Formula 2 returned for the ninth round of the 2026 season at the Hungaroring over the weekend. MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì gained crucial championship points with a win in the sprint race on Saturday before Campos Racing’s Noel León came from third on the grid to win the feature race. Feeder Series analyses five key takeaways from an eventful weekend in Budapest.

By August Bamford

The action in Hungary delivered both championship implications and strategic masterclasses. Dino Beganovic kicked off the weekend by topping practice, but Kush Maini stole the spotlight in qualifying to snatch his second pole position of the season.

On Saturday, Gabriele Minì returned to the top step of the podium, taking sprint race victory from the front row. Chaos erupted behind him when championship leader Nikola Tsolov collided with reverse-grid polesitter Sebastián Montoya late in the race, eliminating both drivers. Come Sunday, Noel León seized his moment in the feature race, capitalising on a well-timed virtual safety car to claim his maiden F2 feature race victory from third.

• Pre-weekend media roundtable: Rodin and MP aim to ‘go into the summer break on a high note’ in battle for P2
• Qualifying report and quotes: ART’s Maini charges to second pole of 2026 at the Hungaroring
• Sprint race report and quotes: Minì closes points gap with second F2 win in Budapest after Tsolov crashes
• Feature race report and quotes: León uses VSC to his advantage for first F2 feature race win in Hungary

1. León continues to prove he can win in different ways

León’s maiden feature race victory at the Hungaroring showcased a driver capable of adapting to whatever a race throws at him.

Running second through the opening stint, León chose to pit from under the shadow of leader Maini at the end of lap 16. As he rolled down pit lane, preparing to rejoin in 11th place, a virtual safety car was deployed for Rafael Villagómez’s Van Amersfoort car, which had stopped on track.

While the timing of the VSC was fortuitous, handing León the net lead once the pit cycle had been completed, the demands on the Mexican driver had unexpectedly changed. Now in front, León managed his tyres expertly and absorbed the pressure from Maini and Rafael Câmara over the closing laps to secure victory. 

That versatility has become a recurring theme throughout León’s standout performances in 2026. In Spielberg qualifying, León broke convention by heading out onto a completely empty track while his rivals sat in the pit lane, using the clean air to set a 1:15.544 that secured pole position.

In the sprint race in Montréal, it was his racecraft that commanded attention. He first forced Joshua Dürksen to defend into the final chicane before completing a decisive move on the inside, then executed a textbook switchback at the same corner five laps later to reclaim second place before chasing down Gabriele Minì for the win.

León’s ability to excel in challenging circumstances has been a major factor behind his breakthrough season. He sits fifth in the drivers’ standings with 94 points and three victories on the year. Combined with championship leader Nikola Tsolov’s knack for finding the top step of the podium, Campos Racing hold a commanding 74-point advantage at the top of the teams’ championship as the paddock heads into the summer break.

2. New track surface wreaks havoc on the F2 grid

The Hungaroring’s nearly €200 million modernisation project was a major talking point this weekend as key sections of the track – notably Turns 1, 2, 12, 13 and 14 – were resurfaced this year. However, the fresh asphalt immediately struggled under the combined load of three support series and F1 cars. The deterioration of the track forced emergency overnight repairs between Friday qualifying and Saturday’s sprint race to address the problem spots 

Despite the volatile conditions, Kush Maini mastered the low-grip surface to snatch pole position on Friday. For most of the grid, however, the surface rendered any existing setup data almost useless, forcing drivers to abandon traditional racing lines to search for grip. Even with the overnight patching around Turn 1, the final complex of corners remained largely untreated for the races on Saturday and Sunday. 

“The track itself is very different from last year,” Dürksen told Feeder Series following the sprint race. “It just feels a bit rougher and more tricky to drive. The bump in T1, for sure, has gone down, so that’s a very positive thing. It was quite big yesterday, causing a lot of lockups for everybody. Overall, I feel the tarmac is maybe not as good as last year because you can really feel it on the car balance, on the tyre degradation, and how the car behaves in each corner. For me, it’s a big difference.”

Dürksen’s weekend reflected many of the challenges posed by the new surface. He ran wide at the final corner in both practice and qualifying. In the sprint race, the Paraguayan driver was forced off track at Turn 2 while battling León and lost out on track, classified in seventh only because of León’s subsequent penalty for a safety car infringement.

The abrasive asphalt also accelerated tyre wear during Sunday’s feature race, forcing the Invicta driver to make his mandatory pit stop on lap 15, earlier than many of his rivals did. With little life left in his second set of tyres during the closing laps, Dürksen saw his pace deteriorate, and he was easily picked off by both Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Tsolov, relegating him to eighth at the flag.

3. Câmara makes it a three-way title fight

If there was a flaw in Rafael Câmara’s first half of the 2026 season, it was his vulnerability under pressure in race conditions. In Monaco, Câmara looked set for a potential win before locking up into Sainte Dévote and going straight into the wall, recording a non-finish and handing the win to championship rival Tsolov. In Miami, fading tyre grip while battling Beganovic allowed Minì to snatch the win from both drivers.

In Hungary, with title rivals Tsolov and Minì qualifying down in seventh and ninth respectively, Câmara had a golden opportunity presented to him when he secured a front-row start for the feature race. Starting from ninth in the sprint race, Câmara gained three positions on the opening lap alone and inherited two more following Tsolov’s collision with Sebastián Montoya, crossing the line in a strong fourth place. On Sunday, despite a sluggish getaway, Câmara secured third place, taking his 10th top-10 finish in a row.

Though Minì was in the spotlight for his win, Câmara was clearly the most productive of the title contenders this weekend. By capitalising on his rivals’ missteps, he narrowed his championship deficit to just 22 points behind Tsolov and a mere two points behind Minì. Invicta Racing have also jumped up to second place in the teams’ championship thanks to Câmara and Dürksen’s efforts. 

4. Dunne’s nightmare weekend mirrors Rodin’s disastrous showing

Prior to Hungary, Alex Dunne had the most consistent qualifying record among the 2026 F2 field. The Alpine junior had never put his Rodin Motorsport car outside the top two rows of the feature race grid. His challenge instead had been converting those stellar starting spots into an elusive victory.

In Budapest, however, a broken suspension on his penultimate lap left him crawling back to the pits, consigned to a lowly 17th place on the grid. It would become Dunne’s worst weekend so far this season.

Tasked with working his way through the pack on a track infamous for difficult overtaking, Dunne could not recover. On the opening lap on Saturday, Dunne went wide at the first corner attempting an ambitious move on Nico Varrone, losing two spots and finishing the race 19th. Running an alternate strategy on Sunday, Dunne sliced through the field and temporarily held the lead before his late mandatory pit stop. He ultimately crossed the line in 11th, missing out on the final point by just four and a half tenths to mark his first non-scoring round of the year.

The pain was compounded across the Rodin garage, as Martinius Stenshorne only salvaged a single point on Saturday by finishing eighth in the sprint race. Stenshorne’s Sunday was compromised early on after Nikola Tsolov ran wide at Turn 4, with his aggressive rejoin triggering a three-way squeeze also involving Trident’s John Bennett. It left the Norwegian driver with suspension damage, and he ultimately finished a distant 21st, two laps down. 

While Dunne’s consistent haul of points before Hungary kept him afloat in the top five of the drivers’ championship, Rodin took a massive hit. The team’s meagre return of a single point saw them tumble from second to fourth in the teams’ standings as both Invicta Racing and MP Motorsport surged ahead of them going into the summer break.

5. Montoya’s sprint race heartbreaks highlight Prema’s slump

Sebastián Montoya’s 2026 campaign has been a saga of misfortune, particularly on Saturdays. The Colombian has secured reverse-grid pole in three of the last four rounds yet has come away with only eight points to show for it.

At the Red Bull Ring, Montoya led a majority of the race before being pipped on the final lap by Bennett, settling for a bittersweet runner-up finish. In Spa, he lost the lead to Stenshorne on the opening lap but remained on course for fourth place until the final lap. In Hungary, Montoya looked again destined for a podium after leading the opening half of the sprint, only for Tsolov to take him out from second on lap 21 with a desperate lunge.

Prema Racing as a whole have been anonymous this year, sitting 10th place in the teams’ championship at this stage of the season – a stark contrast to the benchmark they had once set in the category. Having fought for the teams’ title as recently as 2023, the Italian outfit slipped to fifth in 2024 and sixth in 2025 before falling even further this season. Should they remain 10th, it would surpass their previous worst finish of ninth in 2019.

Both Montoya and Mari Boya would’ve also perhaps been expected to achieve more given their records coming into this season. Montoya came 12th last season on 91 points but has only managed 28 points so far in 2026, leaving him 15th in the standings. Rookie Mari Boya arrived in F2 after finishing third in F3 last season with 116 points, ahead of the likes of Stenshorne, Van Hoepen and Inthraphuvasak. Yet the Spaniard now sits 20th in the championship on a mere 12 points, ahead of only the AIX Racing duo of Emerson Fittipaldi Jr and Cian Shields.

Results and standings after round 9 at Hungaroring

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Kush Maini, 1:28.896	Rafael Câmara, +0.117s	Noel León, +0.195s
Sprint race (28 laps)	Gabriele Minì, 44:19.172	Dino Beganovic, +3.787s	Laurens van Hoepen, +4.876s
Feature race (37 laps)	Noel León, 58:35.987	Kush Maini, +0.887s	Rafael Câmara, +1.376s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Nikola Tsolov, 167	Campos Racing, 261
P2	Gabriele Minì, 147	Invicta Racing, 187
P3	Rafael Câmara, 145	MP Motorsport, 176
P4	Alex Dunne, 108	Rodin Motorsport, 167
P5	Noel León, 94	ART Grand Prix, 147
P6	Kush Maini, 88	DAMS, 103
P7	Dino Beganovic, 79	Trident, 83
P8	Laurens van Hoepen, 65	Hitech, 60
P9	Martinius Stenshorne, 59	Van Amersfoort Racing, 52
P10	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, 59	Prema Racing, 40

Read our takeaways from the previous round here.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency