire time. Thus, Camara duplicated his success from the main race in Australia in the first round and is a convincing leader in the championship. He finished the 22nd lap on the "Sahir" track with a huge lead over the second place Calum Voisin from Great Britain (Rodin Motorsport), with the difference between the two being 6.2 seconds. Third was Tim Tramnitz (MP Motorsport), who finished 7.8 seconds behind the winner. Taponen (ART Grand Prix) was fourth at 10.6 seconds, and Tsolov finished fifth at 11 seconds. The top 6 was completed by Noah Strömstedt (Trident), who was 14.1 seconds off the best time.
In the general standings after today's start, Nikola Tsolov is in fifth place with 23 points, but is only seven behind second-placed Tramnitz, who has 30. The leader with 56 points is Kamara. Third place is shared between Voisin and Strömstedt with 27 points each.