Dürksen reflects on “favourite podium of the year” after scoring Monza F2 sprint win

Credit: Formula 2 via X

Invicta Racing’s Joshua Dürksen hails from Paraguay, but he might just call Monza a second home. 

“This is my favourite podium of the year. It's just amazing, the view and all the history that this track has,” he expressed, delighted to have scored victory at the iconic Italian venue.  

But even as he fervently flew his country’s flag on the top step of the podium, there was no doubt it capped off the most satisfying of his three sprint race victories earned in 2026. 

An intense sprint played out around the high-speed Monza circuit on Saturday, with drivers squabbling tooth and nail for the podium positions. 

Dürksen’s tryst with the Monza circuit has been one of widespread success. Saturday’s F2 sprint win marked his fourth podium around Monza in five attempts. The only other race when the Paraguayan driver failed to score a podium at the Temple of Speed, he came home fifth. 

It’s easy to draw a conclusion that the Invicta man feels at home whenever he takes to the Monza circuit for a competitive session. Few drivers in F2 can claim to have such a strong connection to a single venue on the calendar. 

Moreover, Dürksen, who had qualified 11th and seventh on the grid in his prior two campaigns with AIX Racing, qualified second behind his all-conquering teammate Rafa Câmara. “I think Rafa is the best example you can have of top qualifying performance,” he expressed, speaking after the Brazilian scored his fifth pole of the season. 

However, Saturday’s sprint races have played out better for the Paraguayan driver, and despite his convincing drive this time around, a victory wasn’t always on the cards when he lined up seventh on the grid. Only one driver had taken a sprint win from outside the top five: Nikola Tsolov in Silverstone, from sixth on the grid. 

But stranger things have happened in the past at Monza. You can never rule out the unthinkable around the Temple of Speed, with a multitude of overtaking zones available to the drivers. In Dürksen’s case, a strong opening lap helped push forward his quest for victory.   

“If I hadn't had such a good start, I think it would be a bit more difficult to move forward,” Dürksen expressed, reflecting on the sequence of events at the beginning. 

This start featured a swift reaction off the five red lights, as the Invicta man immediately took sixth from Alex Dunne ahead, before getting alongside the other Rodin car of Martinius Stenshorne. 

Once the grid emerged from the first chicane, Dürksen found himself in the top five, and a brave move around the outside of Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata in the Della Roggia chicane opened up the opportunity to dream about yet another victory for the Invicta man. 

Only a couple of laps later, he would gain yet another position on MP Motorsport’s Ollie Goethe, climbing up to third as the German found himself recovering from a close battle with ART’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.  

However, overtaking the ART proved more challenging, as the Thai driver put up a stronger fight in his defence of second. Despite a couple of unsuccessful attempts, Dürksen made the move heading down into Turn 1, this time around the outside. 

With second in the bag, it would have already been a comfortable result, more so with race leader John Bennett two seconds down the road, and marching off for another sprint win in 2026. 

The race effectively turned when the safety car was instated for teammate Câmara, stricken on the exit of the first chicane. With the gap now closed, a major opportunity opened up for the Paraguayan driver, once the race restarted onto Lap 8. 

Dürksen executed overtakes with confidence in Monza's F2 sprint | Credit: Formula 2 via X

After sussing out a lap behind the Trident, Dürksen pulled out heading onto the main straight, easily passing Bennett and climbing up to an unprecedented race lead he may not have envisioned when he started the sprint. 

But it is one thing to nail an overtake, and another to hold on to the position around Monza. With Bennett spending most of the race in DRS range, even a single mistake could have potentially ended the Paraguayan driver’s quest for victory. 

He also had to remain wary, with Bennett in range to pull off another last-lap overtake like he had done so in the Austrian sprint earlier this year. 

Eventually, a late race safety car brought the field together. Dürksen, who has handled several safety car restarts in the past, did not find himself as worried with just two laps to go. 

“For sure we were, let's say, in a safe spot,” the Invicta man remarked, confident in the machinery underneath him and the proximity to race victory. 

Dürksen’s reasons to be safe were validated only moments later, when he opened up a 1.2-second gap to Bennett in second, eventually crossing the line to take a comfortable victory, his seventh in the championship. 

In a striking coincidence, the Invicta man took his third sprint win of the season, becoming the winningest driver on Saturdays in 2026. Victories from second in Melbourne and fourth in Spa were followed up by the latest of those accolades in Monza, from even further back on the grid. 

The pattern may be one to notice, but one even Dürksen finds surprising to his liking. “I just feel comfortable. Somehow, the track fits me, I guess,” he responds, speaking to DIVEBOMB, pleasantly surprised at his record. 

But there is no denying the high-speed circuits have suited the Invicta man throughout his F2 career. All of Dürksen’s seven F2 wins have come on high-speed venues: Monza, Melbourne, Abu Dhabi, Baku, and Spa. 

The win in Monza also comes at a crucial stage of the season; with five more race weekends set to follow, it sets the stage for the man from Paraguay to replicate the progression from his prior F2 campaigns. 

Dürksen sits 11th in the standings with 53 points, but will fancy adding to his tally and securing a hat-trick of top-10 finishes in his F2 career. After Monza, F2 will head to Madrid and Baku later in September, before a final stretch of two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to round out the season, although both rounds still carry an asterisk due to the regional conflicts. 

The Paraguayan driver will bank on his high-speed strengths and overtaking prowess to ensure he ends his first season with Invicta on a high. But the Monza sprint win comes at a critical time in this campaign, after an up-and-down first half of the season that saw Dürksen score 42 points from nine race weekends. 

“The important thing is to start strong after the summer break, which we did. And for sure, we want to maximise all of these races,” the Invicta man acknowledged, speaking to DIVEBOMB on the importance of this result. 

While Dürksen still has a major opportunity to replicate his sprint result in Sunday’s Feature Race, from second on the grid, he can soak in the glory and ecstasy of winning in the iconic locale of Monza, and the glory moment he has been chasing right from his Formula 4 days around the venue.