Noel León has become a Formula 2 race winner on his fifth start in the series. The Campos driver took victory in the first ever F2 race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal, Canada, crossing the line 3.7 seconds ahead of MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì, with Rodin Motorsport’s Martinius Stenshorne rounding out the rostrum. Feeder Series heard from the top three after the race about how they navigated it and what they expect with rain on the horizon tomorrow.

By Cliona Sheerin

Rookie León of Mexico started third for the 28-lap sprint race, behind compatriot Rafael Villagómez and poleman Minì. After some early fighting with Invicta Racing’s Joshua Dürksen, León found himself leading the charge to catch up to race leader Minì. He pressured the Italian on the first of two safety car restarts before taking the lead on lap 18.

From there, he never looked back and crossed the line to take the 10 points for victory plus a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 24.

But not all was smooth sailing for the Campos driver as he had to contend with contact from behind on the opening lap and tyre wear throughout the race.

“I got hit in the beginning. [It] was very strange because normally you don’t do an overtake there,” León told Feeder Series during the post-race press conference. “But obviously it’s our first time racing here and it’s very dirty outside of the [racing] line, so it can happen.” 

“From early in the race, we started to get some graining, so it was important to build the temperature progressively into the tyres,” he added. “At the end, as soon as I got clean air, I was able to push as I wanted, but we will still need to manage and look at some data for tomorrow.”

León got off the line well at the start of the race, pulling ahead of the slow-starting Villagómez and into second place before the first turn. Then came the contact from behind from Dürksen, who, in his eagerness to get around Villagómez, struck León’s right-rear tyre. There didn’t seem to be any lasting damage to the cars themselves, and the two raced side by side into Turn 3 with Dürksen winning out in the end.

León and Dürksen exchanged positions throughout the opening laps with a couple of moves down the two straights. In the meantime, Prema Racing’s Sebastián Montoya went for a spin at the last corner on lap three, connecting with the Wall of Champions but not hard enough to stop him from carrying on. 

Then on lap seven, León took second place for good with a great run out of the last corner that set up a front-straight overtake on Dürksen.

By this time, Minì had already pulled an advantage of more than two seconds at the front of the field. León made some inroads into this gap as the rest of the field followed, hoping to be dragged close to the race leader, but it never went below 1.5 seconds.

Further back in the DRS train, Nico Varrone was penalised for a safety car line infringement on the formation lap, receiving a stop-and-go penalty for his troubles. He served it on lap nine and dropped from eighth to the back of the pack.

On lap 10, things started to heat up, and a knock-on effect from a lock-up from Nikola Tsolov resulted in the first safety car of the race. The Bulgarian, who had been leading the championship by one point heading into the Montréal round, outbraked himself going into the hairpin at Turn 10 and ran into the back of Stenshorne, who subsequently collided with innocent bystander John Bennett in front. The Trident driver went spinning, and when he couldn’t get his car started again, the race was neutralised by a safety car intervention. Tsolov received a 10-second penalty, to be added to his race time, for triggering the incident.

At the halfway point of the race, it was Minì who remained in front, followed by León, Dürksen, Villagómez, Stenshorne, Tsolov, Alex Dunne and Emerson Fittipaldi Jr in the points-paying positions. But Minì’s lead over León was now reduced to mere car lengths as the field bunched up ahead of the safety car restart heading into lap 15.

Minì decided to leave it late to get things back underway, and León was right there with him when the green flag flew once more, drawing alongside heading into Turn 1. Dürksen, meanwhile, lost places at the hairpin after the restart, first to Villagómez and then to both Stenshorne and Tsolov on the following lap.

That wasn’t all. He received a time penalty for the earlier contact with León on lap 15, and before long, Dürksen’s day went from bad to worse. On lap 18, Dunne in seventh missed his braking point at Turn 10, catching Dürksen and spinning him around. Dürksen’s time on track was done, but not before a few choice gestures directed at the Irishman when the field came back around. Dunne received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.

Before the safety car was called, though, León made the move on Minì for the lead. He had stayed close behind the Italian since the restart and finally found a way through around the outside down the back straight. 

