Campos Racing’s Noel León delivered a composed, opportunistic drive to take his maiden FIA Formula 2 victory in a turbulent Montreal Sprint Race on 23 May 2026. The Mexican overcame an early shuffle, two Safety Cars and a late Virtual Safety Car at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, finishing several seconds clear. MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì and Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne completed the podium.
From pole, Minì launched cleanly to hold P1 into Turn 1, with León tucking into second. Joshua Duerksen made gains from fifth and lightly tagged the Campos at Turn 2 before slipping ahead into Turn 3, a move that later earned the Invicta Racing driver a five-second penalty.
With DRS enabled, León pressured Duerksen into the final chicane on Lap 3; Duerksen cut the chicane and León reclaimed P2. The pair traded places again at the same spot on Lap 4, allowing Minì to build a cushion of several seconds out front.
Further back, Nikola Tsolov lunged Nico Varrone at Turn 10 on Lap 6 for seventh. Having shadowed Duerksen for laps, León executed a switchback out of the last corner to retake second across the line on Lap 8.
Moments later, Turn 10 became the flashpoint. Tsolov’s attempted move on Stenshorne triggered contact that pitched the Rodin driver into John Bennett, spinning the TRIDENT car and bringing out the first Safety Car; the Bulgarian was subsequently given a 10-second penalty.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 14. Minì delayed his restart but León stayed glued to the MP car through Turn 1. Behind them, VAR’s Villagómez pounced at Turn 10 to grab third from Duerksen, who briefly took the spot back before cutting the final chicane and later conceding the position on Lap 16.
Stenshorne then dived past Duerksen at Turn 10 for fourth, and one lap later Tsolov also cleared the Invicta driver for fifth, completing the move into the final chicane. The drama at the hairpin continued on Lap 18 as Alexander Dunne tagged Duerksen into a spin, while up front León swept past Minì through the last corners to seize the lead. The Safety Car returned with Duerksen stranded, and Dunne received a 10-second penalty for the contact.
León nailed the second restart on Lap 22, bolting before the final chicane to open a gap. Despite learning of his penalty on the radio, Dunne overtook Tsolov for fifth at Turn 5. On Lap 24, Stenshorne drew alongside Villagómez into Turn 1 but ran wide and skipped Turn 2, rejoining behind his Rodin teammate; Villagómez’s race ended soon after when he clipped the Turn 4 wall, prompting a Virtual Safety Car.
The VSC ended on Lap 27 with León nearly four seconds clear of Minì. The Campos driver calmly managed the final tour to claim a comfortable first win in F2. Dunne used DRS to take P2 on the road, but his time penalty restored Minì to second, with Stenshorne classified third.
TRIDENT’s Laurens van Hoepen finished fourth, while Emerson Fittipaldi took fifth, marking his best finish in the Championship for AIX Racing. Dino Beganovic, Rafael Câmara and Roman Bilinski rounded out the points in sixth through eighth.
“Winners! Very good race and I’m very happy with the car, with the team and what an amazing job they’ve been doing. Just super happy with this first win.” said Noel León of Campos Racing.
In the Drivers’ standings, Minì moves into the lead on 42 points, six clear of Rafael Câmara. Nikola Tsolov sits third on 35, with León up to fourth on 32 and Laurens van Hoepen fifth on 31. Campos Racing head the Teams’ table on 67 points, ahead of MP Motorsport on 54 and Invicta Racing on 52, with Hitech and TRIDENT on 32 and 31 respectively.
Next up is the Feature Race, scheduled to start at 12:05 local time on Sunday in Montreal.
Source: fiaformula2.com