Dino Beganovic had an experience fuelled by constructive lessons in his first guest appearance in Germany’s ADAC Formula 4 championship this weekend at the Nürburgring.
The Swedish single-seater rookie got proceedings at the legendary Grand Prix venue off to a promising start in qualifying, taking third on the grid for Saturday’s opening race.
However, the youngest member of the Ferrari Driver Academy suffered contact on the opening lap when battling for second place, inflicting a damaged front wing that consequently caused him to retire.
“We came here to the German championship primarily to gain extra experience, and I have learned a lot this weekend,” says Dino Beganovic. “In the first race, I had a fantastic start and battled for P2 on the opening lap. Unfortunately, it got a little bit too crowded and one of the other guys blocked me quite hard and left me with nowhere to go. It knocked off my front wing, we got a technical flag, and had to pit and retire.”
In Race 2, Beganovic then stalled at the start, dropping him to the back of the field before regaining some of the lost ground to eventually finish 11th.
With the grid for Sunday’s Race 3 based on the results from the previous day, Beganovic had his work cut out in the final encounter of the weekend, although his lowly starting position (11th) did allow him to hone his race craft in several wheel-to-wheel battles on his way to P8.
“Stalling in Race 2 was my own error: I simply released the clutch a bit too aggressively, but you learn from your mistakes,” the Prema Powerteam rookie explains. “I would obviously have preferred if it didn’t happen, but at the same time it gave me an opportunity to run in the midfield pack and practice overtakes and race craft. While we didn’t achieve any results this weekend, I still take away a lot of lessons from here, and right now that is actually the most important thing.”
Next up for Dino Beganovic is a return to his main 2020 programme, the Italian F4 championship, for round two of that campaign at Imola on August 28-30.
RESULTS
ADAC Formula 4
Nürburgring (top five)
RACE 1 (download full results)
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1: Gabriele Minì (ITA), Prema Powerteam
2: Jonny Edgar (GBR), Van Amersfoort Racing
3: Elias Seppänen (FIN), US Racing
4: Victor Bernier (FRA), R-Ace GP
5: Francesco Pizzi (ITA), Van Amersfoort Racing
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DNF: Dino Beganovic (SWE), Prema Powerteam
RACE 2 (download full results)
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1: Jonny Edgar (GBR), Van Amersfoort Racing
2: Elias Seppänen (FIN), US Racing
3: Gabriele Minì (ITA), Prema Powerteam
4: Jak Crawford (USA), Van Amersfoort Racing
5: Tim Tramnitz (GER), US Racing
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11: Dino Beganovic (SWE), Prema Powerteam
RACE 3 (download full results)
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1: Joshua Dürksen (GER), Mücke Motorsport
2: Jak Crawford (USA), Van Amersfoort Racing
3: Gabriele Minì (ITA), Prema Powerteam
4: Elias Seppänen (FIN), US Racing
5: Jonny Edgar (GBR), Van Amersfoort Racing
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8: Dino Beganovic (SWE), Prema Powerteam