So with 10 to go when the safety car came out, León led the way followed by Minì, Villagómez, Stenshorne, Tsolov and Dunne rounding out the top six. From near the back, Kush Maini and Cian Shields tried something different strategy-wise, pitting from the rear of the field for supersoft tyres.

On the restart at the end of lap 21, León employed a different tactic to that of Minì, and it paid off. He went early, catching out the majority of the field and pulling out of DRS range before the first activation point. 

“Before coming to Canada, I knew that all of the drivers … look to the restarts, and we look to what F1 does in the past years. And I knew that nobody before did that [went early], León told Feeder Series with a smile post-race. “Obviously I didn’t plan it before the race, but it was something that I had in mind, and when I saw that Gabriele was struggling a lot with his tyres and on the restart, I was very close to [passing] him. I knew if I do properly the last chicane, I will make a gap. It was kind of in the last moment and I saw Gabriele a bit trying to move, and that’s when I [went],” 

Behind him, Dunne overtook Tsolov, and his teammate Stenshorne tried and failed to do the same on Villagómez. But just a few turns later, Villagómez went in too hot into the notorious Turn 4 that caught out several drivers in qualifying – and smacked the wall, ending his race and any chance of a podium finish. Van Amersfoort Racing’s woes on lap 25 continued as Varrone took a trip into the grass out of Turn 10 following an incident with Shields and Mari Boya at the back of the field. 

The race was neutralised once more with three laps to go to retrieve Villagómez’s stricken car, this time through a virtual safety car. The race then restarted on the penultimate tour, but no one could catch León. He had already pulled more than three seconds ahead of Minì, who was passed by Dunne heading into the final chicane. That was all for nought, however, as Dunne’s penalty took him out of the points and down to 13th when the rest of the field finished the race.

León crossed the line 3.726 seconds ahead of Minì to take the chequered flag and his first F2 win. In doing so, he became the first Mexican driver since Esteban Gutiérrez in 2012 to earn a victory in the second tier. After an eventful race, Stenshorne found himself third for his first F2 podium once Dunne’s penalty was applied. 

“It was not easy,” Stenshorne told Feeder Series. “There’s a couple of hairpins where if you have someone behind going for a move, you have to watch your mirrors a bit, to be honest. I did get hit once and then hit the guy in front of me again because of that and lost my endplate on the front wing. But luckily we didn’t stop there. Tomorrow, if it’s wet, I think it’s going to be another thing to look into, but hopefully we stay out of trouble.” 

The weather forecast for the feature race, which begins at 12:05 local on Sunday, was a hot topic for the drivers in the sprint’s post-race press conference. At the time of publication, rain is highly likely to fall in the morning and early afternoon, which could add another layer of complexity to an already challenging circuit. 

“If it’s wet tomorrow, for sure it’s going to be even more important to be looking into the mirrors because with the low grip, as soon as you lock up, you go straight,” León said.

It was a lonely race at times for Minì, but starting lower down the grid in the feature race may bring more action for the new championship leader, especially if rain is on the way.

“For me, I was pretty much alone for most of the race,” Minì explained. “In the first part, I had a two-second gap, and when I got overtaken, I was three seconds [ahead of Villagómez]. Even at the end, there was quite a lot of fighting going on, so to be honest, I didn’t really need to avoid anything. But if it will rain tomorrow, it will be more chaotic. I will be starting from P10, so it’s a bit in the position where everything will happen.” 

Feature race polesitter Laurens van Hoepen came across the line in fourth in the sprint race, while Fittipaldi achieved a career-best finish of fifth for his first points in the series. Dino Beganovic was sixth for DAMS, with Rafael Câmara and Roman Bilinski rounding out the points-paying positions. 

Colton Herta just missed out on the points in ninth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe in 10th.

Tsolov dropped to 14th with his penalty and lost the lead of the championship as a result of his non-scoring finish. Minì now sits atop the standings on 42 points, six points ahead of Câmara, going into the feature race. 

Only 21 drivers took the start following Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak’s withdrawal from the round following a medical decision in the wake of his crash in qualifying. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency