Joshua Dürksen became the second double winner of the 2026 Formula 2 season, adding the feature race win to yesterday’s sprint victory at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. He held off advances from Invicta Racing teammate Rafael Câmara in second and Campos Racing’s Noel León to win by 0.424 seconds. Feeder Series spoke to the top two in the post-race press conference.

By Cliona Sheerin

Dürksen got the better start out of the leading Invicta pair, inching ahead along the 465-metre run to the first corner. Câmara tried to take the position back around the outside, but a lock-up on the way into the Rettifilo chicane saw him skip over the second part of the corner and concede the place on the exit. 

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak made another fast start after yesterday, supplanting both Rodin Motorsport drivers when the lights went out and moving up into third. Dunne settled into fourth, with León, Ritomo Miyata, Martinius Stenshorne and Nikola Tsolov completing the top eight as things stood at the end of the first lap.

The leaders held position until the fourth lap, when Câmara moved easily down the inside of his teammate into the first corner. The two Invictas were asked to work together over the radio and use the DRS to stay out in front, but on the next lap they swapped positions once more. They changed places for a final time on lap six before Dürksen dived into the pits from second at the end of the lap.

“Our plan is always to be in the front, the whole race long,” Dürksen told Feeder Series. “We had good pace on the supersofts and my goal was to box because I felt that the supersofts were starting to drop. And I knew how the softs are and I know they hold on quite well. Of course, then we don’t want to box at the same time, so I took the call just to box earlier because I think Rafa had a bit more of pace than me on the supersoft.”

Alex Dunne, León, John Bennett and Nico Varrone came into the pits on the next tour, with Dunne locking up all four of his supersoft tyres before discarding them for the softs. He leapfrogged Inthraphuvasak in the pit stops when the ART driver came in on lap eight behind race leader Câmara.

The Ferrari junior was serviced well by his Invicta mechanics and found a good gap in the midst of the oncoming group of drivers making their stops. Nevertheless, he emerged behind Dürksen, whose tyres were more up to temperature, and faced pressure from Dunne as he lost the DRS to Dürksen ahead.

The Paraguayan’s advantage of more than two seconds did not last long, however, as a collision between Sebastián Montoya and Colton Herta sent the Hitech driver spinning into the gravel at the Curva Alboreto. That incident brought out the safety car on lap 12 while marshals retrieved the beached car of the American, who cut a forlorn figure on the side of the circuit.

The field went back to green-flag racing as they headed onto lap 17. Dürksen floored it around the same time as he did yesterday on the late restart, catching out his teammate, who had Dunne for company into the Rettifilo chicane. The Brazilian held on for the time being, but Dunne drew alongside on the run to the Roggia chicane. A lock-up for the Irishman, however, sent him straight on, costing him a place to León behind on his return to the track, the Campos driver himself almost passing Câmara into Lesmo 1.

All that squabbling gave Dürksen a healthy lead of 1.3s by the end of the first lap after the resumption of racing. Câmara clawed that gap back over the next few laps, getting into DRS range as lap 22 began and setting the fastest lap, a 1:32.884, as he did so. He brought León along with him to make it a three-way battle for the lead in the race’s final stages. 

The Ferrari academy driver was the closest he had been heading on to the penultimate lap, but a move on Dürksen continued to evade him. Warned by his team to keep it clean, Câmara was half a second behind across the line on the final lap. He stayed within Dürksen’s wheeltracks, looming large in his mirrors heading into the final corner, but there was nothing doing. Dürksen held on just long enough as smoke started billowing from the winning Invicta on the lap to the podium. 

Câmara, whose spin and stall in yesterday’s sprint race caused him to retire from the contest, told Feeder Series that he may have benefitted from more running had he not retired but that Dürksen’s pace was too strong for him to overhaul.

“On my side, probably getting a bit of a better read yesterday could help a bit with the balance,” he said. “But overall he [Dürksen] did a good job. Monza is also a track that the team knows very well, I know very well. So today I think he was just stronger than me.”

Bennett won the battle for fourth ahead of Miyata in fifth, Dunne in sixth and championship leader Tsolov in seventh. Inthraphuvasak crossed the line eighth ahead of Stenshorne, but a 10-second time penalty for forcing Varrone onto the grass heading into the first Lesmo on lap 21 dropped the Norwegian to 16th in the order.

Yesterday’s podium finisher Oliver Goethe was therefore classified ninth with Varrone rounding out the points in 10th. 

Câmara’s podium means he almost halves the gap to Tsolov in the championship standings. The pair sit on 166 and 177 points respectively, while Gabriele Minì stays third on 147 points after a home round without points.

In the teams’ championship, Invicta’s haul of 57 points over the weekend moves them to 244 points, with Campos remaining out front on 291. MP Motorsport are third on 184 points, four ahead of Rodin in fourth.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency